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In this month's edition...
Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year from Clinks. Please note the next Policy briefing will be sent on 18th January 2022.
In November, we held our Annual conference and AGM, on the theme of building a better future. We heard from keynote speaker Matt Grey, Executive Director, Reducing Reoffending, Partnerships and Accommodation at HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), who said, “the third sector collectively is an essential partner of HMPPS”, and enjoyed a panel discussion with Gemma Fox, North Wales Women’s Centre; Josh Stunell, bthechange CIC; and Hamish Robertson, St Giles Wise. We then held two days of practical workshops run by Clinks members.
The Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3) convened for its quarterly meeting on 7th December. The group welcomed two newly appointed members to the RR3 through an open recruitment process: Carolyn Houghton, Rethink Mental Illness will take the Mental Health seat and Pippa Goodfellow, Alliance for Youth Justice will take the Youth Justice seat. See all members of the group here
The RR3 Covid-19 Special Interest Group (SIG) met in early December to discuss prison recovery and regimes, as Covid-19 restrictions continue to ease. Feedback from voluntary organisations who attended Clinks’ criminal justice forums in November, fed directly into the discussion. The SIG heard from Chris Gunderson, Prison Reform Operations and Covid-19 Gold Command, HMPPS. Meeting notes will be published in due course.
INQUEST sent a joint letter, signed by Clinks and other organisations (including many Clinks members), to the Judicial Review and Courts Bill Committee, asking the government to level the playing field at inquests. The letter calls for the government to amend the Bill to introduce automatic, non-means tested public funding for bereaved families at inquests.
Prisons Strategy White Paper The government has published its 10-year strategy for prisons in England and Wales. The strategy includes a long list of proposals, including positive commitments around supporting better resettlement pathways for prison leavers. However, the repeated commitment to build more prison places and the absence of measures to address unequal outcomes for racially minoritised people in prison are highly concerning. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has provided the opportunity for people to respond to these proposals, after we raised concerns with the Minister of State over the lack of formal consultation to develop the strategy. Clinks will engage with the voluntary sector to shape our response and we encourage as many voluntary organisations as possible to submit a response before the deadline on 4th February 2022.
A 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives The government has published its drugs strategy, setting out its approach over the next 10 years. This strategy implements all the key recommendations from Dame Carol Black’s review of drugs, and focuses on three areas: disrupting supply, providing treatment to people who use drugs, and cutting demand for drugs. This strategy sets out how addiction will be treated as a chronic health condition, and will provide an additional £780 million funding for treatment services over the next three years. The Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP (Minster for Crime and Policing) will have overall responsibility for the strategy and its delivery, presenting an annual report to Parliament on progress. A new National Outcomes Framework and Local Outcomes Framework will hold government departments and local delivery partners to account.
Use of alcohol monitoring tags Back in 2020, the government rolled out Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirements. These allow courts to require people to wear a tag to monitor their drinking for up to 120 days as part of a community sentence. Following the announcement in its Beating Crime Plan, the government has also introduced alcohol abstinence monitoring tags for people leaving prison, who are known to reoffend after drinking. This means they can either have a licence condition which prohibits drinking for up to a year, or have their drinking levels monitored because their risk of reoffending increases following heavy alcohol consumption. The tags are now available for people leaving prison under Probation Service supervision in Wales, and the scheme will be extended to England next summer.
The Lord Chancellor appears before the Justice Committee At the end of November, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, the Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP, appeared before the Justice Committee to answer questions about the MoJ’s work. Some of the topics covered included sentencing, youth custody, the adult prison estate, the Prisons Strategy White Paper, and mental health in prison. Following Clinks’ letter to the Minister of State at the MoJ, Victoria Atkins MP, we were pleased that Dominic Raab said he was keen for the Prisons White Paper to go out for consultation soon. We look forward to working with voluntary organisations to share the sector’s views on that white paper with the MoJ, helping to develop the long term vision for prisons.
Government response to the Transforming Public Procurement Green Paper Commitments in the government’s response to the Transforming Public Procurement Green Paper include the development of a Dynamic Market tool (previously called a DPS+) alongside guidance, as well as the development of a Procurement Review Unit to sit in the Cabinet Office. The government also plans to produce resources including statutory and non-statutory guidance on the key elements of the regulatory framework. Clinks responded to the consultation outlining the need to level the playing field to ensure the voluntary sector working in the criminal justice system is able to engage as equal partners in procurement processes. We are disappointed that the government’s response makes no commitments to grant funding which is an important element in ensuring voluntary sector engagement in procurement practices.
Clinks publications
Representing and advocating for voluntary organisations in 2020-21 We are delighted to present our Annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2021. The profound and unprecedented impact of Covid-19 on everyone working in, and affected by, the criminal justice system, combined with large scale changes in the criminal justice policy and operating environment, has resulted in a particularly trying and turbulent year. Voluntary organisations have continued to support people in these extraordinary times, their resilience tested to the extreme. Clinks has continued to represent and advocate for voluntary organisations working in the criminal justice system and their service users in 2020-21.
Needs and experiences of older people in prison Clinks and Recoop have published a report providing valuable evidence on the needs and experiences of older people in prison, with key recommendations for policymakers to influence the development of the Older offender strategy. The report, commissioned by Clinks through our work as a member of the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Health and Wellbeing Alliance, was informed by Recoop’s engagement with older people in prison. The key findings from the report suggest that the Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) should develop a delivery plan to sit underneath the Older offender strategy alongside developing a local strategy for meeting the needs of older prisoners informed by the HMPPS Model of Operational Delivery for Older Offenders.
Mental health
Joint inspection on mental health in the criminal justice system The four criminal justice inspectorates, along with the Care Quality Commission and the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, have published a joint thematic inspection of the criminal justice journey for individuals with mental health needs and disorders, considering the period leading up to trial, through to post-sentence supervision. The inspection’s findings include that there is no common definition of mental health used across the criminal justice system, and there are significant problems in information exchange in every agency in the criminal justice system. Amongst other things, the report recommends the MoJ and Home Office to work with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Welsh government to develop a Memorandum of Understanding on information sharing to promote better joint working.
Mental health discharge The Making Every Adult Matter Coalition (MEAM), of which Clinks is a member, has published a briefing exploring the experience of discharge from inpatient mental health care for people experiencing multiple disadvantage and those who support them. MEAM found that over half the areas across its network said there were ‘always’ or ‘very frequently’ problems with discharge from inpatient mental health support for their clients. Problems include people being discharged with little or no support in place, particularly around continuity of mental health care in the community and accommodation, and delayed discharges, often to allow more time to put suitable community support plans in place. The briefing gives examples of positive practice including patient involvement, local multi-agency partnerships, specialist discharge staff and Housing First support.
Women
Invisible Women: understanding women’s experiences of long-term imprisonment The Prison Reform Trust has published a report, as part of its Building Futures programme, that focusses on improving the experience of people serving very long custodial sentences. This focusses on the experiences of women, and finds that women serving longer prison sentences are more exposed to repeat traumatisation as a result of the prison environment. Moreover, people serving indeterminate sentences have to be consistently and actively engaged in the rehabilitative process to demonstrate their risk has reduced. But, in some cases this preoccupation with risk can be costly. This can mean that women have to relocate to a prison further away from home to access interventions or courses on their sentence plan, leading to difficulties such as maintaining contact with children and families.
Problem-solving courts for women The Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI) has published an evidence and practice briefing on problem-solving courts for women. This notes the government’s announcement in 2020 to pilot five new problem-solving courts, including one which should focus on the distinct needs of women who commit offences. The CJI has looked at the existing, although limited, practice of such courts, and set out a number of lessons learned. These include the need for problem-solving courts to target women at risk of short custodial sentences and avoid ‘up-tariffing’ women with low-level offending but complex needs; ensure judicial continuity with the same judge or magistrates at regular review hearings to help build rapport and monitor engagement; and promoting partnership working, with effective collaboration between agencies to facilitate service user engagement.
Prisons
Prison population projections: 2021 to 2026 The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published its latest prison population projection for each year up to 2026. This sees the prison population forecast to rise from 78,318, as of July 2021, to 97,500 in July 2025. The projected future population for March 2026 is similar to the forecast that was made in the 2020 projection. The population of men, women, and children (aged 15-17) is forecast to rise in line with the total population. However, there is considerable uncertainty around these projections. This change in prison population is expected as a result of policies including the additional 23,400 police officers, changes to custodial sentences, and the impact of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
Statistical analysis of recorded deaths in custody between 2016 and 2019 The Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody (IAPDC) has published its latest analysis for 2016 to 2019. This covers people in prisons, hospitals whilst detained under the Mental Health Act, Immigration Removal Centres, and Police Custody. The key findings from the data presented in its report include that, between 2016 and 2019, around one in five deaths in all custodial settings are self-inflicted; deaths in all custodial settings are much higher than the average number of deaths for the general population of similar age and sex; most deaths took place in prisons, but the highest rate of deaths was in psychiatric hospitals; and whilst there were more deaths among men than women in all settings, when the accompanying rates are considered, the difference in deaths narrowed.
Perspectives on future prison design Following a consultation with 650 people in prison across 50 prisons in England and Wales, the Prison Reform Trust has published the latest report from its Prisoner Policy Network, on future prison design. This highlights a number of areas any future prison regime must consider including that prison management and staff should encourage and cultivate a community between people in prison and the establishment they are living in, with more opportunities to get involved in decision making, activity planning, and sentence progression. It was also suggested the prison environment should mirror the outside community as much as possible, including a longer working day, and being able to create and maintain more typical parental or familial relationships.
Substance use
Alcohol and multiple disadvantage The Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) coalition has published a briefing highlighting the prevalence of alcohol dependence amongst people experiencing multiple disadvantage. Informed by surveys and interviews with MEAM Approach and Fulfilling Lives areas, the briefing examines the harm caused by high levels of alcohol consumption and the barriers people face in accessing appropriate services. It sets out key principles for more effective services, including the benefits of multi-agency approaches to address co-occurring issues such as poor mental health; building trust with those that have struggled to access support in the past; and the need for assertive outreach support to be built into future tenders and contracts. MEAM is a coalition of Clinks, Homeless Link, Mind and associate member Collective Voice.
Youth justice
Out of sight: Girls in the Children and Young People’s Secure Estate The Centre for Mental Health has published a report on girls placed in the children and young people’s secure estate (CYPSE). The Centre’s key findings include that girls find coming into the CYPSE ‘petrifying’ and re-traumatising, and racially minoritised girls are overrepresented throughout the youth justice system but are less likely to have their mental health needs recognised. The Centre’s recommendations include strategically strengthening gender-responsive community options and pathways, offering regional alternatives to girls’ CYPSE remands and short-term justice placements, with examples of effective alternatives including extending the regional availability of girls’ voluntary sector wraparound services. Other recommendations include the need for routine analysis of data, disaggregated by gender and ethnic background, to help monitor and address patters of inequality.
Serious youth violence and its relationship with adverse childhood experiences HM Inspectorate of Probation has published the latest report in its Academic Insights series, presenting findings from a research study commissioned by Manchester City Council’s Youth Justice Service. All youth justice workers interviewed for the report felt adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a detrimental impact on the thought processes and emotional wellbeing of children they work with. Workers also talked of ACEs resulting in children seeking out opportunities, or behaving in particular ways, that gained them praise and/or acceptance from their peers. Recommendations include to avoid quantifying ACEs as a measure of risk, as this is at odds with trauma-informed approaches to working with children, and to ensure children receive trauma-informed interventions at the point of the adverse experiences.
Understanding racial disparity in the youth justice system The Youth Justice Board (YJB) has published a summary of statistics on racial disparity and how it affects children in their early years and within the youth justice system, pulling together data from a number of sources. Some of the things they highlight include that in the years ending March 2010 to March 2020, Black children in England and Wales were nearly five times more likely to be arrested than White children; for the year ending March 2020, racially minoritised children accounted for 40% of serious offences, but 51% of children in custody; and of the children in custody in the year ending March 2021, racially minoritised children (excluding children from White Minorities) made up more than half of all children in custody.
Equalities and protected characteristics
HMPPS offender equalities report: 2020-2021 HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has published its latest Offender Equalities Report, providing statistics on people in prison and supervised in the community, and their protected characteristics. As of 31st March 2021, the self-declared ethnic backgrounds of people in prison show 72% of people were from a White background (including White British, White Gypsy, White Irish, and White Other), 13% of people from a Black or Black British background, 8% of people from an Asian or Asian British background, 5% of people from a Mixed background, and 1% of people who were described as “other ethnic group”. Furthermore, 96% of people in prison were male, and 32% were aged between 30 and 39. There were 197 transgender people in prison as of 30th April 2021.
Voluntary sector
New classification of UK charities A new classification system of charities in the UK has been launched – aiming to help researchers, umbrella bodies and others make sense of the diverse group of organisations that form the voluntary sector. NCVO has worked with David Kane, an independent data scientist, and Chris Damm from Sheffield Hallam University on this new classification system called UK Charity Activity Tags (UK-CAT). The aim is to help make clearer the work charities do and to identify subdivisions of the voluntary sector. In total, there are over 250 tags and defined rules for attaching them to charities using keyword matching. If you’d like to give feedback on the classification system you can do so via feedback@charityclassification.org.uk.
Guide to supporting peer volunteers Russell Webster and a team of eight people with lived experience have launched a new best practice guide and website to support people with lived experience who volunteer or work in the social justice sector. Targeted at peers who volunteer and providers and commissioners of services, the guide sets out how best to recruit, train and support peer mentors. The guide covers seven key topic areas which are core to ensuring that peer volunteers are properly supported. Each chapter highlights key issues from the experiences of the 253 peer volunteers who gave their views through a recent survey, split into positive and negative experiences. It also includes suggestions and insights from the co-production team.
Reporting on criminal justice
How journalists can better shine a light on criminal justice for a more informed public The Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA) has launched a report Behind closed doors: How journalists can better shine a light on criminal justice. The Criminal Justice Alliance interviewed journalists, charities, academics and people with lived experience to explore how the media can report on criminal justice in a more nuanced, sensitive and constructive way. The report draws together these insights and provides a range of ideas and suggestions for journalists, news organisations, policy makers, charities and funders. The CJA note public attitudes on crime and criminal justice have an impact on political party manifestos, the politicians that are elected, and policies they enact. So it argues, within this context, the media have an important responsibility to ensure the public have accurate information on the nature of crime and justice.
Assessing the impact of maternal imprisonment Russell Webster has published a guest blog from Sarah Beresford, Prison Reform Trust Associate and Churchill Fellow. This notes the impact on children of having a parent in prison, especially the child’s main carer. In this context, Beresford has co-created, with children with lived experience, a Child Impact Assessment for children with a primary carer, most frequently a mother, in the criminal justice system. This aims to ensure children are listened to at every stage of their carer’s journey, and that they are reasonably involved in decision-making about their own care and support. Through the Churchill Fellowship, Beresford is now testing this assessment framework in a variety of UK contexts.
Fire safety in prisons Rob Allen has written about fire safety in prisons, following the inquest report into the death of Christian Hinkley in 2019, who died following smoke inhalation when a fire developed in his cell. In the report, the Coroner noted that the Chief Inspector of the Crown Premises’ Fire Safety Inspectorate had found the fire alarm system at the prison “is not designed to save life”, and is not regarded by HMPPS as a reliable fire detection system. In light of this, and other concerns raised by the Crown Premises Fire Safety Inspectorate in audits conducted in 2019/20, Allen calls for the Home Affairs Committee and the Justice Committee to hold a short inquiry into fire safety in prisons and other places of detention.
Trust within prisons HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, has written about the importance of trust within prisons. He notes that there must be trust on every tier of a prison system, and this cannot just flow one way: for a prison to be successful, the people in prison need to trust it. However, this if often not the case. He says the most effective prisons are where the people in prison see the benefit of doing the right thing. Whilst he says that trust must be earned, Taylor says the aim should be to pass as much trust downwards as possible, and give people as much freedom as they can cope with. “While central control can mandate minimum standards, trust is needed to unleash excellence.”
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Written monthly by...
Clinks' Policy Officers Franklin Barrington and Noorjehan Piperdy
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