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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Craig Paton

Eight Scots prisoners serving life sentences allowed to leave jail due to computer glitch

Eight Scottish prisoners who had been sentenced to life in prison were allowed temporary release due to a computer glitch.

Justice secretary Keith Brown told Holyrood that a computer glitch led to the community risk scores of the offenders being calculated wrongly.

The system is also used to help make decisions on early release.

Keith Brown told the Scottish Parliament the inmates were allowed temporary leave (Ross Turpie/Daily Record)

However, Brown stressed that all of the cases have been reviewed and there is no danger to the wider public.

Under regulations put in place in 2011, those on a life sentence - who are otherwise barred from temporary release - can apply for a "first grant of temporary release" (FGTR) to the Scottish Government and must receive the consent of the community safety minister, currently Ash Regan.

"Having carried out a reconciliation of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) with the identified affected cases, eight cases where FGTR have been granted were found," he said.

"These have all been looked at again and I'm able to confirm there are no immediate or concerning public protection risks highlighted, although these eight cases will be further reviewed by the risk review group to provide further assurance."

The glitch, which saw 1,317 scores of 24,000 that "did not match" the correct risk level identified by assessments, was announced last week, but had been discovered by a member of SPS staff in January.

Some 1,032 closed cases were also caught in the glitch, but as of his statement last week, 537 had been corrected and social workers have been instructed to review all of their open cases.

During the committee, the Justice Secretary confirmed that all of the 285 open cases had been reviewed, as of Tuesday.

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