The OLR violates the basic principles of justice and has no place in Scotland if it wishes to be a fair and progressive country. Want to help? Go to nolr.org/how-you-can-help/, where you can find a template letter to your MSP, make a donation or contact us and join us as a member.

'I think an awful lot of this is about the containment of anxiety and I think it makes us feel an awful lot better to have spent thousands of pounds on a snazzy report, it makes us feel better' (Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist) #NOLR #JusticeSystem

When you are on an OLR, the system is so rigid and it is so bureaucratic, it’s not like any other long sentence because it has so many extra layers of bureaucracy, so it is easier being a life sentenced prisoner (Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist) #NOLR

'I think one of the biggest flaws for me is that it's under-resourced, and there isn't enough case managers, there is not enough specialist services' (Policy professional, RMA) #JusticeScot #NOLR

The OLR no's rise and we can't manage them effectively. Then it impacts on the life population … it was just assumed that we dealt with what was given to us, but the practical application of managing it was not realised and then it got worse and worse and worse (Prison manager)

''You've got some OLRs that have the tiniest punishment part, you're talking months, up to a few years. So, by the time they access any kind of intervention they are already post tariff...” (Forensic psychologist) #NOLR #JustcieReform

'A lot of what the OLR was about was the preparation of the risk assessment. Nobody needs an assessment, they need the outcome of the assessment to be delivered, too often the assessment becomes an end in itself' (Former member, Parole Board for Scotland) #ScotJustice #NOLR

One prisoner said,“I have to accept I’m never gonnae get out of jail, I’m gonnae die in here”. He got an 18-month sentence and was slapped with an OLR and he’s thinking, “I could die in this place”. (Prison Chaplain) #NOLR #CriminalJusticeReform

Today we are drawing on Nicola Ceesay’s forthcoming PhD thesis to highlight the perspectives of practitioners. #NOLR

Want to help? Go to nolr.org/how-you-can-help/, where you can find a template letter to your MSP, make a donation or contact us and join us as a member. #NOLR

Lord Carloway stated ‘it is essential the OLR does not become an unjustified form of preventative detention’ adding ‘the period spent in the community will be an integral part of the sentence’. Despite this, only 24 people have been released from prison in 19 years of OLR’s

The implications of indeterminate sentencing in a ‘free society’ requires that extraordinary measures be justified, with strong safeguards and due process protections against excessive punishment ‘Magna Carta’ #HumanRights #NOLR

The Vision for Justice states, young people don’t fully develop until their mid-20s and may not understand adult systems and processes, despite this, 38 OLRs have been handed out to people under 25 #NOLR #CYCJ

The RMAs Standards/Guidelines state ‘Research [shows] services that are humane, ethical, clinically relevant and [based on] principles of risk, need and responsivity can reduce rates of offending, while punitive approaches have little effect’. The OLR is as punitive as it gets.