THE chances to have a mainstream public discussion about sentencing for criminal offences are relatively few and far between.

For those not ordinarily involved in the courts, prisons are for other people and prisoners for other people to care about.

Reactions to Natalie McGarry's sentencing have been interesting, however, in showing a forward thinking empathy for both the accused and her small child.

As has been hard to miss, the former SNP MSP embezzled £25,000 from two independence supporting groups, Women for Independence and Glasgow Regional Association of the SNP.

McGarry, who was the MSP for Glasgow East from 2015 to 2017, had an early conviction for embezzlement quashed and returned to court to fight the charges against her.

A jury found her guilty and Sheriff Tom Hughes, an experienced sheriff, sentenced the 40-year-old to two years in prison.

Two years for a non-violent offence seems, went the responses, overly punitive. Prisons should be for people we are afraid of, not for people we want to punish and certainly not as a form of societal revenge.

Sheriff Hughes explained that custody was the only option for McGarry, despite her being a first offender, due to her breach of others' trust. She had, he said, betrayed others and her standards had fallen short of that expected from a politician.

Alongside the breach of trust was the protracted nature of the crime – she stole from these groups over quite a length of time.

There are sentencing discounts given for those who plead guilty at the earliest opportunity. McGarry's flaw here was hubris. If she had admitted her crime and shown remorse there would have been credit given to her by the court.

She did not do this, rather she persisted in her innocence throughout a six week trial, an action the court takes a dim view of.

A report last year from UK crime and justice consultancy Crest Advisory showed children of incarcerated mothers were more likely to be exploited and often, in older children, the loss of their mother in this way led to poor mental health, school exclusion or youth offending.

Many of the arguments against sentencing mothers do not apply in McGarry's case. That is, women in the judicial system are often single mothers and so, by sending them to jail, their children are received into care. They may end up in vulnerable situations.

McGarry is married and her child will remain at home with her father. The Crest report, however, interviewed children of women who had been imprisoned and found the separation created long term scars

Of course, while there was much sympathy for McGarry's situation, there were plenty whose reactions were led by their party affiliation, which is one of the worst by-products of loyalty to a cause.

It's possible to believe two years for a non-violent crime is an overly-punitive sentence while also supporting the SNP or not supporting the SNP.

McGarry becomes part of the seven per cent of the Scottish prison population who are female, one of the highest female prison populations in Northern Europe. Research shows the rise in the number of women prisoners is due to custodial disposals for drugs offences, common assault and serious violent crime, rather than crimes of dishonesty.

There are robust reasons for not imprisoning women and other countries manage this well with innovative alternatives. Ireland has a community return programme, Sweden relies on intense monitoring and electronic tagging, Australia has community residential facilities.

Public backing for progressive treatment of those who commit crimes relies on a mental shift from punishment to rehabilitation. McGarry is not typical of the women in Scottish jails, who often have been abused, have addiction issues or have been victims of domestic abuse, including coercive control.

Many have commented on how sad McGarry's case is, a child separated from her mother, but this is a sad scene replicated in courts around Scotland weekly.

Sheriff Hughes sentenced McGarry correctly within the current guidelines but, as a society, are these the guidelines we want? Prison seems to serve little purpose here when the punitive portion of her sentence could have been dealt with using a restriction of liberty order or unpaid work alongside supervision in the community.

It's about 10 years since the former Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini published a report detailing how Scotland could and should overhaul how women are dealt with in the criminal justice system.

There has been some progress, not least the planned redevelopment of HMP Cornton Vale, but hardly a revolution.

In McGarry's case, justice here may be served but what a sad state of unjust affairs for all involved.