Clinks Members' Policy Briefing | September 2018
[[{"fid":"4239","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2"}}]]Clinks has hosted four consultation events in England and Wales in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, as part of their market engagement for the review of probation services. At these events, organisations have raised a number of key issues they would like addressed in the reforms, including better continuity of support between prison and probation, minimum face-to-face contact requirements, more scrutiny on how Community Rehabilitation Companies engage with the voluntary sector and an overhaul of the Industry Standard Partnering Agreement (ISPA). For more information, and how you can get involved, see our blog.
Clinks are members of the expert group to the follow-up Farmer Review and are leading the review’s call for evidence, to be launched this month. This independent review will investigate how supporting women to engage with their families can support them on their desistance journey. If your organisation can provide any support for the call for evidence by disseminating hard-copy questionnaire to women and their families, please contact Nicola Drinkwater.
Our women’s networking forum, held in partnership with Agenda, took place in Bristol. Cullagh Warnock led a discussion on how the specialist women’s sector can build a sustainable network of quality provision and officials from the Ministry of Justice consulted on their plans to build at least five residential units for women, as outlined in the Female Offender Strategy. Details of our next women’s networking forum can be accessed here.
There are two new additions to the Clinks policy team! Lauren Nickolls has recently joined as a Policy Officer. She has a BSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Birkbeck University and has previously worked with the Prison Reform Trust. Will Downs has also joined as a Policy Officer and joins from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO).
[[{"fid":"4240","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"4":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"4"}}]]Minister announces '10 Prisons Project' to develop new model of excellence. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced their ’10 prisons project’ to improve prison standards and security. It will be piloted at 10 prisons in England and Wales identified by MoJ as being ‘the most challenging’. The project will focus on challenging violent and disruptive behaviour and increasing security against drugs. It also aims to improve the safety and decency of those prisons to ensure the living conditions there meet new standards of decency and cleanliness. It comes with an additional £10 million funding which will go towards leadership training and provision such as drug-detection dogs, body scanners, and improved perimeter defences.
Housing
Rough sleeping strategy and prison leavers: Rory Stewart Blog. The government has released its Rough Sleeping Strategy, with the aim of ending rough sleeping entirely by 2027. Rory Stewart MP, Minister of State for the Ministry of Justice, has written a blog about a new pilot launched as part of the strategy, designed to support prison leavers and empower prison officers to offer this support. £3 million will be invested per year for two years in a pilot scheme that will include a new team of officers who will seek to ensure people are fully signed up to benefits, have bank accounts ready before they leave prison and are supported into suitable housing once leaving prison. The pilot will specifically focus on people serving very short sentences. The Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3), convened a time-limited Special Interest Group (SIGs) on accommodation which fed into thins work. The RR3 is formed of senior experts from the voluntary sector and provides guidance and feedback on Ministry of Justice (MoJ) policy developments and is chaired by Clinks.
Women
Home Office plans to strengthen safeguards for women in custody. The Home Office are consulting on police codes of practice in relation to menstruating women in custody and ensuring stronger safeguards are in place for them. This follows the Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) writing to the Home Office to report that police were failing to meet required standards in relation to women in custody, including that women had been denied tampons for safety reasons, recorded on CCTV while changing menstrual products, and left unable to wash their hands, or even shower, for several days. The consultation closes on 1st October 2018.
Call for expressions of interest in stakeholder membership of Advisory Board on Female Offenders. The Expression of Interest process has been launched for membership of the Advisory Board for Female Offenders (ABFO). The ABFO brings together government departments, criminal justice agencies and key stakeholders to provide advice and challenge on the development and delivery of policy for women in contact with the criminal justice system (CJS). It is chaired by Edward Argar MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), who has responsibility for women in the CJS. Following publication of the Female Offender Strategy (June 2018) the MoJ is seeking to refresh the Board’s stakeholder membership to ensure the right mix of expertise to oversee delivery of the strategy’s commitments and to provide national leadership on improving outcomes for women. The expression of interest closes on 12th September 2018.
[[{"fid":"4242","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"5":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"5"}}]]Prisons
The rising tide: additional days for rule breaking in prison. The Howard League for Penal Reform have published a report looking into the disciplinary system in prisons. Using Ministry of Justice figures, the report shows that a total of 359,081 additional days imprisonment were imposed as punishment in 2017 across prisons in England and Wales – more than doubling in three years. Additional days are overwhelmingly imposed for non-violent infractions of rules. The report suggests that these punishments are exacerbating prison overcrowding and producing a sense of unfairness among prisoners, and therefore recommends scrapping additional imprisonment for rule-breaking in prisons in England and Wales (as has already been done in Scotland).
Barriers to effective resettlement: Friday prison releases. Nacro have published a briefing on the impacts of a high number of people leaving custody on a Friday. Not only are Fridays busier days in prison, but the high number of releases on a single day of the week creates pressure on community services, which may also be closed over weekends. The briefing argues for releases to be spread across the week, and for Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services and prison governors to use a variety of tools already available to them such as using powers under Release on Temporary Licence to release someone at least a day earlier to avoid a Friday release and to increase the use of Home Detention Curfew and ensure that where it is utilised, release is never on a Friday. This is the first in a planned series of briefings from Nacro which will shine a spotlight on the practical challenges to effective resettlement.
The demand for and use of illicit phones in prison. Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services (HMPPS) has published a report into the demand for illicit mobile phones by people in prison. The report finds that mobile phones were viewed by Heads of Security as a feature of prison life and seen as creating significant problems within prisons. While Heads of Security identified criminal activity as the main driver for illicit mobile phones, they also acknowledged a significant driver was also the desire for people in prison to maintain communication with families and loved ones, something people in prison themselves identified as a main reason for securing a phone. The primary research included interviews with people serving sentences in prison, Heads of Security and a written surveys of all prison establishments. It was carried out in 2014 and HMPPS therefore express some caution in their findings, given changes to policy, operational practice and technological developments since the research was carried out.
Criminal justice system
It can be stopped: a proven blueprint to stop violence and tackle gang and related offending in London and beyond. The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has published a blueprint on how gang-related offending can be tackled in London and beyond. They recommend applying the Group Violence Intervention (GVI) model to London. The GVI model has been used across the US and involves focussing attention of public authorities on gang involved individuals who are said commit a disproportionate amount of serious violence. The model involves both greater community engagement and more punitive consequences for violent crime. Other recommendations include the inclusion of Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVRO) in the Offensive Weapons Bill, currently progressing through Parliament. An SVRO is a suspicion-less stop and search order allowing police to search any person still serving a sentence. In a bid to tackle victim and witness intimidation, the report also calls for the use of GPS tagging of people suspected of committing an offence.
Criminal justice system statistics quarterly: March 2018. The Ministry of Justice published their quarterly update for their statistics on the criminal justice system. These are for the year ending March 2018 and cover statistics from 2008. The statistics show that the number of people being sentenced (in all courts) has decreased by 16% between 2008 and 2018 but community sentences have decreased much more dramatically, by 53%. Despite the overall decrease in people sentenced to immediate custody in court, the average custodial sentence length increased by 38%, from 12.4 months to 17 months; and for indictable offences the average custodial sentence length increased by 85%, from 31.3 to 57.8.
Sport
A Sporting Chance: an Independent Review of Sport in Youth and Adult Prisons. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published an independent review, conducted by Professor Rosie Meek, on the role of sport in youth and adult prisons. The review has a particular focus on how sport can both improve health and reduce reoffending and makes are series of recommendations including: prisons should devise an integrated physical activity and wellbeing strategy and provide nutritional advice; the MoJ should develop a physical activity strategy for women and girls in prison; and the MoJ should review Release on Temporary Licence and related policies, as despite there being widespread willingness from community groups to support them, barriers are currently stopping individuals benefiting from work and training placement opportunities in the community (not just in the context of sports).
Employment
Data protection and the use of criminal offence data for employment and education purposes. Nacro have published a briefing which argues that employers that ask applicants to disclose unspent convictions at an initial application stage may be in contravention of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Given the recent launch of the Ministry of Justice education and employment strategy and government plans (as set out in the Civil Society Strategy) to reform the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2013, Nacro argue that there is an opportunity to simplify and rationalise the system. They are asking that all employers remove the tick box asking from application forms, and instead, if appropriate, to ask candidates about criminal convictions later in the recruitment process.
[[{"fid":"4243","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"6":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"6"}}]]Re-engaging the voluntary sector in working with probation. Russell Webster has posted a series of blogs which address each question posed by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in their future of probation consultation document. This blog looks at the specific questions around voluntary sector engagement. The blog focuses on the tension between the MoJ effectively fostering local solutions to local problems, whilst maintaining centralised control over the probation service. Webster highlights that this tension is likely to be exacerbated by the implementation of 10, rather than 21 contract package areas.
Civil society strategy - a closer look. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have released their Civil Society Strategy, which sets out a long-term vision for how the government can work better with civil society to address societal issues. Clinks Policy Officer Will Downs takes a look at what the strategy means for voluntary sector organisations working in the criminal justice system. While positive noises are made towards collaborative commissioning, a return of grant funding and respect for the voluntary sectors’ right to campaign, concreate proposals and new sources of funding are in short supply. Nonetheless, the strategy sets out a standard in which we can expect government to engage with the voluntary sector- and we can use this to hold them to account.
Ensuring equality for people with learning differences and autism in the criminal justice system. Hugh Asher, Project Manager and Trainer for KeyRing, provides an overview and summary of the Learning Disability and Autism Awareness Training delivered to staff in the criminal justice system by KeyRing. Between 2015 and 2018, the KeyRing Equal and Fair Project delivered over 100 one-day training and awareness sessions to over 1,600 members of staff from across the criminal justice system. The training was co-delivered by a member of the Working for Justice, a group of people with learning differences and / or autism who have first-hand experience of the criminal justice system.
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Will Downs
Clinks
© Clinks, 2018
Registered office: Clinks, Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9NA
Registered charity: 1074546 | Company limited by guarantee in England & Wales: 3562176