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In this month's edition...
Clinks has been working alongside the Prisoner Learning Alliance to raise the issues that the voluntary sector has been facing with the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for prison education services. Our members in particular raised problems with the short-term contracts on the DPS and we are really pleased that the contracts will be extended to two years.
We are delighted that Arts Council England’s newly published strategy for 2020-30, has taken on board the recommendations we and the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance made. The strategy commits to working in the criminal justice system (CJS) and with the voluntary sector to deliver its long term goals.
We continue to work to influence the implementation of the Female Offender Strategy:
- through our membership on the Family Strategy working group which provides support and scrutiny to the implementation of the Farmer review into family ties for women in the CJS;
- by supporting the Ministry of Justice to hold focus groups with women who have lived experience of the CJS to inform the development of a Personal Circumstances File; and
- through our membership on the Advisory Board on Female Offenders which most recently met for a workshop on the development of the National Concordat.
Clinks fed back to the Department for Work and Pensions on its Universal Credit guidance for prison-leavers. The guideline brings key information into a single, clear document. We made recommendations for further improvements, such as including information on deductions to payments. We also offered support to engage more voluntary organisations and service users in reviewing the guide.
We continue to have detailed discussions with officials responsible for the probation review programme. Most recently we raised concerns about a potential Information Security requirement for bidders on the Dynamic Framework being prohibitive to small organisations. We also raised concern that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME)-led services are not currently being considered as a specific contract lot for day one services and the impact this will have on the availability of BAME-led services in the new model.
Increases to the amount of time served in prison for some offences The House of Lords has passed changes to two Statutory Instruments: the Release of Prisoners Order 2019 and the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, Regulations Order 2019. Statutory Instruments are secondary legislation – a form of legislation that allows the provisions of an Act of Parliament to be altered without Parliament having to pass a new Act. The changes remove automatic half-way release for some violent and sexual offences that receive a sentence of seven years or more. This will require people convicted of particular offences to spend two-thirds of their sentence in prison.
16 prisons to receive X-ray scanners The Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service have announced that £28 million pounds will be spend on giving 16 prisons X-ray scanners. This is part of the government’s £100 million investment aimed at tackling violence and drugs in prisons. The scanners will be given to prisons thought to pose the greatest risk of smuggling including Birmingham, Liverpool and Winchester. The body scanners have been developed specifically for the Prison Service to produce instant images from inside the human body and show concealed contraband, including drugs, mobile phones and weapons.
New Select Committee Chairs announced Elections have been held to appoint the chairs of the 28 Select Committees. Sir Robert Neil MP was reappointed as chair of the Justice Committee. The committee provides scrutiny to the Ministry of Justice (and associated public bodies) on its expenditure, administration and policies. Parties will be selecting members shortly, but Sir Robert Neil MP has already indicated his priorities for the select committee including: monitoring pressures on our prison system, proposed judicial reform, and problems with access to justice. Other appointments include: Jeremy Hunt as chair of the Health and Social Care Committee; Caroline Nokes MP as chair of the Women and Equalities Committee; and Julian Knight MP as chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
Clinks publications
Clinks response: ageing prison population Clinks has published its joint response with RECOOP to the Justice Select Committee’s enquiry into the ageing prison population. Older people are the fastest growing age group in the prison population. There are triple the number of people aged 60 and over in prison than there were 16 years ago. Our response highlights the specific challenges that older people in prison face and gives recommendations for how the government can respond to ensure that the needs of this growing population are met. We submitted this response in October 2019, before the general election and dissolution of Parliament. The Committee is in the process of reforming after selecting a chair and will then determine its priorities going forward.
Clinks response: children and young people in custody We have published our joint response with EQUAL and Barrow Cadbury Trust to the Justice Select Committee’s inquiry on children and young people in custody. Our response specifically focuses on the experience and outcomes of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) children in the youth justice system. To inform our response we held a consultation event with 13 representatives of BAME-led organisations, community activists and people with lived experience of the criminal justice system. We submitted this response in October 2019, before the general election and dissolution of Parliament. The Committee is in the process of reforming after selecting a chair and will then determine its priorities going forward.
Prisons
Deaths in prison: a national scandal INQUEST have analysed findings from 61 inquests into deaths in custody. From the analysis, the report identifies five reoccurring areas of concern in need of immediate reform. These include: inconsistent and insufficient mental health care; a lack of basic medical care; failures in data recording and communication between healthcare, mental health and prison staff; and delays in calling for emergency services. To end deaths caused by unsafe systems of custody, INQUEST recommends that the government halt prison building and commit to an immediate reduction in the prison population; improved training for prison and healthcare staff; and that a new and independent body be established with responsibility for collating, analysing and monitoring learning and implementation arising out of post death investigations.
Bromley Briefings: Prison Factfile The Prison Reform Trust has published an updated edition of the Bromley Briefing which provides the latest facts and figures on the prison system. This edition leads with a section that explores how life sentences have become more severe over the last two decades. Tariffs for life sentences (the minimum amount of time a person must service in prison) have increased considerably. Between 2000 and 2003, fewer than 100 individuals per year were given tariffs of 15 years or more. By the end of September 2019, there were 3,555 people in prison serving a life sentence with a tariff of between 10 and 20 years. A further 1,872 had tariffs of over 20 years.
The prison system: priorities for investment Reform has published a report which sets out four key areas of priority that it recommends the government focus on in order to reform the prison system and reverse the decline in standards across the prison estate. These areas are: sentencing policy; the prison estate; safety; and the workforce. Reform recommends that the Ministry of Justice launch a consultation on sentencing which considers the impact of a presumption against short custodial sentences and how to improve magistrates’ use of community sentences. It also recommends the department develop a strategy for closing unsuitable prisons to create a more fit-for-purpose estate and introduce improvements to prison staff’s pay, training and working environments.
Probation
The central functions supporting the National Probation Service Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) has published an inspection of the central functions that support the National Probation Service (NPS). These fall under the responsibility of Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). HMIP found high numbers of vacancies, unreasonably high workloads and a lack of continuing professional development for staff. HMPPS were also found to not be adequately overseeing commissioning processes, leading to gaps in local provision for people deemed high risk of harm. The inspectorate recommends HMPPS review NPS workforce requirements to enable recruitment of sufficiently skilled staff in the required number and ensure manageable workloads.
Innovation and the Evidence Base (PDF) This paper published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation as part of its Academic Insights series explores the concept of innovation and its application in probation services. The coalition government’s Transforming Rehabilitation programme sought to introduce a rehabilitation revolution, which aimed to introduce innovation whilst simultaneously keeping costs down. Outcomes Based Commissioning and payment by results were introduced but have been shown to be a barrier to innovation. Evidence suggests that to more effectively promote innovation, the new probation system will need to facilitate better collaboration and partnership working; encourage shared values between partners beyond financial incentives and binary measures of reducing reoffending; and take localised approaches to designing and delivering probation, where possible co-creating and personalising services by engaging with service users.
Children and youth justice
Separation of children in young offender institutions Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) has published its thematic inspection into the separation of children held in young offender institutions. Separation describes situations where the institution has separated children from their peers, preventing them from interacting and from attending activities in the normal way. HMIP has recommended an entirely new system to replace the current models of separation, one which would ensure a regime that is equivalent to non-separated peers. This comes after the Inspectorate found that children were being separated in conditions which meet the definition of solitary confinement. Some children were found to only be let out of their cells for 15 minutes a day and did not have access to basic necessities like daily showers.
Strengthening Youth Diversion The Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI) has published a briefing with recommendations for improving point-of-arrest youth diversion which avoids formal processing and a criminal record. CJI found that of the 152 Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) in England and Wales, 133 had a point-of-arrest diversion scheme, however the approach across the country is inconsistent as is the funding for them. CJI recommend that the Youth Justice Board publish clear national guidance on effective, evidence-based point-of-arrest diversion practice and agree a new data recording system to accurately record and publish youth diversion activity. It also recommends that the Ministry of Justice ensure the funding formulae for statutory funding contributions to YOTs and the Youth Justice Grant reflects the work done on youth diversion.
Out of Service YMCA has published a report examining local authority expenditure on youth services in England and Wales. For this report ‘youth services’ covers both ‘open-access’ services and more targeted provision for vulnerable young people, including youth justice teams, and drug and alcohol misuse services. YMCA found a 70% real terms decline in funding between 2010/11 to 2018/19, from £.14 billion to just under £429 million. YMCA raises concern that this is happening in the context of increasing incidences of knife crime, mental health difficulties and social isolation among young people. YMCA calls on the government to reinstate and ring-fence youth services funding to 2010/11 real terms levels; provide universal and targeted support for those who need it; and create a national youth services strategy.
Youth justice statistics The latest annual statistics for youth justice for 2018-2019 show a welcome decrease in children being cautioned or sentenced, but increases in the average custodial sentence length and number held on remand. Self-harm incidents in youth custody also increased. Black, Asian and minority ethnic children – especially black children - continue to be disproportionately represented throughout the youth justice system. Black children accounted for 16% of arrests of children in the last year, double that of ten years ago. This compared to a 13% decrease in the proportion of white children arrested. The proportion of black children given a caution or sentence is almost treble their proportion of the general population. The number of black children in youth custody increased by 6% in the last year.
Lives not Knives Nacro has published a report on young people’s views and experiences of knife crime. The report found knife-carrying is driven by fear. The young people Nacro spoke to felt that harsher penalties would not stop people carrying knives as there was little knowledge about the level of punishment for knife crimes, and fear and self-preservation were seen as more important. The young people outlined that as knife crime is linked to poverty and lack of opportunity, action was felt to be needed to focus on those issues, not knife crime alone. In response to these findings, Nacro is calling for increased funding for prevention work and education programmes outside mainstream education; and a cross-government cabinet to shift the focus from prison to preventative action.
Taking a closer look at the services provided by the voluntary sector This is the second in a series of blogs to help stakeholders digest the key findings of The State of the sector 2019. In this blog, Clinks Policy Officer Lauren Nickolls takes a closer look at the services being delivered by the sector. This year’s research found that the sector’s top primary areas of work include emotional support and education/training/learning. The majority of organisations are expanding their services, despite uncertainty for the sector and difficulty in securing sustainable funding. We also found the statutory organisations make up a significant amount of referrals to the sector, but funding for the delivery of those often doesn’t come from them, reinforcing the need for funding from charitable trusts and foundations.
Gareth Malone’s The Choir at Aylesbury – how far we have come Jessica Plant, Director of the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA), reflects on the impact of a BBC documentary about Gareth Malone’s choir at Aylesbury Young Offender Institution and pays tribute to the hard work of pioneering arts organisations that have quietly driven change in criminal justice behind the scenes for over 30 years. Jess highlights that it can be frustrating when high-profile projects are held up as the first of their kind, but goes on to say that arts and culture in criminal justice settings have had little scope for positive publicity in the past and having a well-received, documentary watched by over 1.5 million people provides the sector with opportunities for advocacy.
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Written monthly by...
Clinks' policy officers, Will Downs and Lauren Nickolls
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