In this month's edition...
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement that all Covid-19 measures would be removed in England from 24 February, Clinks is in contact with HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) about what this means for custodial settings, and the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Board (RR3) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Covid-19 will look at the impact of this change on the criminal justice system at its next meeting. Minutes from previous meetings of the SIG can be found on the Clinks website. If you have queries or feedback on the impact of these changes on operational activity, you can contact Clinks’ Covid-19 mailbox, covid19@clinks.org.
We are delighted to welcome Rachel Tynan to Clinks, who has taken on the role of Influence and Policy Manager. Rachel joins us from Unlock, where she led on improving access to employment and higher education. Prior to that, she worked in higher education, including a prison-university partnership, and has carried out research in the criminal justice system.
Will Downs has left his role as Senior Policy Officer, after working at Clinks for several years. He has taken up a new position in the public sector, and we wish him well in his new role. We are currently recruiting for a new Senior Policy Officer.
If you work or volunteer for a charity, social enterprise, or other voluntary organisation, with people in contact with the criminal justice system – even if that’s not your main purpose – take just 15 minutes to tell us how we can best support you. As a thank you, you’ll be entered into a prize draw for £50 high street vouchers.
UK National Preventive Mechanism annual report: 2020 to 2021 The UK National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) is made up of 21 bodies that monitor and inspect places of detention in the UK to prevent torture and ill-treatment of those who are detained, including HM Inspectorate of Prisons, the Care Quality Commission, and Independent Monitoring Boards. This NPM report focusses on the impact of the pandemic on the approach to monitoring detention, and people in detention. The report finds that effective measures appeared to be put in place from the outset of the pandemic to protect people from the risk of Covid-19, but NPM members raised concerns about the severity of restrictions, which were widespread and used over considerable periods of time, often without adequate safeguards.
Clinks publications
The voluntary sector's experience of the probation reform programme - the commissioning of day one services Using evidence gathered from our survey of 241 voluntary organisations and eight interviews in May-June 2021, our research finds the commissioning process was complex, cumbersome and bureaucratic and the financial costs of involvement were significant. Many small, specialist organisations were unable to engage with the process. The report makes nine recommendations aimed at supporting future commissioning processes including that in order to encourage and facilitate the engagement of small, specialist organisations in commissioning processes to ensure true diversity of providers, grants should be the default funding option for voluntary sector organisations. We continue to work constructively with the Ministry of Justice and HMPPS to explore how they can implement our recommendations.
Clinks’ response to the Prison Strategy White Paper We have published our response to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) consultation on the Prison Strategy White Paper. To inform our response, we spoke to 113 different voluntary sector organisations working in criminal justice through three specific consultation events, and further discussions with specialist organisations. The areas we focussed on included the lack of a convincing case for the expansion of the prison estate; the lack of attention the strategy gives to the contribution of voluntary organisations despite the high volume of organisations working in prisons across England and Wales; and calling for the strategy to be explicitly anti-racist and clearly set out how it will tackle racial discrimination and disproportionality in the prison system. You can also read our summary blog here.
Guide to the criminal justice system We have published a guide to Navigating the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system in England and Wales can be daunting to understand because of both its size and complexity. If you’re new to working or volunteering in this field, this Clinks guide will help you understand how the criminal justice system is organised and how it works. Follow useful links within this interactive document to delve deeper on areas such as sentences, prisons, probation, children in the criminal justice system, and more. We also hold information sessions for voluntary sector staff and volunteers to increase awareness of how the criminal justice system is organised, its complexities, and how it works. Visit our website for upcoming events, or email events@clinks.org.
Women
Poor safety in women’s prisons HMP and YOI Foston Hall has been assessed by HM Inspectorate of Prisons as poor for safety in a “rare and unexpected finding” in a recent inspection, which identified very high violence and self-harm and inadequate care for vulnerable women. The finding is the first score of poor – the lowest – for the safety of women prisoners since the Inspectorate developed its current framework more than a decade ago. It is accompanied by a paper identifying key findings in the inspection of five women’s prisons – Low Newton, Styal, Send, Downview and Foston Hall – in the last six months. While identifying good practice in some prisons, the paper also raises serious concerns about high rates of self-harm and vulnerability across the women’s prison estate.
Fighting for a better benefits system Working Chance has published a report as part of its Better Benefits campaign, which calls for the government to make changes to universal credit to better support women with convictions. Amongst other things, the report found that monthly universal credit payments do not provide adequate money to live a full and happy life, and women with convictions can face particular problems as a result of the five-week wait for their first payment. Working Chance recommends that a non-repayable grant is provided for anyone starting a universal credit claim in financial difficulty, and that Jobcentre staff are trained to provide trauma-informed, gender-specific support to women with convictions, including women who are not given an immediate prison sentence.
Youth justice
Young Advocates for Youth Justice The Alliance for Youth Justice has published the first report from its Young Advocates project, which has been co-produced by children and young people with first-hand experience of the youth justice system. The report focusses on stereotyping, the role of education in spotting signs a young person is in trouble and preventing contact with the justice system, and the experiences of children and young people in custody. Its recommendations include improvement to representation and diversity across all professions working with vulnerable children by creating professional pathways and youth-led schemes to recruit lived experience groups, including racially minoritised people, people who have experienced the justice system, people excluded from education, and care leavers. It also recommends introducing an independent system for complaints for children in secure settings.
Children and young people deprived of their liberty The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory has published an evidence review summarising what is known about children and young people deprived of their liberty across welfare, youth justice, and mental health settings in England and Wales. The key findings include the largest group of children deprived of their liberty are living in the youth justice estate, with the next largest group being those detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. In addition, the limited number of secure settings means children are likely to be living a long way from home, with 74% of children in youth custody placed more than 24 miles from home in 2019/20. The report recommends greater alignment of the datasets that provide information about children deprived of their liberty in different settings to improve understanding.
Problem-solving courts
Problem-solving courts in the West Midlands The Centre for Justice Innovation has published a feasibility study on developing problem-solving courts in the West Midlands, especially for court-involved children and young people, and young adults. It argues there is significant evidence that the application of problem-solving courts to these cohorts could lead to improved outcomes, with the emphasis they place on procedurally fair judicial monitoring likely to promote better compliance. It also notes that problem-solving court pilots should not in any way undercut the commitment in the region to divert as many young people and young adults away from prosecution as possible. Recommendations include increasing stakeholder engagement to build support for problem-solving courts, by collaborating with young people and young adults to better understand their experience of court and use their suggestions for change.
Community justice
Community justice framing toolkit Community Justice Scotland has published a toolkit to help everyone working in the criminal justice system talk about community justice in a consistent, easy to understand way, that gets across its benefits and value. This toolkit sets out five key principles for communicators in mind, to help get their message across. These include making evidence based, tangible claims, rather than sweeping general statements, emphasising the community and the victims of crime, using everyday vocabulary rather than jargon, keeping communication simple by being wary of metaphors and similes, and building on what people are willing to believe. It goes on to provide some practical examples of how the principles it sets out can be put into practice when discussing community justice.
The voluntary sector
Flexible working ACEVO and NCVO have published a report Time To Flex, calling for flexible working to be central to the future of work within charities. It makes six recommendations for organisations to offer flexible working – in terms of work patterns, workloads, and place of work – for their employees, including: flexibility to be advertised for all roles – so employers openly lead the conversation about flexibility, and the focus isn’t on the candidate to request it; organisations and individuals to openly share their stories of how flexibility is working – so that best practice, learning and inspiration are easily available; and organisations to embrace a position of trust – where individuals are more empowered to manage their time based on outcomes and impact, rather than when and where they work.
Identifying children impacted by parental imprisonment In this guest blog by Children Heard and Seen, Cara Mohan-Carr, Policy and Campaigns Co-ordinator, explores the context for parental imprisonment and outlines a new pilot for Early Identification of Children Impacted by Parental Imprisonment in collaboration with Thames Valley Police and Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit. According to Crest Advisory, an estimated 312,000 children experience parental imprisonment each year in England and Wales. Despite this figure, there is currently no statutory mechanism for identifying children with a parent in prison. This blog details more about the pilot project aiming to address this issue, identify children impacted by parental imprisonment, so they can receive appropriate support.
Where are Labour going on crime and punishment? Rob Allen has written a blog that explores the Labour Party’s current policies around criminal justice. He notes the party’s efforts to put crime at the top of the agenda for the elections in May, and to revive the New Labour commitment to be “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”. Allen argues this positioning from Labour risks a race with the Conservatives to take the toughest stance on criminal justice, noting the government’s recent announcement on increasing the sentencing power for magistrates, following its prison expansion programme. With polling showing crime outside the public’s top 10 issues facing Britain today, he says its salience is at near record lows and asks whether this offers a window of opportunity for de-escalating the “war on crime”.
Balancing the child first approach with risk management in youth justice Russell Webster has written a blog on Dr Anne-Marie Day’s article in Youth Justice that highlights the challenges that youth justice practitioners face in considering how to work with children when contradictory narratives are coming from central government. Webster notes the argument that the shift from risk narratives to desistance and child-first approaches is meeting a number of challenges on the ground, where risk based approaches continue to dominate. He explains the article sets out the confusing and conflicting messages practitioners receive from the Youth Justice Board (YJB), probation inspectors, and others, and the lack of clarity and consensus around key terms. Webster highlights Dr Day’s conclusion: until the central tension between the YJB and probation inspectorate, about where youth justice’s focus should lie, is resolved, the challenges for front-line staff will persist.
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Clinks' Policy Officers Franklin Barrington and Noorjehan Piperdy
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