Prison sentences of less than a year should be scrapped, says Scotland’s chief inspector of prisons .

In an interview yesterday, David Strang said there should be a presumption against one-year sentences , as is the case with three-month jail terms.

He added: “We’re sending too many people to prison for short sentences. The evidence is very clear that if you want to reduce crime then you don’t send people to prison for a short time.

“More than half of people who are released from a short sentence of less than 12 months are reconvicted within a year.

“One purpose of the justice system is to prevent crimes and if you send someone to prison the damage that does leads to them reoffending more than if you had given them an alternative sentence.”

Strang called for more fines or community payback orders so offenders could be “repairing some of the damage they’ve done”.

He added that although financial savings are not the main benefit of alternative sentences, keeping someone in jail for a year costs £40,000.