In his annual report on the Scottish prison system, published last week, Andrew McLellan said that to create a better country, Scotland needed to create better prisons.
"A good start would be the abolition of the imprisonment of children," he said. "Prison is no place for a child. Two years ago I expressed my shock and anger at the number of children under the age of 16 held in Scottish prisons and young offender institutions. After that the number increased from 18 in 2004/05 to 24 in 2005/06."
McLellan said that last year he expressed his views more gently but that the situation had worsened since then, going up from 24 to 26. In his last report he called for the coming year to be the last one that children under 16 were locked up.
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