'ONLY THE CONS ARE CHEERING, KENNY'.

Byline: Magnus Gardham

Fury at MacAskill plan to let crooks dodge jail KENNY MacAskill was back in the firing line yesterday over his plans to empty jails of short-term prisoners.

The justice secretary said sentences of six months or less were of "no practical benefit" and should be replaced by community service orders.

But Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker said it was a "recipe for disaster".

He added: "The only people that will be cheering Mr MacAskill are Scotland's criminals."

MacAskill spoke out after figures showed almost three-quarters of short-term prisoners were reconvicted within two years of their release from jail.

Offenders given community service orders had a lower reconviction rate of 42 per cent. MacAskill said: "Short sentences simply don't work.

"They are ineffective and of no practical benefit to communities.

"If we are serious about improving the safety of our communities, we need to ensure that our prisons focus on the most serious criminals for whom prison is the only option."

Message MacAskill said his plans for beefed-up community service orders - known as community payback orders - would reduce reoffending.

He added: "These will enable offenders to pay back to the communities they have offended against and make the offender less likely to offend again."

Tory community justice spokesman John Lamont said ending short jail terms was "absolutely not the way to stop re-offending".

He added: "Alex Salmond's SNP is more interested in emptying our jails than protecting the public.

"We must send a clear message that society will not tolerate repeated serious offending such as mugging, robbing, rape, assault and burglary.

"Until the SNP agrees with us, these figures will only get worse."

Labour claim the SNP's plan to replace short jail terms with community punishments would mean that thousands of serious criminals dodge prison.

They argue that, in most cases, criminals are only given jail terms if they are repeat - and therefore serious - offenders.

According to their calculations, 12,000 offenders per jail would escape a jail term, including 65 per cent of convicted knife thugs, 71 per cent of housebreakers and 40 per cent of those convicted of indecent assault.

Labour also claim that plans to expand community punishments are under-funded by more than pounds 20million.

Tough The Lib Dems said jail terms of three months or less should be scrapped.

Justice spokesman Robert Brown said: "Locking more people up simply isn't the answer as prison clearly doesn't work as a deterrent to crime.

"We want to see short-term prison sentences of three months or less replaced with tough community sentences.

"Ministers should also be doing more to support organisations that help get young people off the streets, diverting them away from ever getting involved in crime."

MacAskill returned to work yesterday after a short break following his decision to free Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.

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BLASTED: Kenny MacAskill