Criticism rises over plan to shut volunteer watchdog
Friday 05 October 2012
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EmailScotland's Justice Secretary faced renewed calls today to save voluntary prison visiting committees from the scrapheap.
The SNP's Kenny MacAskill has been criticised by opposition parties for attempting to replace the 141-year-old watchdog service with a new advocacy system.
Scottish Labour justice spokesman Lewis Macdonald told delegates at the Association of Visiting Committees' annual conference in Stirling today that the plan was "fatally flawed," replacing around 240 lay monitors "with three or perhaps four paid staff."
Mr MacAskill had already approached London University's professor of prison studies Andrew Coyle for a review following cross-party opposition, but Mr MacDonald said the professor should have "the freedom to suggest a different way forward."
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