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In this month's edition...
Clinks is engaging with a number of current consultations. We are responding to two consultations being run by the Justice Committee. Its inquiry into mental health in prisons seeks to understand the current scale of mental health need in prisons and is accepting written evidence until 19th May. Its inquiry into women in prison will examine the progress made in reducing the number of women in custody and the implementation of the government’s Female Offender Strategy. Clinks will be consulting with specialist women’s organisations to inform our response. Sign up to our event on 18th May here. We will also be submitting a response to the Howard League All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) consultation on women’s health and well-being in prison and the Department of Health and Social Care’s call for evidence to support the development of the women’s health strategy. Our response will be published in due course.
Jessica Mullen, Director of Influence and Communications at Clinks, attended a meeting convened by Alex Chalk MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) with organisations led by and focused on racially minoritised people. The group raised concerns over the publication of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities and urged the MoJ to focus on the implementation of the existing recommendations of the Lammy Review . The group also discussed Zahid Mubarak Trust’s research A record of our own, looking into the experiences of racially minoritised people during lockdown in prison.
The Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3) - a voluntary sector advisory group to the MoJ and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) – convened a recent meeting of its RR3 special interest group on Covid-19 with NHS England to discuss the progress of the vaccination programme in prisons. You can read the notes here.
HMPPS weekly Covid-19 data Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) publishes weekly data relating to Covid-19 infection and deaths in prison. In the week ending 26th April 2021, there was one death in the adult estate related to Covid-19. 56 people in the adult estate tested positive for Covid-19 and these positive cases were spread across 13 sites. This data is updated weekly.
Children and young people in custody: government response The government has published its response to recommendations made by the Justice Committee in its inquiry into children and young people in custody. The response provides an update on the government’s repeated delays to the opening of the first secure school at Medway and updates on the implementation of the Taylor review and Lammy review. In response to a recommendation by the Committee that the Ministry of Justice must gather and publish data on separation in Youth Offender Institutions, the government says it expects to publish data from 2022/23.
Clinks publications
Creativity in a restricted regime The National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA) has published a guide for prison officers on how they can collaborate with education providers, artists and arts organisations to enable creative activity even during Covid-19 restrictions. It features examples of arts activities taking place during the pandemic, and suggested approaches prison staff might take. The distribution of the guide is supported by the Rothschild Foundation. The guide has been produced on behalf of the Arts Forum, which aims to strengthen partnership working between the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance and the Ministry of Justice, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and other government departments.
Prisons
Covid-19 Transmission in Prison Settings A report from the government’s scientific advisors on Covid-19 states that prisons are highly vulnerable to Covid-19 outbreaks, with rates of infection and hospitalisation higher than in the general population. The SAGE committee also says controlling the transmission of Covid-19 into and out of prison will prove to be more and more challenging, as activity in the courts and the wider criminal justice system ramps up. The scientists behind the report argue in favour of early vaccination of people working and living in prison, to allow faster lifting of severe restrictions, reduce outbreaks and decrease mortality, and benefit the wider control of Covid-19.
Supporting people in prison at the end of life Hospice UK has published a report on end of life care for people in prison. The number of over-60s in the prison population has more than tripled in the past two decades, and in the past ten years deaths in prison due to natural causes have increased by 77%, with older people accounting for over half of all deaths in custody. The report says that end of life in prison is not equivalent to that received in the community, due to a number of reasons such as the use of inappropriate restraint and delayed decisions on compassionate release. The report makes a number of recommendations, including for Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service to review its compassionate release process.
Community
Future of probation services The Justice Committee has published a report on its inquiry into the future of probation services in England and Wales. Clinks submitted both written and oral evidence to the inquiry, and we were pleased to see many of our key concerns highlighted. The Committee notes that lessons of the previous reforms must be learned, and the new model must provide a lasting solution that allows for stability. Key recommendations include the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) setting out how it is modelling projected volumes and contract values, and what is being done to ensure that contracts are sufficiently resourced and deliverable according to the funding that is available, and the MOJ and HMPPS involving voluntary organisations and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) in relevant communications relating to transition.
Home Detention Curfew (HDC): expanding eligibility and improving efficiency Prison Reform Trust has published a briefing on how Home Detention Curfew could be better used to support resettlement and ease pressure on prison populations. The HDC scheme enables eligible people in prison to serve the final days of their custodial term in the community, subject to electronic monitoring. Prison Reform Trust say that the low recall rates for HDC suggests that the scheme is relatively successful. The briefing includes recommendations for changing the eligibility criteria for HDC to make its benefits available to a larger number of prisoners. It also recommends ways in which the purpose and efficiency of HDC could be further improved within the existing policy.
Women and girls
Expectations for women's prisons HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) has published its latest version of its expectations for women’s prisons, the criteria used to conduct inspections of women’s prisons. Clinks responded to two consultations to inform the development of the revised criteria. We are delighted to see a much greater emphasis on trauma-informed care and the inclusion of indicators specifically focussed on ensuring prisons are working closely with the voluntary sector, including that prisons have a named leader for coordinating the work of voluntary organisations.
Falling through the gaps Agenda and the Alliance for Youth Justice (AYJ) have published a briefing examining the needs of girls in criminal justice system who are transitioning into adult services as they turn 18. Based on insights gathered through an extensive literature review, conversations with young women and consultation with professionals, the briefing sets out young women’s experiences and the current policy context. It makes a number of recommendations, including for the Ministry of Justice to integrate an age-informed response to young adult women within the Female Offender Strategy and for resource to be provided to the women and girls’ voluntary sector to provide wraparound support as young women make multiple transitions into adult services. The paper has been published as part of the Young Women’s Justice Project, funded by the Lloyds Bank Foundation.
An analysis of the Female Offender Strategy Prison Reform Trust (PRT) has published an analysis of the government’s Female Offender Strategy that shows less than half the commitments have been met almost three years after publication. PRT has published this analysis in absence of any thorough reporting from the government on the implementation of commitments in the strategy. The analysis suggests the strategy is not backed up by clear measures of success and even where commitments have been met through publication of documents, there is little information on whether it is having the desired impact. PRT say the announcement of 500 new prison places in the women’s estate reverses a key aim of the strategy to reduce the women’s prison population, and that these places would not be needed if the strategy had been implemented successfully.
The reality of Ramadan for Muslim people in prison Lauren Nickolls, Senior Project Manager at Maslaha, has written about the experience of Muslim people in prison, some of whom are now spending their second Ramadan in prison under lockdown conditions. Usually a joyous time for Muslim people around the world, for those in prison it can be a particularly difficult and isolating period, with limited access to social contact with family and loved ones, inconsistent access to sufficient food to eat when the sun sets, and heightened concerns over the health of people fasting who have spent such a prolonged period in lockdown. The blog builds on Maslaha’s research, Time to End the Silence, that shows that a lack of knowledge about Islam and outright discrimination creates barriers for Muslims practicing their religion.
Community Sentence Treatment Requirements in action Clinks and Nacro have published the first of a series of blogs on the Community Sentence Treatment Requirements (CSTR) programme. The first blog focussed on the Essex CSTR site and explains how they became a CSTR site, what they have learned so far, and how service users benefit from this change – especially those facing multiple disadvantage who can better have their underlying needs met away from custody. The CSTR programme aims to reduce reoffending and divert people from short-term custodial sentences by addressing mental health and substance and alcohol misuse issues through treatment requirements that are undertaken in the community.
Decoding the government’s funding for substance misuse Clinks Health and Justice Policy and Development Officer Zahra Wynne has written a blog on the government’s funding announcements relating to substance misuse. The blog breaks down £148million of new investment announced by the Home Office, the Department for Health and Social Care and the Prime Minister’s Office to fund substance misuse services and reduce reoffending, taking a ‘system-wide approach.’ The funding goes towards piloting a new approach to addressing substance misuse: Project ADDER, substance misuse services across England, and extra funding for law enforcement to address county lines operations. Clinks hopes that initiatives arising from this investment will work to engage the voluntary sector in their development and delivery.
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Written monthly by...
Clinks' Policy Officer Will Downs.
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