Short custodial disposals from court and the prison population

Over 99% (4,994) of short custodial disposals were successfully matched to prison records.

• In 72.9% of cases the person was already in prison and so remained in custody following the imposition of their sentence
  Of those:
  • 41% resulted in a move from remand to the sentenced population.
  • 31% remained in the sentenced population.

• In 20.0% of cases the person arrived in prison as a result of their sentence.

• In 6.6% of cases, the person left from remand and returned to the community.

These groups are summarised in Figure 1 which shows how people changed status from before their short sentence on the left-hand side to after their short sentence on the right-hand side. “R” indicates a period of remand while “S” indicates a period serving a sentence.

The main groups are then examined in more detail below.

Figure 1: Summary of outcomes of short sentences for individuals

These 4,994 short custodial disposals related to 3,682 unique individuals meaning that over a quarter of people received more than one short custodial disposal in separate court cases throughout the year. In addition, people may have received a short sentence in 2022 or 2024 but they would not be counted here as having multiple sentences. The majority of people receiving these short custodial sentences (80%) had their case heard in Sheriff summary court where (in the majority of circumstances) the maximum length of imprisonment that can be issued is 12 months. The majority of the remainder had sentences issued in Sheriff solemn court where the maximum length of custodial sentence that can be issued is five years. There were 2 people who had short sentences issued from High Court.