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Clinks Members’ Policy Briefing | November 2016
In this month's edition...
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On Wednesday 2nd November we held our annual conference. This year's theme was 'What we do' and many of you attended to join the fruitful discussion on the value of the wide-ranging work done by the voluntary sector in criminal justice. Bob Neill, Chair of the Justice Select Committee, provided the keynote speech and spoke passionately about the need for prison reform, as well as answering some great questions from our members. Delegates attended workshops throughout the day on topics including collaboration in the voluntary sector, practical approaches to influencing policy, how to involve service users and ways to keep women out of prison. You can read more about the conference in this Storify of the day.
At our conference we also launched our Annual Review which is online as an interactive webpage. The online page features an interactive timeline of the voluntary sector in criminal justice, and you can watch six videos featuring members and stakeholders sharing their thoughts on what ‘just and affordable rehabilitation’ looks like. You can get involved with the conversation on Twitter using #WhatWeDo.
On 3rd November, the Secretary of State for Justice, Liz Truss, delivered a speech outlining the reforms put forward in the White Paper on prison safety and reform, published on the same day. The Guardian published an article written by Anne Fox, Clinks' Chief Executive, highlighting the importance of using the expertise of the voluntary sector to achieve the goals of prison reform.
Earlier this month, Anne Fox also received a formal letter from the Prime Minister in reply to her letter of welcome on appointment to office. In it she said, "Changing the lives of people caught up in a cycle of offending and enabling them to become law abiding, contributing citizens is an immense challenge. The work of the voluntary sector contributes to improving many lives and communities and for that I am most grateful."
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Prison reform: Justice Secretary speech On 3rd November, the Secretary of State for Justice, Liz Truss, gave a speech outlining the reforms put forward in the White Paper on prison safety and reform published on the same day. She emphasised the importance of reducing levels of violence and self-harm in prisons and of reducing reoffending. She announced an investment of £104 million per year to hire 2,500 prison officers as well as improvements to the working conditions of prison officers. She also discussed plans to give governors more freedom and control over certain aspects of prison budgets such as education and healthcare.
Work and Pensions Committee Oral evidence: Support for ex-offenders On 26th October, Minister for Prisons and Probation Sam Gyimah gave evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee on employment support for ex-offenders. He answered questions on the role of prison governors and Community Rehabilitation Companies in providing employment support, what the barriers are to ex-offenders securing employment and the importance of mentoring for prisoners and ex-offenders.
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Clinks publications
Clinks Impact Assessment 2016 This report presents the findings from an impact assessment that was researched and written by independent consultants between mid-February and March 2016. It found that feedback from the voluntary sector on Clinks’ work was overwhelmingly positive and made several suggestions for improvement to further meet the needs of Clinks’ members. In response to these, Clinks has made 10 pledges, including: providing a more tailored and localised support offer, keeping members in the loop and on the agenda, and further developing our work as a facilitator of difficult/challenging conversations within the voluntary sector and with our key stakeholders.
Arts, culture and innovation in criminal justice settings: a guide for commissioners The National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance have published this guide to provide those with responsibility for supporting the education, health, wellbeing and reintegration to society of individuals within the Criminal Justice System (CJS) with clear information on the valuable role arts can play in supporting these objectives. The guide provides practical information and ideas for those wishing to commission artists and arts organisations and includes details of how to identify providers. It also has a range of case studies demonstrating how arts activities can be used to meet the needs of people in contact with the CJS.
Clinks response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion This response highlights that having contact with the Criminal Justice System exacerbates and contributes to peoples’ experiences of debt, poverty and financial exclusion. The response makes the following recommendations: the finance gap experienced by many prisoners on release is bridged; there is tailored support for families of people in contact with the CJS; and resettlement services are delivered at the earliest opportunity.
Minutes of the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3) The RR3 is a group convened by Clinks, with the purpose of building a strong and effective partnership between the voluntary sector, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) to reduce re-offending. The group met on 16th August to discuss current issues in the criminal justice system and provide advice to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on policy development. The group discussed monitoring and uses of data after a presentation from the MoJ’s data analytical services team. They also discussed employment and educational needs in prisons following a presentation from members of team for the Coates Review of education in prison, and gave updates on the RR3’s focused work on family services, women and mental health.
Criminal Justice System
Prison reform and safety On 3rd November, the Ministry of Justice published a White Paper on prison reform and safety, outlining a range of changes to address current problems such as understaffing, overcrowding and drug use. The paper announced that new accountability measures would be used to hold governors to account for specific outcomes, which would then be published in prison league tables. Under the new measures, the Secretary of State would have the power to intervene when a prison is failing. The paper also stated that £1.3 billion would be invested to provide 10,000 new prison places. Clinks’ Head of Policy and Communications, Nathan Dick, has written a blog exploring the White Paper in more depth.
A Matter of Conviction: a blueprint for community-based rehabilitative prisons The report, published by the RSA and Transition Spaces, looks at how 21st century prisons could better support rehabilitation. The report’s overarching recommendation is that the Ministry of Justice should publish a 2017-2020 National Rehabilitation Strategy that prioritises 10 key changes, including returning frontline staffing to 2010 levels, NOMS becoming a smaller, arms-length function with greater independence and creating Local Prison Boards with representation from a number of stakeholders to oversee the long-term strategy of prisons.
Homicides – further lessons This learning lessons bulletin, published by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, examines the lessons to be learned from the Ombudsman’s investigations into the killing of one prisoner by another. The bulletin looks at eight case studies and outlines four lessons to be learned from the cases studied: all prisons should have a coordinated approach to identifying indicators and risks of bullying and violent behaviour; all prisons should have an effective security and searching strategy, which reflects the specific risks of the prisoners housed there; concerns about the potential vulnerability of prisoners should be properly recorded and considered; and when a prisoner appears to have been seriously assaulted, the police should be notified without delay, with all prisoners involved held separately until the arrival of the police.
Women
Neglected needs: girls in the criminal justice system Published by Penal Reform International, this paper explores how girls in contact with criminal justice agencies face discriminatory treatment in terms of the type of offences for which they are detained, their access to fair trial guarantees, and the lack of suitable alternatives to detention. It also looks at the specific challenges faced by girls in detention across the world and the international and regional standards in place to address these, focusing on: protection from violence, access to adequate healthcare and the provision of rehabilitation and reintegration services. It concludes that girls are in detention and who offended have distinctive needs that must be identified and addressed and recommends that prison authorities provide gender-specific responses. Leading change: the role of local authorities in supporting women with multiple needs This briefing, published by the Prison Reform Trust, explores the potential of local authorities to develop innovative solutions to transform the lives of women and their families. It discusses the key drivers of women’s offending and the cost benefits of investing in preventative women’s services, making a number of recommendations to local authorities to make a positive difference to the daily lives of women and children. These include engaging in leadership and partnership, identifying women’s needs and building on their strengths, providing, commissioning or convening services and scrutinising and monitoring local services. It suggests that, as a starting point to this work, all local authorities should hold a round table seminar of local and regional partners and relevant stakeholders, including local women’s organisations. Children on the Edge: Children affected by maternal imprisonment In 2014 Women’s Breakout partnered with Anawim Women’s Centre to host the Re-Unite network and identify the on-going challenges for women and their children when separation has occurred as a result of maternal imprisonment. This review, published by the Re-Unite network, explores how children are impacted by maternal imprisonment, as well as the arrest, sentencing and release phases of a mother’s journey through the Criminal Justice System. It recommends that professionals working with offenders should be trained to ensure that children are treated sensitively and that contact with their children for women in the Criminal Justice System is supported, that women prisoners with children should be accommodated in mother-child houses which are separate from the main prison, and that continued post release support for children and families should be provided through the network of women’s centres/services and children’s NGOs. Joining the Dots Published by Agenda, this report examines the nature and extent of violence and abuse experienced by women in poverty, and profiles the mental health and quality of life of women who experience poverty alongside violence and abuse. It finds that experiences of abuse are associated with poverty and that this association is stronger for women than it is for men. It also highlights that those who have experienced more extensive violence and abuse are more likely to experience other adversities in their lives. It makes four recommendations for policy makers, services providers and practitioners. These include: that central and local government must make sure specialist services providing holistic support are adequately funded and properly commissioned; and that services for survivors of violence and abuse need to be adequately resourced and able to respond to the fact that experiences of violence and abuse may be compounded by poverty.Young adults
The treatment of young adults in the criminal justice system The Justice Select Committee have published this report which examines the treatment of 18-24 year olds in the Criminal Justice System. It finds overwhelming evidence that the system does not adequately address the distinct needs of this group. The report makes a range of recommendations based on the view that young adults are a distinct group with needs that are different both from children under 18 and adults older than 25, underpinned by the developmental maturation process that takes place in this age group. Recommendations include that specialised approaches should be taken by staff in prison and probation services working with young adults, underpinned by more in-depth training; that the Ministry of Justice should take an evidence based approach to working with young adults; and that the government should consider testing young adult courts.
Youth justice
Serious Youth Violence This report by the London Assembly finds that victims of serious youth violence are increasing and that an increasing number of these are girls. It attributes this increase in part to changes in police recording practices and to a change in the ‘criminal economy’, leading young people to be involved in more serious crimes. It suggests that the drivers of serious youth violence are complex and multi-faceted but that perceptions of safety are a key issue. Gang activity was found to only make up a small proportion of serious youth violence and young people felt that the Metropolitan Police and other services unhelpfully label young people as gang members when this is not the case. The report makes a number of recommendations to the Mayor of London in considering his strategies to address serious youth violence, including developing effective engagement with young people in pupil referral units or alternative provision and building upon the capital’s focus on young victims through measures such as restorative justice.
The impact of distance from home on children in custody This thematic review by HM Inspectorate of prisons explores the impact of distance from home on aspects of daily life in custody for and on resettlement planning and outcomes on release for children. It makes a number of recommendations to the National Offender Management Service, the Youth Justice Board and HM Courts and Tribunals Service. These include that children should be provided with additional phone calls to a parent/carer in place of unused visit entitlements; that children should routinely be given the opportunity to discuss how they feel about their distance from home and how any negative impacts they are experiencing can be mitigated; and that available data should be used on a regular basis to determine any negative impacts on children who are placed far from home.
The State of Youth Custody This briefing published by the National Association for Youth Justice argues that imprisonment for children should only be used as a last resort and for the shortest necessary period. It recognises the recent gains made in reducing child imprisonment but suggests that number of children incarcerated in England and Wales remains too high and continue to be out of step with more progressive youth justice practices and international standards. The report examines several measures of performance of children’s custodial institutions, and concludes that the solution to issues in youth custody is the provision of adequate funding for the best existing secure provision.
Children speak out on policing and youth justice This briefing was published by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England and explores issues identified by children and young people with the police and youth justice. 55% of children surveyed said they did not have a good relationship with the police, some felt that stop and search was used without justification and many reported unnecessary use of force and violence from the police. Children also experienced violence in youth custody and struggled to re-enter education and employment after release. The report makes a number of recommendations, including: introducing training on children’s rights for all professionals working with children in contact with the justice system; only using physical restraint by police and in secure settings as a last resort when the child poses an imminent risk to the safety of themselves or others; ensuring that children in contact with the police and the youth justice system are listened to and their views taken into account; and safeguarding the role and budgets of Youth Offending Services so they can continue to support children.
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On the road with NOMS: commissioning services for the families of prisoners Clinks’ Development Officer for Families, Patrice Lawrence has written a blog discussing the regional roadshow events by NOMS to raise awareness in the sector of the current tender for family services for adult male prisons in England and Wales. The blog provides an overview of the procurement process for family services and highlights the challenges for the voluntary sector in engaging with this, also providing some key points on how the voluntary sector can continue to deliver innovative family work in prisons.
The journey towards young adult courts Max Rutherford, Criminal Justice Programme Manager at the Barrow Cadbury Trust, has written a blog discussing the importance of young adult courts and what the Trust’s Transition to Adulthood Alliance (T2A) is doing to make this happen. Max writes, “We hope that by demonstrating a significant reduction in reconviction rates, young adult specific criminal courts will become part of mainstream practice, and that many other areas will seek to develop models to suit local need, adding further to a growing momentum for the T2A agenda.”
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