Clinks Members’ Policy Briefing | October 2014
In this month's edition...News
Who cares? Where next for women offender services? This Clinks report provides a snapshot into community based women offender services and follows on from the interim report Run Ragged. Based on interviews with frontline organisations and statutory partners, Who cares? highlights organisations' experiences of sustaining gender specific provision in the current policy and economic climate and the changing needs of service users. Gathering this rich information has enabled Clinks to develop a vision of good partnership working and the report concludes with recommendations for meeting the needs of women offenders in the future. The report’s author Louise Clark has written a blog about her findings, which can be accessed here.
New Minister for Civil Society Rob Wilson has replaced Brooks Newmark as the Minister for Civil Society. He was appointed on 27th September, 2014 and is Conservative MP for Reading East.
Justice speech to the Labour party Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, Sadiq Khan, gave a speech to Labour’s annual party conference in Manchester.
Justice speech to the Conservative party Justice Secretary Chris Grayling gave a speech at the Conservative Party’s annual conference in Birmingham last week.
Publications
Criminal Justice System
Resettlement provision for adult offenders: accommodation and education, training and employment This joint thematic review by HM Inspectorate of Prisons, HM Inspectorate of Probation and Ofsted aims to inform the development of the new resettlement services that will be delivered as part of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. The report examines the effectiveness of existing arrangements to help offenders to access suitable and sustainable accommodation, education, training and employment upon release. Overall, the report found that family and friends are central to an offender’s successful rehabilitation and are ‘the most effective resettlement agency.’
Just visiting: Experiences of children visiting prisons This briefing paper by Barnardo’s gives the experience of prison visits from a child’s perspective. It highlights the barriers that can and do prevent children from visiting prisons, as well as setting out children’s experiences in the prison estate.
Denial of Justice: the hidden use of UK prisons for immigration detention This report by Bail for Immigration Detainees highlights barriers experienced by immigration detainees held in the prison estate to progressing their immigration case, seeking independent scrutiny of their ongoing detention from the courts and tribunals and to their physical and mental wellbeing. These practical barriers include lack of internet access in prisons which can hinder legal research for unrepresented detainees, the existence of financial disincentives to legal aid providers under the current Legal Aid Agency contracts and a failure to fit electronic tags within the prescribed two working days resulting in extended detention in prison.
Government response to the Fourteenth Report of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Session 2013/14: Criminal Justice and Courts Bill The House of Lords and House of Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights published a Legislative Scrutiny report into the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill and Deregulation Bill in June 2014. It can be accessed here. The Government has now published their response to this report which focuses on particular aspects of the Bill relating to increased sentences for terrorism offences, electronic monitoring following release on licence, extreme pornography, young offenders, criminal courts charges and contempt of court. The annex also outlines the Government’s approach to Introducing Secure Colleges and responds to issues raised during the Bill’s passage through the House of Commons.
Prison education
Brain cells: Listening to Prisoner Learners (Third edition) This report by the Prisoners’ Education Trust summarises the findings of a survey distributed in the prison newspaper Inside Time in September 2013. Survey respondents represented the general prison population, but the sample included responses from a larger proportion of life and indeterminate sentenced prisoners. The report outlines the appreciation prisoners have for the dedicated and supportive education staff, as well as highlighting areas of good practice. However, the report also details many ways that learning needs are not being met.
Women in the justice system
Women centred solutions to complex problems Women Centred Working is an initiative to encourage the design and delivery of more effective services for women facing multiple disadvantages. This report, published by WomenCentre, outlines why it is important to develop women-centred ways of working and gives examples of good practice, as well as key recommendations.
Victims
Our commitment to victims: September 2014 This report by the Ministry of Justice outlines that as part of their commitment to victims of crime, the Government will establish a new nationwide Victims’ Information Service by March 2015 and develop this into a comprehensive service that allows victims to access the information and support they need; strengthen the protection for vulnerable victims making the experience of going to court a better one; increase transparency and accountability to ensure criminal justice agencies are held to account for the services they provide to victims; introduce a Victims’ Law to guarantee key entitlements for victims; and develop plans for paying compensation to victims up front, rather than victims having to wait for their money.
Drugs and alcohol
Ambitious for Recovery: Tackling drug and alcohol addiction in the UK This report by the Centre for Social Justice examines problematic drug and alcohol use in the UK and asserts that treatment centres focus too heavily on managing addiction and should promote abstinence. Recommendations from this report include the introduction of a ‘treatment tax’ on alcohol to fund rehabilitation centres and benefit sanctions for adults who refuse abstinence based treatment for problematic drug and alcohol use.
Mental health
Transforming mental health: A plan of action for London The recently established London Health Board have identified tackling the costs of mental illness as a priority. This report by the Kings Fund describes a vision for the future of mental health provision in London generated through a process of engagement with key stakeholders in the capital.
Legal aid
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO): one year on This report published by the Bar Council, which represents barristers in England and Wales, assesses the impact of the LASPO Act 2012, a year after its implementation in April 2013. The report outlines results taken from interviews with legal practitioners. It found that fewer people have access to free legal representation compared to when legal aid was introduced in 1949; there are excessive demands being placed on under-resourced courts and judiciary; and a failure to provide appropriate funding mechanisms for cases without recoverable damages.
Poverty
Public attitudes towards poverty This report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation explores public attitudes to poverty, how they have changed since 2008, how the public think that poverty should be defined and what policies could be effective at tackling poverty in the UK. The main findings from the report include that participants felt that poverty was about more than just income, that personal choices are rarely the root cause of poverty and that the economic circumstances of recent years have encouraged some people to reconsider both who might be affected by poverty and its causes.
The Lobbying Act
The Lobbying Act 2014 This briefing by Homeless Link provides an overview of Part 2 of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 and summarises extensive guidance on the Act provided by the Electoral Commission. The Act, which came into force on the 19th September 2014, has introduced closer regulation of election campaign spending and activity by those not standing for election, or registered as political parties. These groups are known as ‘non-party campaigners’, and can include charities, voluntary organisations and faith groups.
Hate crime
Reports from the Leicester Hate Crime Project Over a two year period, from 2012 until 2014 the team at the Leicester Hate Crime Project undertook research into acts of hate, prejudice and targeted hostility. The research is Britain’s biggest study of hate crime victimisation. Numerous reports have been published by the project, including a full report that details the findings and conclusions from the project, and five briefing papers that focus on hate crime against people with a disability, gendered hostility, homophobic hate crime, racist hate crime and religiously motivated hate crime.
Clinks' blogs September has been a busy month for Clinks' blogs, with a total of 9 blogs being posted on our website by both guest bloggers and Clinks staff. Titles include How do we tackle the root causes of offending among young Muslims?; Tackling the challenge of sharing good practice across prisons and probation; What is theory of change? A researchers and practitioner’s view; Person centred care-what does this really look like?; and Negotiation skills: get a good deal.
Arts in Criminal Justice blogs A total of three guest blogs are featured on the National Alliance for Arts in Criminal Justice blog page, with the titles as follows; My passage through prison, art and out the other side; Playing with fire - creative arts therapy in forensic mental health; and Who needs the arts? exploring the practitioner/participant relationship.
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