A SUPPORT service has been launched for prisoners at HMP Low Moss which aims to shatter the cycle of reoffending and give offenders a path to a better future.

The Public Social Partnership (PSP) at the Bishopbriggs prison is called Prisoner Support Pathway and has been designed to get to the root of offending among short-term prisoners.

The service works with prisoners from their arrival in custody, through their sentence and for up to a year after their release.

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill MSP launched Prisoner Support Pathway and he was joined by some of the service users who are benefiting from the help on offer.

One of them, 23-year-old Robert from West Dunbartonshire, has been in and out of prison since he was 16.

It has been seven weeks since he was released from his most recent stint in jail and he says, for the first time, he is positive about his future and his chances of staying on the straight and narrow.

He said: "All the other times I came out of prison, I never had any kind of support. This time I've got help to move forward instead of reoffending."

Brian, a 32-year-old from Glasgow, was one of the first to sign up to the Low Moss PSP service. He has spent 12 years in and out of jail. He smoked hash from age 11 and went on to take crack and Valium. By 16, he was a heroin addict.

Brian said: "It's a great feeling walking out the front door of the prison, but then reality hits. There are so many wee things you need to sort out. Housing, benefits, meds and add all these wee things together and it feels like an uphill struggle from the start."

When he was last released, he had been behind bars for two and a half years and had been deregistered by his GP.

Unable to get a prescription for a few weeks at least, he might have reoffended again were it not for the PSP service stepping in to help.

The PSP is a partnership between the Scottish Prison Service, North Strathclyde and Glasgow Community Justice Authorities, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Turning Point Scotland and other voluntary organisations.

Kenny MacAskill said: "This PSP provides the practical help and encouragement these often vulnerable people need to overcome whatever led them to prison in the first place, and to break the cycle of reoffending."

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) says the support pathway's early success proves that old-fashioned ideas of punishment are not the answer.

Colin McConnell, chief executive of the SPS, said: "There's a myth that's peddled about Scotland that the Scottish justice system is soft on crime.

"As someone who has worked in the criminal justice system for 30 years, it annoys and frustrates me because the evidence is completely the opposite.

"People will not be rehabilitated if they are forced to break rocks or eat sour porridge.

"There is centuries of evidence which shows that does not work. Creating opportunities for change, opportunities which last, is what works."

stef.lach@eveningtimes.co.uk