Questions are being asked after a Greenock prison project which supports inmates leaving jail was suspended

The through-care service, which started at HMP Greenock six years ago before it was rolled out across Scotland, has been halted and the prison officers on secondment to the scheme have been sent back to their former roles.

The scheme paired prisoners up with a support officer who helped them make arrangements for housing, medical provision and benefits.

Councillor Robert Moran, who is the convenor of the area's health and social care committee and formerly sat on the prison committee, says he is shocked and disappointed by the move.

He said: "It's a backward step in a lot of ways.

"This scheme has supported prisoners to go back to normal life.

"If they don't have that support then they are leaving an environment where they have been looked after with a grant of £72 and put out into the wider community with all the problems that presents then it's very easy to fall back into their old ways.

"The scheme went a long way to help people."

Councillor Moran says he will raise his concerns with council officers to see if anything can be done to salvage the service.

He added: "It's important that this is highlighted to the public because it was a great service and it was working well."

Back in 2013, the Tele met grandmother Lesley Wynd who had turned her life around after taking part in the project at Gateside.

Lesley said at the time: "I was frightened about leaving prison as I knew that everything on the outside that I had before was taken away, like my house and my dog.

"I jumped at the chance to take part in the project and it put my mind at rest knowing that I would be supported when I got out of prison - it put me at ease."

The pioneering project proved so successful in Greenock that it was rolled out across most of Scotland in 2015.

But earlier this month the through-care service was suddenly halted.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Prison Service said: "The SPS is facing significant challenges.

"The increasing prisoner population together with the increasingly complex needs of those in our care means that our capacity and capability is stretched.

"To respond to these current and emerging challenges, we have to ensure that our frontline staff are deployed where they are needed most; at this time, this is in our prisons and that is why the SPS has taken the difficult decision to temporarily suspend our through-care support service and deploy all through-care support staff to prison officer roles within establishments.

"It is our intention to relaunch the Service when it makes operational sense to do so."