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In this month's edition...
Due to the general election on 12 December, parliament has been dissolved. Clinks will, where possible, continue to work with government officials, though the government will likely delay any criminal justice announcements or publications due to the restrictions imposed on officials and ministers over the pre-election period. See here for information on what happens when parliament is dissolved (via Institute for Government), and here for information on the potential impact of the Lobbying Act on charities (via National Council for Voluntary Organisations).
Clinks has signed a letter coordinated by the Howard League and sent to all party leaders asking for a balanced debate around criminal justice in election campaigning.
Anne Fox, Clinks Chief Executive, met with the incumbent Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Rt Hon Robert Buckland QC. At the meeting, Anne explained the opportunities and challenges voluntary organisations currently face in supporting prisons and probation.
HM Inspectorate of Probation is collecting evidence for a thematic inspection on accommodation, and is eager to hear from accommodation providers on the challenges service users under probation supervision face in finding and maintaining suitable accommodation. Clinks is responding to the consultation. Please contact Nicola.Drinkwater@clinks.org to feed into our submission.
We’ve recently responded to two consultations:
- HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) consultation on Expectations for Women This consultation will shape the criteria used by HMIP to inspect women’s prisons. Our response was informed by two consultation events held with voluntary organisations, and called for HMIP to have a clearer focus on how prisons work in partnership with gender-specific voluntary services to meet the needs of women in prison.
- Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s With Nacro, Clinks submitted a response to a consultation on the government’s health prevention green paper. Our response focusses on the health inequalities faced by people in the criminal justice system and how prevention is of central importance to address the health inequalities they face.
Justice Committee hearings Both Robert Buckland QC, the current Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice and Lucy Frazer QC, the current Minister of State for Justice, gave evidence to the Justice Committee. Buckland gave evidence alongside Sir Richard Heaton, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, and stated that the government’s prison building programme would mean a significant increase in overall prison capacity by the mid-2020s. He confirmed that the government no longer supports the committee’s recommendation to stop the use of short custodial sentences and that he didn’t want fewer people in prison, but the “right sort of people in prison”. In her session, Frazer answered additional questions on prison officer recruitment, and prison refurbishment and security.
Responses to recommendations in Transforming Rehabilitation: follow-up The government has responded to recommendations made in the Justice Committee’s follow-up report on Transforming Rehabilitation (published in July 2019). The government largely accepted the committee’s recommendation to evaluate the impact of its new probation policy on the voluntary sector and to track how much probation funding flows to the voluntary sector - but fell short of committing to publishing such figures transparently. Bob Neil MP, Justice Committee Chair, criticised the government’s response, particularly the lack of detail on how the government plans to manage risk through the transition to a new system, and manage the extra demand and pressure on the service that will stem from the recently announced increased police numbers and tougher sentences.
Supporting ex-offenders on their path to employment The Cabinet Office published a summary of responses gathered from their 2018 call for evidence on supporting ex-offenders into employment. The summary is based on 76 responses, 46% of which came from the voluntary sector. It suggests the voluntary sector are more likely to ask about convictions later in the recruitment process, but the public sector was significantly more likely to ask at the application stage - creating a barrier for people with convictions. This stresses the importance of improving inclusive recruitment policy within the public sector. Clinks and the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance, both Ban the Box employers, submitted evidence to the Cabinet Office, outlining our recruitment policy and examples of charities supporting people with convictions into employment.
Clinks publications
Crime and consequence Clinks and NCJAA have edited a new book, Crime & Consequence - what should happen to people who commit criminal offences? In the book, over 65 diverse voices offer their lived and professional experience of the justice system to answer one of the most important questions in our society. Many have seen first-hand the intended and unintended effects of our criminal justice system. The wide range of insights from academics, business leaders, artists, charity leaders and prisoners themselves explore how our society can respond to crime to tackle the causes and consequences. This is the third in a series of books curated by the Monument Fellowship, a collective of organisations, each funded through the legacy grants of the Monument Trust.
10 prisons project family engagement programme: briefings Clinks has published four briefings aimed at ensuring that the role of families and significant others are integrated into decision making and processes in prison across four key themes. The briefings draw on the key findings of the family engagement programme, which Clinks was commissioned to deliver as part of the 10 prisons project (set up by then Minister of State, Rory Stewart MP). The programme was delivered across four prisons over six months with the support of family engagement workers from Pact, Lincolnshire Action Trust and Jigsaw. These briefings provide guidance about how to develop a ‘Think Family’ approach. The briefings are accompanied by a series of resources.
MEAM’s response to Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 consultation The Making Every Adult Matter Coalition (MEAM) has responded to the government’s call for evidence about the implementation and effectiveness of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 (HRA). In particular, the response highlights the limitations of duty to refer, brought in under the HRA, which places a duty on public authorities to notify the local housing authority of anyone at risk of homelessness. A high percentage of people leaving prison have no accommodation upon release, but the response suggests prisons are failing to refer people despite this duty. MEAM is a coalition of national charities – Clinks, Homeless Link and Mind who work together to support local areas to develop effective services that improve the lives of people facing multiple disadvantage.
MEAM’s response to Advancing our Health consultation The Make Every Adult Matter Coalition (MEAM) has responded to the Department for Health and Social Care’s green paper on prevention, which outlines the government’s proposals on how they can better prevent ill health. MEAM’s response focussed on the first question on which health and social care policies should be reviewed to improve the health of people living in poorer communities or excluded groups. MEAM recommends that the Department of Health and Social Care ensure trauma-informed care is adopted across local delivery plans of the NHS long term plan, and that the government should focus policies towards further expansion of alternatives to custody, including Community Sentence Treatment Requirements, which would help individuals experiencing multiple disadvantage address underlying health issues.
Deaths in custody and the community
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) Annual Report 2018/19 The PPO has published its annual report, which reports that prisons are failing to act on the same safety recommendations repeated over several years to prevent self-inflicted deaths. There were 91 self-inflicted deaths investigated in the report (an increase of 23% compared to the previous year), and the PPO highlights repeated failings in the way Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) is managed in prisons. The report also details problems in health care provision, the treatment of older people and the use of segregation. The PPO is a public body that investigates complaints made by people in prison, all deaths of people in prison and some deaths of people recently released from prison.
Deaths of people under probation supervision The government has published figures on the number of people who died while under the care of the probation service. 1,093 people under the supervision of the probation service died in 2018/19, the highest number ever recorded, and an increase of 13% from last year. 337 of these deaths were self-inflicted, the highest number ever recorded, and an increase of 19% from last year. This is despite the number of people under community supervision being broadly stable. These concerning figures demonstrate the well-documented failures of the current probation system. The Ministry of Justice is reforming the probation service and Clinks continues to work to try and ensure the voluntary sector’s role, knowledge and expertise are reflected as these plans develop.
Health and justice
Drugs policy The Health and Social Care Committee has called on the government to adopt a new direction in drugs policy. They recommend more funding should be made available to ensure harm reduction services are available to all who need them – including needle and syringe exchanges, and take-home naloxone, and highlight the specific need for such services for people in prison and at the point of release from prison. The committee recommends that drug consumption rooms (facilities where people can use drugs in a clean environment with medical supervision) should be introduced on a pilot basis in areas of high need, and accompanied by robust evaluation. The committee also recommends that the government consults on the decriminalisation of drug possession for personal use.
Traumatic brain injury in the prison population Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service has published a summary of evidence about traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the prison population, its prevalence, effects and how services can better support people with TBI. The summary suggests around half or more people in prisons may have had a TBI, and 20% in prison may have had a serious TBI. The summary recommends that better awareness and understanding of TBI is needed across the criminal justice system, including early identification prior to sentencing; evidence-based resources for frontline staff to help them effectively manage people with TBIs; and more effective management of the continuity of care for people with TBI moving through the criminal justice system.
Families
Farmer Review update The government has published an update on its implementation of the recommendations from the Famer Review 2017. In 2017, the government accepted all the review’s recommendations and progress has been made on implementing most of them. A handful that require longer-term structural reform are also being considered. Six recommendations are expected to be completed by mid-2020, including a new Families Performance Measure to track how prisons support people to engage with their families. It is unlikely that four important recommendations will be completed in the near future, including the establishment of dedicated safer custody telephone lines for families. Clinks co-chaired the Farmer review and sits on the government’s Families Strategy Working Group to support the report's implementation.
Keeping people safe in prison A joint report from the Prison Reform Trust, INQUEST and the Prison Advice and Care Trust (Pact) has found just one in 10 safer custody departments in prisons answer phone calls from worried family members. A key recommendation from the 2017 Farmer Review, was for each prison to have an emergency phone line in place for families to share urgent concerns about self-harm and suicide risks of relatives in prison. At a time of unprecedented levels of self-harm in prisons, this report finds the provision of these phone lines is patchy, under-resourced and even non-existent in some prisons, leaving some families struggling to share their concerns with prison staff and inform the care and safeguarding of their family members in custody.
Commissioning
The Price of Poor Procurement Reform, a think tank focussed on public service reform, has published a report setting out the costs to the taxpayer of poor procurement and outsourcing. This report is based upon analysis of 52 official investigations into public sector procurement between June 2016 and July 2019. The Ministry of Justice was the public body with the highest number of investigations examined, and offender tagging was highlighted as a particularly costly procurement process, involving £60.7 million in additional costs for a contract worth only £130 million. The report calls for the creation of an independent procurement regulator, a single body with the power to analyse and hold to account government external spending, coordinating the work currently conducted by many organisations.
Probation
2018/2019 inspections of probation services HM Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) has published an annual summary of probation inspections conducted in 2018/2019, across all 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) and seven National Probation Service divisions (NPS). HMIP used a new probation inspection programme this year. No probation provider achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’, though there was a clear difference between the NPS and CRCs, with five out of seven NPS divisions rates as ‘good’, and 19 of the 21 CRCs rated as ‘requires improvement’. Across all the inspections, less than half of the interviewed responsible officers felt that their workloads were reasonable and CRC caseloads were much higher than NPS caseloads. The report highlights the well-documented flaws of Transforming Rehabilitation, which the government is now reforming.
Innovation in probation: The Eurobarometer on Experiencing Supervision HM Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) has published a paper examining the Eurobarometer on Experiencing Supervision (EES) – a new tool designed to capture the subjective experience of people under probation supervision. The EES is a service user questionnaire, which examines (amongst other aspects) the service user’s experience of supervision, their perception of the supervisor, and the quality of the relationship. The EES aims to gather Europe-wide evidence on the importance of positive experiences amongst service users to the outcomes of probation services. The paper was written by Ioan Durnescu, Professor at the University of Bucharest, Romania, and is the latest in a series of Academic Insights, where HMIP commission leading academics to explore the evidence base around probation.
Youth justice
Joint Thematic Inspection on Youth resettlement work Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons have published the final report of their joint inspection on youth resettlement work. The report shows that resettlement work is not effective and outcomes are poor. Three months after release, 10 of the 50 young people they followed had already been convicted of a further offence, half were under police investigation and six had gone missing. The report makes recommendations to government departments and agencies, including for a national accommodation strategy for children released from custody and for government to review the national transitions protocol to ensure that children are only transferred to adult services when it is demonstrably in their interests to do so.
Youth resettlement work: action plan Her Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) has published its action plan in response to a thematic review of youth resettlement work by HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons which showed that resettlement work is failing many children making the transition from custody into the community. The action plan shows that the Ministry of Justice will review and refresh the approach to resettlement and revise the way Youth Offending Teams collect data on resettlement activity so it is more in-depth. It will also consider developing a policy framework for the transition from youth to adult custody which will require appropriate staff from the adult estate to be involved early in the transitions process.
Annual report (2018-19): Youth offending services Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation has published its annual report on its inspections of Youth Offending Teams (YOT) over the past year. The report highlights the inconsistency of out of court disposal schemes across YOT areas and the need for a national approach to the decision making and scope of those schemes. The inspectorate also raises the lack of support for transitions to adult services and reoccurring issues with education and training provision across YOTs, with many children not getting their statutory entitlement to education.
Veterans
Salute her research Forward Assist has published a report exploring the experiences of women veterans in Britain. The report reflects findings from 100 interviews and highlights the difficulties experienced by many women in the military. Over half of those interviewed stated that the main reason they joined the Armed Forces was to escape an abusive home environment; 73% reported witnessing and experiencing sexual discrimination whilst serving in the military; and many reported not being given sufficient transitional support when leaving the armed forces. Forward Assist is concerned about the paucity of evidence in relation to women veterans in the criminal justice system and the report recommends a single point of contact to identify women veterans subject to community-based court orders and those in custody.
The secret life of prisons Paula Harriott, Head of Prisoner Involvement at the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) has written a blog explaining the purpose and intent of a new podcast series, The Secret Life of Prisons. The podcast was developed after people in prison continually expressed their concern about the representation of prison in media and culture and the dominant public assumptions. The Secret Life of Prisons, a partnership between PRT and the Prison Radio Association (PRA), aims to challenge such perceptions by enabling people with experience of prison to share their stories. The series is produced by the multi-award-winning Jo Meek and presented by Paula and Phil Maguire OBE, Chief Executive of PRA, with different guests and regular contributors joining across the four pilot episodes.
None of this is easy The National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA) held its annual lecture to honour the legacy of Anne Peaker. This year, the keynote speech was delivered by community artist François Matarasso, who considered the historical context of participatory arts in criminal justice settings and Anne Peaker’s contribution to this. In this blog, François explains the ideas he shared at the lecture, including the importance of arts in criminal justice settings to enable people to cross boundaries to think about themselves, their actions and their membership of a community differently. He also links to further information on a number of criminal justice arts projects that he mentioned in his lecture. The event also featured spoken word performances from Lady Unchained and Jason Smith.
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Written monthly by...
Clinks' policy officers, Will Downs and Lauren Nickolls
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