Clinks Members’ Policy Briefing | November 2014
In this month's edition...NewsTransforming Rehabilitation preferred bidders announced: The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced the preferred bidders in the Transforming Rehabilitation competition on 29th October 2014. These partnerships are the only suppliers that the MoJ is in talks with to arrange the contracts for the delivery of Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). Clive Martin, Director of Clinks has made a statement about the announcement that you can read, along with a list of the preferred bidders on our website here. Nathan Dick, Head of Policy and Communications at Clinks has written a blog about what this announcement means, which can be downloaded here
Care Act consultation response: In August 2014, Clinks submitted a response to the Department of Health’s consultation on the Care Act (2014) draft regulations and guidance for implementation. The Act places responsibility on local authorities for prisoners with care and support needs. The Department of Health has now published their response to the consultation, along with their revised statutory guidance to support implementation of the Act by local authorities. Clinks is pleased to see that the Department of Health has now explicitly recognised that ‘due to the nature of resettlement prisons, it is likely that they will experience a high turnover of prisoners and it is particularly important that the care needs of those serving short term sentences are identified and responded to.’ Download the statutory guidance here, and Clinks response to the consultation here
Plans for secure college rules consultation: In January 2014 the Government published its response to the Transforming Youth Custody consultation outlining its plans to introduce Secure Colleges. The Government have now launched a consultation about the policies which will inform the statutory rules governing Secure Colleges. The deadline for responses is the 27th November 2014.
Criminal Justice System
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales: Annual Report 2013-14 This annual report outlines that there has been a significant decline in safety in adult prisons between 2013-14, which has been more acutely felt in the adult prison estate. Nick Hardwick, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons said ‘Increases in self-inflicted deaths, self-harm and violence cannot be attributed to a single cause. They reflect some deep-seated trends and affect prisons in both the public and private sectors. Nevertheless, in my view, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the conjunction of resource, population and policy pressures, particularly in the second half of 2013-14 and particularly in adult male prisons, was a very significant factor for the rapid deterioration in safety and other outcomes we found as the year progressed and that were reflected in NOMS’ own safety data.’
Bromley Briefings, Prison Factfile: Autumn 2014 This briefing by the Prison Reform Trust collates key statistics and information about prisons in the UK. Topics featured in the briefing include: older prisoners; sentencing trends and legislation; social characteristics of adult prisoners; women in prison; Black, Asian and minority ethnic prisoners; deaths in custody; and public perceptions of crime.
Offender management statistics: April to June 2014 This bulletin by the Ministry of Justice gives the latest statistics relating to people who are in prison or under probation supervision in England and Wales.
Safety in custody statistics quarterly update to June 2014 This bulletin published by the Ministry of Justice and National Statistics gives statistical information regarding deaths, self-harm and assaults in prison custody in England and Wales.
What works to reduce crime: A summary of evidence This report published by the Justice Analytical Services at the Scottish Government, aims to examine research evidence on what works to reduce crime in relation to the following three strategies: targeting the underlying causes of crime; deterring potential offenders by ensuring the cost of offending is greater than the benefits; and increasing the difficulty of offending by reducing opportunities to commit crime.
Managing and removing foreign national offenders This report by the National Audit Office outlines that despite increased resources and tougher powers, the Home Office has made slower progress than expected in managing foreign national offenders (FNOs) in the UK and in removing them to their home countries. The report also outlines that the number of foreign national offenders in prison and deported from the UK, have remained broadly unchanged since 2006.
Restorative Justice
Mapping Restorative Provision in England and Wales: National Report This report, published by the Restorative Justice Council gives the results from a project commissioned by Sheffield Hallam University that aims to provide a snapshot of restorative justice provision across England and Wales.
Young People
Realising Ambition: Lessons on replication and evidence-based interventions mid-programme report The Realising Ambition programme is a UK-wide £25m Big Lottery Fund programme replicating 25 interventions aimed at preventing children and young people from entering the Criminal Justice System. This report published by the programme, which is being led by Catch 22, with the Social Research Unit, Substance and the Young Foundation as consortium partners, is structured around five key features that have consistently emerged as putting organisations in the best position to replicate interventions that make a difference to outcomes for children and young people.
Arts
Enrichment activities? Arts, creativity and spirituality in criminal justice systems Between November 2012 and February 2014, the National Alliance for Arts in Criminal Justice supported a seminar series funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) that explored the role of artistic, creative and spiritual activities being offered in criminal justice systems around the world. The four seminars were run in collaboration with a newly established group of academics, and shared best practice in delivering and evaluating arts based projects; considered how to position and understand ideas and activities that draw on different disciplines, theories and cultural backgrounds; explored the political, social and cultural environment in which offenders’ work is exhibited and celebrated; and evaluated what can be learned from theoretically, practically and geographically competing and complementary views and how policy can be transferred both nationally and internationally.
Volunteering
Justice Involving Volunteers in Europe (JIVE) update: The latest newsletter from the Justice Involving Volunteers in Europe (JIVE) project is now available. This edition explores the progress of the JIVE project, which is undertaking research into the role and value of volunteers, developing a volunteer programme toolkit, and examining some of the motivations and good practice of involving volunteers. The newsletter includes articles such as: recruiting ex-offenders as volunteers in Hungary; a prison listening centre in Italy; and the limits and challenges to involving volunteers in Romanian prisons.
Mental Health
A working partnership: an analysis of the relationship between probation in London and Together for Mental Wellbeing This report published by Sheffield Hallam University examines the development and operation of a partnership between London Probation Trust and Together, which supports the management of offenders with mental health problems. The report examines the factors that underpinned the success and challenges experienced by the partnership and makes a range of recommendations, including for the roll-out of the project across court and probation areas in England and Wales.
Care Leavers
Update to the Care Leavers Strategy This cross-department strategy was published in October 2013 and set out the actions government departments would take to improve the support that care leavers receive during their transition to adulthood and independence. The Government have now published an update highlighting the steps the Government have taken over the last year to improve the support given to care leavers, and it is intended that this support will be further improved in the future.
The Detention System
The state of detention This report, published by Detention Action assesses the state of immigration detention in 2014. It brings together and reflects on a plethora of evidence, including official statistics, legal judgements, monitoring reports, visits to detention centres and the perspective of people who have been detained, to understand key problems of the detention system.
Clinks blogs: October has been another busy month for Clinks blogs, with posts from both guests and Clinks staff. Titles include; Restorative Justice in the police: meeting victims’ needs; Negotiation skills: Discussion; Re-uniting women and children post-prison; TR: where are we now?; and What does it mean? TR preferred bidders announced.
Two short films about mentoring and desistance The first of these two films, made by Ruth Armstrong from the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University, explores how a mentoring relationship has aided desistance, and the second gives a series of reflections from practitioners and researchers who watched the first film and were asked to comment.
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