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SCOTTISH Labour leader Jim Murphy yesterday announced radical plans to keep mums out of prison as part of a major overhaul of the justice system.

He demanded the SNP do more to explore alternatives to jail and insisted smaller community facilities should be built instead of a “super prison” to replace Cornton Vale prison in Stirling.

The Scottish Prison Service plan to create a new 300-cell facility at HMP Inverclyde before closing women-only Cornton Vale but Murphy called for a rethink.

He said: “When a dad goes to prison, in 90 per cent of cases the kids will stay with the mum. When a mum goes to prison, one in five of the kids will stay with the dad.

“Children of parents who went to prison are themselves three times more likely to go to prison when they are an adult.

“A woman who goes to prison is three times more likely to re-offend than if they had gone through rehabilitation or a non-custodial approach.

(Image: Daily Record/Victoria Stewart)

“Cornton Vale is the most violent prison in Scotland and to simply plan to build a modern version is planning for failure.”

Instead, he called for smaller prisons for the most serious female offenders and community justice centres in local areas for those convicted of lesser crimes.

Murphy believes this would make it easier for mums to keep in close contact with their children.

He also revealed that Labour justice spokesman Hugh Henry will conduct a review of the early release of prisoners so that “time means time”.

And the Scottish Labour leader said the SNP had “gone the wrong way” about tackling sectarianism among fans via the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.

But Murphy’s plans did not find favour with his opponents.

Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson said: “The SNP are presiding over a soft-touch justice system. It seems Labour would take it even further.”

SNP MSP Stuart McMillan said Murphy “once again finds himself at odds” with his colleagues on building a new prison.

Despite being a key figure in the No campaign, Murphy also insisted he has “never been a Unionist”.

He said: “As a family of Irish Catholic immigrants, we’re not Unionists.

“I grew up in a family of trade unionists but we’re not political unionists.”

SNP MSP Sandra White said: “If it walks like a unionist and talks like a unionist, it is a unionist.”

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