Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill will perform the official reopening of a unit for female inmates at Craiginches Prison in Aberdeen tomorrow.
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has spent £43,500 refurbishing the accommodation, which means that prisoners who have a maximum of 12 months left to serve of their sentences will be moved closer to their families for the first time in five years.
Female offenders from the north-east have been held at Cornton Vale, near Stirling, since 2005, when the unit closed for refurbishment.
The new accommodation has room for eight “low-risk” prisoners.
Aberdeen Prison Visiting Committee chairman Gordon Leslie said: “I am absolutely delighted that the unit is reopening.”
“I have no doubt it will help with the rehabilitation of female prisoners because they will be closer to their families which helps with the process.”
The Liberal Democrat city councillor added: “Hopefully, the support they will receive will help them get back on the right track and find jobs.”
But Mr Leslie criticised the Scottish Government for not inviting committee members to the official opening.
“It is a slap in the face for all the work the visiting committee has done over many years and I am sure, like me, members will be devastated,” he added.
Mr MacAskill is visiting a community payback project in the Northfield district of Aberdeen today where offenders are working to improve the grounds at the Maisie Munro play group on Richmondhill Place.
He will also meet Grampian Police's new major-investigation team, which is made up of the drug squad, crime squad inquiry team and financial-investigations unit.
Mr MacAskill, who is also visiting the Youthlink Northfield project in Links Road, said last night: “The government is determined to make communities safer and stronger.
“From tackling the underlying causes of crime and putting more police on the streets to revitalising community payback and building new prisons, we are working to make this happen.”
Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker, a north-east MSP, said Mr MacAskill must use his time in Aberdeen to rethink his “perverse” decision to close Craiginches Prison after the HMP Grampian “super-jail” is built at Peterhead.