Scottish Conservatives have branded a Green Party candidate “insane” and demanded party leaders disown her after she reaffirmed her commitment to completely abolishing Scotland’s prison system despite initially appearing to moderate her stance.
Kate Nevens, who is tipped to secure a seat representing Edinburgh North Eastern and Leith in May’s Holyrood elections, posted social media footage from a secondary school debate declaring: “I would want to see the complete abolition of the prison system in Scotland. That is an ultimate goal for the Greens, is to not have the prison system as it is right now.”
The video emerged after Ms Nevens seemingly retreated from her hardline position over Easter weekend when a statement issued in her name by the party told The Times she backed imprisonment as a “last resort,” with the Greens insisting they did not support complete abolition.
However, Ms Nevens clarified her position yesterday, writing alongside the school debate clip: “No past tense here, still keen to live in a Scotland with no prisons.”
Conservative candidate for Edinburgh South Western Sue Webber condemned the stance: “It beggars belief that someone who fervently believes that murderers and rapists shouldn’t be locked up is high up the Greens’ Lothian list and could become an MSP.”
Ms Webber demanded Green MSPs Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay disavow Ms Nevens if they possessed “a shred of credibility as serious politicians,” warning: “The Greens are a party of dangerous extremists and yet the SNP have already invited them into government before and John Swinney would happily stitch up a new deal with his fellow nationalists if it meant keeping himself in Bute House.”
Ms Nevens justified her position by arguing jails fail to reduce crime whilst proving “really poor” for prisoners’ “health and wellbeing,” particularly affecting female inmates disproportionately.
Before achieving complete abolition, she advocates “massively reducing” custody numbers whilst expanding “community justice processes” including electronic tagging and unpaid or low-paid work programmes as alternatives to incarceration.
Her social media post linked to Abolitionist Future, an organisation seeking “to build a future without prisons, police and punishment”—a stance backed by fellow Green candidate Q Manivannan, a poet standing in the same multi-seat constituency.
The controversy threatens to overshadow the Greens’ Holyrood campaign as opponents characterise the party’s justice policies as dangerously radical ahead of the May polling date.
