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Clinks Members' Policy Briefing | March 2018- Policy work at Clinks
- Government announcements
- Publications
- Blogs
- Extra information
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On 20th February we held the latest meeting of the women's networking forum. We were pleased that 24 organisations attended the meeting and will use the information we gathered to inform our policy work which includes our representation on the Ministry of Justice's Advisory Board for Female Offenders. Laura Seebohm will also use the information to inform her role in the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3).
On 28th February, HM Prison and Probation Service, supported by Clinks, hosted a conference for prison governors and staff on the importance of family ties for prisoners. The conference promoted the findings and recommendations of the Farmer Review of family ties for men in prison and provided good practice examples for supporting prisoners’ family relationships.
On 7th March Clinks launched its 2018 State of the Sector survey which closes on 16th March and takes 15-20 minutes to complete. The survey gathers the evidence we need in order to lobby on your behalf. It focuses on the services you are delivering, the needs of your service users and the numbers of staff and volunteers you have. It also has an additional focus this year on how you meet the needs of your clients with protected characteristics. You can take the survey here
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Prisons reform speech The Justice Secretary, David Gauke, gave his first address on prison reform. He set out three purposes for prison: protecting the public; punishment; and rehabilitation. He said this will be achieved through ensuring prisons are ‘secure, safe and decent’, including plans to consider how categorisation can take into account a person’s risk of directing crime within prison and how incentives can be used to ensure good behaviour. He also announced a cross-government group of ministers, with prime-ministerial backing, to reduce reoffending.
Justice Secretary publishes action plan for HMP Nottingham On 13th February the Justice Secretary, David Gauke, responded to the urgent notification letter for HMP Nottingham from Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons, Peter Clarke, which he sent last month due to safety concerns. The response sets out an action plan covering: safety; staffing; leadership and management; and living conditions and regime activity.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) report on HMP Liverpool The Justice Select Committee held a one-off evidence session following HMIP’s report on HMP Liverpool and have consequently published a report which sets out four recommendations. The Committee recommends: major contracts (such as the facilities maintenance contract at HMP Liverpool) are subject to a public framework whereby the public are notified when contractors are penalised; the Minister, the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service publish a plan to resolve overcrowding in prisons through reducing the prison population or increasing capacity; HMIP are given additional resources to follow up on recommendations; and Minsters take personal responsibility for ensuring recommendations are implemented and report to the committee on this.
The Criminal Records Bill, which was introduced as a private members bill in the House of Lords by Lord Ramsbotham, had its second reading in the House of Lords. This Bill proposes to amend the length of time for which an individual may have a criminal record under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. For example, sentences of over four years in prison, which are currently never spent, would become spent four years after the end of the full sentence.
Civil society strategy consultation The government has launched an open consultation on its civil society strategy which closes on 22nd May. The consultation asks how government can support the work of organisations, such as charities, that work with vulnerable and disadvantaged people. We will be speaking to members over the coming weeks to inform our submission.
Select committee evidence sessions
Oral evidence: Race Disparity Audit The Women and Equalities Committee held an evidence session on the Race Disparity Audit, a cross-departmental audit of data held on how people of different ethnicities are treated across public services. Minister for the Cabinet Office, David Lidington, said that explaining the disparities revealed in employment and the criminal justice system have been the earliest priorities for government so far. He said there would be no cross-government strategy to tackle the disparities but that responsibility would rest with individual departments and this would be co-ordinated by the inter-ministerial group on racial disparity (which Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Phillip Lee, sits on).
Oral evidence: tackling inequalities faced by the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities. The Women and Equalities Committee held an evidence session on inequality experienced by GRT people, particularly in terms of local authorities finding suitable sites and trust issues. Yvonne MacNamara from The Traveller Movement said both the youth justice system and police are beginning to collect GRT data. She noted the recent establishment of a working group of people from GRT communities working within prisons to advise on implementing the Lammy review. Kealey Sly from Leicestershire Gypsy and Traveller Equalities argued for disaggregating the GRT category and suggested prisons having equality officers could help tackle the issue of people not declaring themselves as GRT.
Oral evidence: Transforming rehabilitation The Justice Committee held an evidence session on probation service reform. Contributors included Clinks members Nacro, Shelter, YSS Ltd, Pact and Switchback. They were asked if the programme has a future, if it involved the voluntary sector, and how much direction the Ministry of Justice provides. A variety of issues were raised during the session, including how commissioning processes have acted as a barrier for the engagement of smaller voluntary organisations and the issues many voluntary organisations experience when working to access service users when they are in prison due to the increasingly challenging conditions.
Oral evidence: prison provision in Wales The Welsh Affairs Committee heard oral evidence from Clinks members Howard League for Penal Reform, Women in Prison and Prison Reform Trust (PRT). The session focussed on women’s issues and devolution. Frances Crook from Howard League noted Scotland is looking to reduce the number of women in prison through closing HMP Cornton Vale and building smaller units, as well as abolishing shorter prison sentences. Greater Manchester was seen as a positive example with the number of women entering prison falling by 27%. Thomas Guiney from PRT cautioned against solving the issue of women being imprisoned far from home through having women’s wings as pressures on the men’s estate then filter through to the women’s.
Criminal justice system
Enforcement and Recall HM Inspectorate of Probation have published a thematic report into enforcement of community-based court sentences and licence recall. It found that quality of Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) enforcement of community and suspended sentence orders was poor, and they were struggling to provide adequate services for the range of complex needs presented by people on post-sentence supervision. The report highlights that there has been an increase in the number of people recalled, but found that almost all recall decisions by the National Probation Service and CRCs were determined to be good decisions.
Contracting out of probation services The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper on the Transforming Rehabilitation probation reforms. It describes the details of the reform programme and its successes and limitations. It summarises the five reports by HM Inspectorate of Probation which evaluated the reforms as they progressed. It also summarises reactions to the reforms by the Justice Committee, Public Accounts Committee and National Audit Office and performance data for Community Rehabilitation Companies, including how many met the performance criteria for the payment by results element of their funding. It includes a table of all the owners of the CRCs.
Criminal justice statistics
Criminal justice system statistics quarterly: September 2017 The Office for National Statistics has published its latest quarterly statistics on trends in the criminal justice system (CJS), covering the year from September 2016 to September 2017. Compared to last year, this year: the number of individuals formally dealt with by the CJS fell by 7%; and the number prosecuted at magistrates’ courts fell by 5%. The average custodial sentence length has steadily increased since September 2007, from 12.4 months to 16.7 months.
Black, Asian and minority ethnic people
(In)visibility: Female. Muslim. Imprisoned. Muslim Hands, supported by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, has published qualitative research on the experiences of female Muslim prisoners in England. It captures the often unheard voices of Muslim women in prisons and explores the often overlooked intersectionality of gender, faith and ethnicity. Findings indicate female Muslim prisoners are at risk of discrimination and loss of family contact due to cultural notions of shame but are also living with many of the same challenges as women prisoners in general, such as experiences of domestic violence and abuse, but often with added cultural complexity. The report’s six recommendations include the need to not stigmatise female ex-offenders and for stereotypes that link Islam with terrorism to be addressed.
Youth justice
Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Young Offenders: a Scoping Review Researchers in Glasgow have published a review of thirteen international studies of mindfulness-based interventions delivered to young people in prison or community rehabilitation programmes to help them manage stress. Mindfulness-based interventions are derived from Buddhist meditation practices and focus on breath awareness, body awareness and mindful movement. Studies found some improvement in various measures of mental health, self-regulation, problematic behaviour, substance use, quality of life and criminal propensity. However, the authors noted that the studies were not of high enough quality for them to make generalisations.
Problematic Substance Use
An integrated approach to tackling substance misuse and mental health issues in prisons The Forward Trust has published research, using data collected from their service users, into the effectiveness of its substance misuse programmes in prison and the wider implications. It found 71% of the people engaging with their substance misuse treatment services presented with mental health symptoms. It therefore recommends responding to mental health symptoms should be an integral part of substance misuse treatment within prisons. It found people who are substance-dependent and suffer from depression are at greater risk of suicide and self-harm and are 9% more likely to reoffend. The Forward Trust will also seek to screen clients for mental health problems across the services they run.
Women
Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) take action against violence against women and girls (VAWG) Revolving Doors Agency has published case studies on how PCCs are tackling VAWG through strengthening service provision and using the convening and commissioning powers of their roles. The case studies show that PCCs are increasingly adopting approaches that recognise the underlying causes, specifically; gender inequality, racial and ethnic discrimination and social exclusion. Revolving Doors Agency has undertaken this work with a view to encouraging more PCCs to take positive action, following the discovery that only a third of Police and Crime Plans identified VAWG as a strategic priority, despite almost all the plans identifying it as a key local need.
Accommodation
Homelessness code of guidance for local authorities Guidance for local authorities on how they should exercise their homelessness functions in accordance with the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 has been published, following a consultation on the draft guidance. The new guidance specifically names the criminal justice services that are subject to the duty to refer, which is a duty to refer service users in England who may be homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days to the local housing authority. These include prisons, young offender institutions, youth offending teams and probation providers. Clinks’ response to the consultation on the draft guidance had recommended the role of these bodies was made explicitly clear.
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From employability to stability: visiting Switchback Oonagh Ryder, Policy Officer at Clinks, has written a blog about her visit to Switchback, a Clinks member that provides holistic support to young men in London on release from prison through work in Café from Crisis, a coffee shop in Spitalfields. The programme involves mentoring, trips and activities (such as to tourist attractions or to develop CV writing skills) as well as work in the café. Support is not time-limited and mentors will work with trainees for as long as they request the support and continue to engage.
The answer to Oxfam’s safeguarding problems is not enhanced DBS checks Clinks' Trustee Christopher Stacey, Co-director of Unlock, has written a blog for the Huffington Post which highlights the risks that blanket criminal record checks pose. He notes that focusing on criminal record checks is a distraction from the real safeguarding issues highlighted in the Oxfam case and that criminal record checks should not be seen as an alternative to more comprehensive safeguarding measures, such as good recruitment techniques, effective training, monitoring, supervision and management. He says that criminal record checks should be used cautiously, at the appropriate level, and within the context of a fair recruitment approach towards people with criminal records.
Child custody: an inappropriate measure for vulnerable children from disadvantaged backgrounds Annahita Moradi, a pupil barrister in youth justice, has written a blog for The National Association for Youth Justice (NAYJ), an organisation that campaigns for young people’s rights within criminal justice. She says that, given the primary purpose of youth justice is to prevent re-offending, rather than punish, custody is not the answer. She describes the adverse effects of custody on vulnerable young people, depriving them of education, development and adequate healthcare as well as exposing them to further trauma, abuse and gang culture. She highlights a case which was declared unlawful by the European Convention on Human Rights, where a boy spent over 100 days in isolation.
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