Following a Freedom of Information request from the Tele, it was revealed last week that the number of criminals disappearing from the two prisons has almost doubled in 12 months.

There have also been calls for the names of escaped prisoners to be published after it emerged some have been missing from the open estate for more than a year.

Resisting the release of any information that could lead to the identification of absconders after the Tele appealed the decision, Mr McGill claimed:

The public have no part to play in the tracing of prisoners who go on the run;

That the privacy of people who abscond outweighs the public interest;

That the prison assessment regime will weed out any threat and those who do abscond “do not pose a serious risk to the public”.

Mr McGill said the SPS spent significant time and resources providing effective interventions for prisoners, and no prisoner ever left a closed prison if the service had any concerns that he presented a serious risk to the community.

It is less than three years since a prisoner who absconded from Castle Huntly was linked with a spate of armed robberies in Dundee.

Police issued warnings that the man, serving part of a six-year sentence, was thought to be violent. He was recaptured after almost a fortnight at large.

Mr McGill said many prisoners serving the latter part of their sentences in open prisons “have never been convicted of murder, rape or other violent offences”.

He continued, “To assume all prisoners who have absconded from HMPs Castle Huntly and Noranside have been found guilty of such offences would place the community in a higher state of concern than is perhaps warranted.

“Additionally, the very fact some of these prisoners have not yet been returned to custody strongly suggests they are no longer living in the communities in which they resided prior to incarceration.”

According to the SPS figures, 54 prisoners went on the run from Castle Huntly last year, compared with 23 in 2005. At Noranside in Angus, there was a rise of three to 18.

It’s understood around 15 are still at large, including five who have been missing for more than a year.

The senior prison service official said tracing these individuals was a matter for criminal justice authorities.

Mr McGill added, “While I fully appreciate members of the public may be concerned over the possibility that prisoners may be unlawfully at large, SPS does not wish to promote the public taking matters of law enforcement into its own hands.”

The service drew a distinction between “absconding” from open prisons and “escaping” from other jails.

“Absconding does not involve crossing controlled barriers, therefore the nature of an abscond is significantly different from an escape, as is the risk associated with both,” Mr McGill said.

He said the level of risk presented by a prisoner was identified prior to his being moved to the open estate, and stressed that prisoners’ behaviour was continually evaluated.

“Prisoners who display changes in their behaviour — and any associated increase in the level of risk they present — will be returned to closed conditions,” he said.

See also ‘Prison shambles’, in our Letters section.