[[{"fid":"4214","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"height":"150","width":"600","class":"media-element file-default"}}]]
Clinks Members’ Policy Briefing | November 2016
In this month's edition...
This month Clinks has been working closely with the Minister for Prisons and Probation, Sam Gyimah, and Clinks members to respond to the White Paper on Prison Safety and Reform. This work will contribute to a public response, to be published before Christmas.
We have had some success in calling for a delayed implementation of the power in the Charities Act 2016 to disqualify people with certain convictions from senior management and trustee positions. This was due to commence in April 2017 but will not be introduced until September 2017 at the earliest. Clinks recently published a briefing on the issue in partnership with Unlock, and will be publishing a guide in 2017.
As co-chair of the Farmer Review of family ties for men in prison, Clinks has analysed over 1,000 responses from prisoners, families, voluntary organisations, prisons, and academics. The review is due to publish its final report in January 2017. Clinks has been talking to the Ministry of Justice about new approaches to the women’s prison estate and to the HM Inspectorate of Probation about community provision for women. We have also been working alongside the Young Review with the National Offender Management Service and the Youth Justice Board to consider how the voluntary sector may be able to support future equalities strategies.
On 8th November, the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance co-hosted the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Arts, Health and Wellbeing roundtable on the Criminal Justice System. The meeting was one in a series of round tables in which practitioners, academics, policy makers, those with lived experience and managers of services are invited to share their knowledge and experience with parliamentarians. The information gathered will be used to inform policy recommendations for the Inquiry into Arts, Health and Wellbeing.
This is the last chance to add your response to this year’s State of the Sector survey. The information we collect from this survey is hugely important as it informs how we support the sector, and provides us with evidence that we can draw upon when working to influence policy; we’re asking as many organisations as possible to complete it. The information you told us in last year's survey was presented to Ministers at the Ministry of Justice, senior officials at National Offender Management Service, at the Office for Civil Society, in various submissions to Lords and Commons select committees, and to the Government Relations Team at No.10. The survey closes on 16th December. Please share your experiences in our state of the sector survey here.
Letter from Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, on Justice Committee recommendations on joint enterprise law Liz Truss has written to the chair of the Justice Select Committee, Bob Neill MP, to respond to the committee’s recommendations on joint enterprise law. Joint enterprise law allows those deemed to be involved in committing a crime to be convicted and sentenced as if they have committed the crime. The letter states that the Ministry of Justice has concluded that no review of the law is necessary as law enforcement agencies will be updating their guidance to reflect a recent Supreme Court judgement relating to joint enterprise law.
Minister outlines £24m young offender mental health programme Minister for Victims, Youth and Family Justice, Dr Phillip Lee, announced in parliament that the Ministry of Justice and NHS England are working together to develop a £24m programme targeting mental health support for young people in contact with the Criminal Justice System. He said the funding would be part of a £114m package to be spent on vulnerable groups between 2016 and 2021 and was intended to "address gaps in mental health provision for children and young people in contact with the justice system".
Criminal Justice System
Prison reform - oral evidence On 29th November, Minister for Prisons and Probation Sam Gyimah and Chief Executive Officer of National Offender Management Service Michael Spurr gave evidence to the Justice Select Committee on prison reform. They were questioned on a range of issues including staffing, safety in prisons and consultation with the public. Sam Gyimah announced that 28 prisons would be moving to a system of governor-led recruitment of staff in January 2017, with a view to rolling this out across the prison estate.
Review on the Care and Management of Transgender Offenders The Ministry of Justice has published its conclusions from the review of the justice system’s approach to transgender people. The review finds that transgender people should as far as possible be treated as the gender they identify with throughout the justice system. It also emphasises that the vulnerabilities of transgender people should be recognised as early as possible and should outweigh the desire for swift justice proceedings. Clinks’ Senior Policy Officer, Nicola Drinkwater, has written a blog outlining the conclusions of the review and the next steps being taken by the Ministry of Justice.
National Offender Management Service Staff Equalities Annual Report 2015/16 The Ministry of Justice has published this statistics bulletin, which provides a demographic breakdown of statistics in relation to a number of areas, including deaths in prison, release on temporary licence, incentives and earned privileges, and reoffending. Among the findings are that women are more likely than men to receive release on temporary licence, that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) prisoners make up 25.8% of the prison population – more than double the BAME population in the community – and that there are 70 prisoners currently living or presenting in a gender different to that which they were assigned at birth.
Unintended consequences: Finding a way forward for prisoners serving sentences of imprisonment for public protection HM Inspectorate of Prisons has published this thematic review, outlining the significant ongoing challenges of managing and progressing the large number of prisoners serving sentences of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) who remain in the prison system in England and Wales. The report finds that many prisons do not provide good quality offender management to support IPP prisoners in their progression and not all IPP prisoners can access the relevant offending behaviour programmes. It makes a number of recommendations, including ensuring that IPP prisoners receive regular, meaningful contact with offender managers and supervisors and ensuring that the Parole Board has sufficient resources to consider IPP cases without undue delays.
Structured mayhem: Personal experiences of the Crown Court This Criminal Justice Alliance briefing examines individual experiences of the Crown Court and looks at how hearings impact on victims, witnesses and defendants. It finds that while proceedings are elaborate and formal, they are often chaotic, with regular delays, adjournments and scheduling problems. The research suggests that victims, witnesses and defendants tend to be highly compliant with the demands of the Crown Court, but that they are side-lined by procedures aimed at the judge and jury. The briefing makes a number of recommendations, including that increased use of restorative justice should be encouraged to help further offenders’ opportunities to address their offending behaviour and engage with the court process.
Black, Asian and minority ethnic people
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic disproportionality in the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales The Lammy Review of racial bias and disproportionality in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) has published its interim findings, examining in detail statistics of disproportionality by ethnicity at each stage of the CJS. The report finds that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people are more likely to be convicted at a magistrates’ court, more likely to have their cases sent to crown court and more likely to be sent to prison from crown court than their white counterparts. It also finds that BAME people’s behaviour is more heavily scrutinised while in prison, with mixed men having 50% more adjudications brought against them than white men, and that they are less likely to access opportunities for release on temporary licence. Clinks’ Head of Policy and Communications, Nathan Dick, has written a blog discussing the report and the next steps of the review.
Women
Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System 2015 The Ministry of Justice has published this report, providing statistics on women in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in 2015. It considers how these experiences have changed over time and how they contrast to the typical experiences of men. The report finds that women are significantly under-represented in the CJS – they are less likely to be arrested and less likely to be sentenced to custody, though this may be a result of a different offending profile. The report finds that women are more likely to self-harm in prison but also more likely to participate in education, to be granted home detention curfew if eligible, to make a success of release on temporary license and to have their probation orders terminated early for good progress.
Youth justice
Children in Custody 2015-16: An analysis of 12–18-year-olds’ perceptions of their experiences in secure training centres and young offender institutions This HM Inspectorate of Prisons report sets looks at how children describe their experience of imprisonment. It finds that nearly half of boys in young offender institutions have felt unsafe in custody at some point, that the proportion who said they were from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background is at the highest rate since 2001-2 (47%), and that the proportion of boys engaged in work, education or training is lower than at any point since 2010-11. It also finds that 10% of those held in Secure Training Centres are girls and that their experiences are largely similar to those of boys.
Valuing youth diversion – a toolkit The Centre for Justice Innovation has produced this toolkit for practitioners involved in or considering creating, a point-of arrest diversion scheme for young people. Developed in collaboration with the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers, it outlines the research case for youth diversion, and discusses the effective practice implications of this evidence. It offers support for communicating effectively with new and existing commissioners. It also provides guidance on a method of demonstrating the cost effectiveness of diversion through its local impact on justice system stakeholders.
Participation strategy: Giving young people a voice in youth justice The Youth Justice Board (YJB) has launched its strategy to improve engagement with young people in decisions about their care and the services they use. The strategy sets out standards for participation and puts forward an action plan for delivering the vision. The plan lists a number of actions to be delivered between now and March 2019, including putting in place formal ways to make sure young people's voices are heard, with a charter to set out how this works; including a specific section for young people’s views on any advice given to government ministers; and ensuring that young people help to design the specification for services being commission by the YJB.
Trauma and young offenders - a review of the research and practice literature This research summary by Beyond Youth Custody presents key findings from a review of the research and practice literature concerning trauma in the backgrounds of young people who offend. The summary provides an overview of literature on trauma and explores the importance of trauma-informed practice for resettlement. It provides an overview of key lessons for resettlement interventions, including that services should use empathetic approaches rather than reactive/punitive ones, that staff should have realistic expectations and take longer-term approaches, and that effective resettlement requires an integrated approach from a range of agencies.
What we do – is it what you need and is it good enough? Clinks’ Chief Executive, Anne Fox, has written this blog, looking at the findings of the Clinks Impact Assessment. Anne writes, “If our job is to help you do your job, then ultimately we are all focussed on supporting people in the criminal justice system and their families. They are the real beneficiaries of our sector’s work, and they deserve all our best efforts.”
A unique collaboration between police and service providers in Devon and Cornwall In this guest blog Helen Worthington, Chief Executive of the Safer Stronger Consortium (SSC), examines the work of the SSC in driving partnership work and creating a tailored approach to community safety in Devon and Cornwall. The blog concludes that, “With robust governance and supportive infrastructure, regular dialogue, a shared mission and set of values and a collective focus and purpose, delivering in partnership can be a powerful framework to effect positive, long-lasting change in the lives of those who need it most.”
- This edition of Clinks Policy Briefing has been sent to the inbox of all Clinks Members. Who are they?
- If you have any comments about the update or ideas about how it could be improved, please email Oonagh Ryder
- To unsubscribe, email Oonagh Ryder
- Please note that the third-party information, gathered and presented within this update, may not represent the views of Clinks or the author. [Terms of Use]
Get involved Become a Member | Follow Clinks | Join Mailing List
Contact Us www.clinks.org | info@clinks.org | 020 7383 0966
Written monthly by...
Oonagh Ryder
Clinks
© Clinks, 2016
Registered office: Clinks, Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9NA
Registered charity: 1074546 | Company limited by guarantee in England & Wales: 3562176