Short-term prisoner release point: responses to targeted consultation
The Scottish Government ran a targeted consultation seeking views on changing the automatic early release point for certain short-term prisoners. The responses to the targeted consultation have been published where permission has been given to publish the response.
Response from NHS Dumfries and Galloway
Julie White, Chief Executive
Although there maybe issues with reference to releasing prisoners early these do not impact upon the provision of healthcare in Prison from an NHS Dumfries and Galloway perspective. There are logistical issues such as arranging appointments, referrals, prescriptions etc a little bit earlier than we do at present - this will not cause issues within the healthcare team at HMP Dumfries. We are not experiencing the levels of overcrowding as seen at other prisons due to the fact we are a national facility for long term protection prisoners that don't fall within the remit of the early release scheme and we have a small area with remand / short term prisoners.