News.Scotland.Org

Scotland, Feb 12: According to a new statistics released by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) the number of prisoners in Scotland jail has reached an all time high. At present there are 7,609 people left behind bars including 393 women.

Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary opined that the total number of prisoners were about 1,000 beyond its maximum capacity. The Justice Secretary will visit the only female prison in Scotland, HMP Cornton Vale to monitor the functioning of the jail while coping with the overcrowding issue. The minister will be accompanied by the members of the justice committee of the Scottish parliament.

While commenting on this he said: “The number of female inmates has experienced a 90% rise in the last decade. The other side of the problem is that we imprison far greater than other countries in the world. The chief inspector of our prison used to hint regularly about the problem linked to overcrowding.”

He further added that: “We have to implement some fresh policies in this area the formation of independent Prison Commission to gat a wide perspective about the purpose of prison in a modern Scotland, is considered as the first step in this regard.”

Since 1991 the average prison population of Scotland has increased by 51.6%.

February, 12

The trend of buying alcohol seemed changing with buyers going for new places to get their drink. It was seen that supermarkets is slowly becoming the hot place for beer lovers, buying their bottle of drink at a best price. This change in trend in the beer culture has also surprised the beer industry. Even the graphs suggest that about 41 percent of Britian’s beer is bought from shops and supermarkets in comparison to bars and pubs.

It is learnt that the cheaper prices in supermarkets is driving boozers and alcohol lovers to buy beer from these shops and supermarkets rather than spending more money in bars. Another factors seen which is adding to the jump in the sale of beer is the ban on smoking, which is also making people to sit at home and enjoy their drink. If we will look at the core, we can find that nowadays beer has become cheaper than water. Recently the supermarket giant Asda reduced its price of its beer to just 22p for a 440ml. Few more supermarket brands have slashed the cost of beer attracting more consumer to buy beer from these store rather than bars.

With such a cheap cost of alcohol in supermarkets, has opened an alternative for pub owners to buy the stock of alcohol from these supermarkets than the suppliers. Even the beer and wine been sold at the cheaper prices is also helping the supermarkets to attract more consumers and also boosting their sales.

But the main drawback and worry sign for this changing trend in consumer choice to buy alcohol from supermarkets is, the fear of many under-age drinkers who could easily get the alcohol from these shops. But boozers are cashing in with the low cost of alcohol in these supermarkets.