Violent criminals must be held in secure prisons

IN JANUARY, The Scotsman exposed the outrageous situation at Castle Huntly open prison near Dundee, where a convicted murderer was allowed out on licence to attend an AA meeting. But instead, Robert Foye went on the run and raped a 16-year-old schoolgirl. The scandalous Foye episode proved to be only the tip of an iceberg when it came to prisoners absconding from Castle Huntly.

Further investigations revealed that dozens of prisoners – many of them dangerous – had run away from the facility in the previous 12 months. This indicated not just a lack of security, but glaring deficiencies in the way prisoners were being selecte...