In this month's edition...
Jess Mullen, Clinks Director of Influence and Communications, attended a meeting of the Women in the Criminal Justice System Expert Group with Victoria Atkins, Minister of State for Prisons and Probation, to discuss the Female Offender Strategy and implementation of the Concordat on women in or at risk of contact with the criminal justice system. Jess raised the importance of sustainable funding for women’s centres, and that the Ministry of Justice must ensure other government departments do not think that the funding available through probation contracts is currently sufficient to meet the full needs of women in contact with the criminal justice system (CJS). Jess also highlighted to the minister that to achieve an intersectional approach to racially minoritised women in the CJS, there is a need to develop a delivery plan for tackling race inequality alongside the delivery plan for the Female Offender Strategy.
The Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3) has recruited three members to join the group, following an open recruitment process. David Morgan, Director of Entrepreneurs Unlocked CIC, and Josh Stunell, Director of bthechange CIC, have been appointed to represent small organisations. Bernie Bowen-Thomson, Chief Executive of Safer Wales, has been appointed to represent Welsh organisations.
Following the exit of the Covid-19 National Framework by HM Prison and Probation Service and a meeting of the RR3 Covid-19 Special Interest Group to discuss this, Jess Mullen has written a blog summarising the key developments the sector needs to know about how prisons are currently being managed. She details the key areas of concern that Clinks have, which we are continuing to raise on behalf of the sector. This blog includes information on Covid-19 management, testing, regime delivery, and communication and engagement with voluntary organisations. Read the blog here
Prisons Strategy White Paper – response to consultation questions | The response confirms that the eight commitments to improve prison safety set out in The Prisons Strategy White Paper will be delivered over the next three years. Disappointingly, the response reaffirms the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to prison expansion and does not include specific proposals to tackle racial disparity in prisons.
Enhanced support and an innovations taskforce to tackle violence and self-harm are positive and the voluntary sector will be keen to support the development of these. Plans to legislate for ending Friday release, investment in drug treatment, the development of the new national regime model, and the presumption that people in prison will be offered employment in custody, will be welcomed by the voluntary sector.
Queen’s Speech | On Tuesday 10 May the government set out its legislative agenda for the next year in the Queen’s Speech. Announcing 38 different Bills, plans include a Public Order Bill, introducing new offences related to certain types of protest, such as “locking on”, and a draft Mental Health Act Reform Bill which, amongst other things, aims to improve the support for people with convictions with acute mental health needs and provide faster transfers from prison to hospital. The government also recommitted to introducing a Bill of Rights to reform the Human Rights Act, with the aim of ending “the abuse of the human rights framework”.
Victims Bill | The Ministry of Justice has published a draft Victims Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny. The draft Bill contains measures that will improve support for victims to cope and recover from the impact of crime and enable improved associations with the criminal justice system. It also aims to strengthen transparency and oversight of criminal justice agencies at local and national levels, so that victims' experiences are taken into account; helping to support them and remain engaged with the criminal justice process. These measures will help victims to have confidence that there is the right support available and that if they report a crime, the criminal justice system will treat them in the way they should rightly expect.
The care system
Care and custody | The Centre for Child and Family Justice Research (CFJ) at Lancaster University has published a report, titled: Disrupting the Routes between Care and Custody for Girls and Women. Their research reveals how girls in care may experience “over-scrutiny” in some care settings, leading to their unnecessary criminalisation. The report explores their over-representation in the youth criminal justice system, and it argues that girls and women who have been through the care system should be diverted away from custodial sentences into community alternatives wherever possible. Further recommendations include calling on the Department for Education to build a trauma-responsive care system, and take a coordinated approach to develop protocols aimed at preventing criminalisation in care. Alongside the report, the CFJ has published an article summarising the report and a policy briefing.
The voice of lived experience | A new report by the Young Justice Advisors – a team of young adults aged 18-30 with lived experience of the criminal justice and care systems – explores a number of key themes with the purpose of advocating for change. The research, based on peer interviews and surveys, focuses on: race and racism, the care system, mental health and the criminal justice system, and life after prison. The report concludes with a number of key recommendations including: extending care orders to last until someone is 25 years old; increased mental health provision in prisons; and for every probation region to have a specific reoffending plan for young adults in their area.
Youth justice
Children on remand | The Howard League for Penal Reform has published a briefing that focuses on children on remand. The briefing, titled: Voices and lessons, is the second briefing to be published as part of a Howard League project aimed at understanding and helping children on remand with their unmet legal support needs. It focuses on the experiences, voices, and lessons to be learned from five teenagers in prison from racially minoritised communities that had come into contact with the criminal justice system (CJS) while they were in care. Key points include: the criteria for remanding children needs to be aligned to the wider CJS; to reduce the discrepancy between the number of children remanded and those who go on to get a prison term; and the cases of children who are remanded to custody should be prioritised and expedited to reduce uncertainty and harm.
Covid-19
Ongoing impact of Covid-19 on the criminal justice system | A joint progress report from the justice inspectorates has been published, titled: The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Criminal Justice System. The report has highlighted the slow recovery and shared challenges of the criminal justice system (CJS) response to the ongoing pandemic. It found most agencies have been unable to recover to their pre-pandemic functioning with all levels of the CJS being affected, including prison, probation, policing and the courts. A key area of concern is that people in prison are still spending upwards of 23 hours in their cell every day, limiting their ability to engage in education, rehabilitation, and training. They conclude that none of the risks identified in their 2021 joint report have been mitigated in their entirety and recovery remains elusive.
Education
Prison education | The Education Select Committee has published their first report into prison education, titled: Not just another brick in the wall: why prisoners need an education to climb the ladder of opportunity. The inquiry has highlighted an urgent need for changes to prison education across the following areas: improving support for people in prison with Special Educational Needs and Difficulties (SEND); introducing digital education passports; reducing the number of transfers; improving links between prisons and employers, including encouraging businesses to employ prison leavers; access to digital resources; incentivising people in prison to engage with education, including greater access to loans; and establishing the role of Deputy Governor of Learning.
Multiple disadvantage
Making Every Adult Matter | The Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) Coalition have published a report following their annual conference. The report, titled: Reflections from the MEAM Approach: Transforming services and systems for people facing multiple disadvantage, explores what the MEAM approach areas and team see as essential to successful work and considers what is needed next for the future. MEAM is a coalition of national charities – Clinks, Homeless Link, Mind and associate member Collective Voice. MEAM has supported 50 local authority areas since 2010 to transform services and systems for people facing multiple disadvantage.
Women, homelessness, and reoffending | Sandra Fieldhouse - who leads on the inspections of women's prisons for HM Inspectorate of Prisons - has written a blog reflecting on the report into HMP/YOI Bronzefield regarding accommodation on release. The report, according to Fieldhouse, “reflects a recurring theme across women’s prisons – too many prisoners are being released into the community without a suitable place to live”. She adds that, “A woman living on the streets, or being passed from pillar to post in temporary or unsuitable accommodation, is far more likely to reoffend”. She concludes, with reference to the Female Offender Strategy, that the government needs to action their commitments to better support women on release.
Electronic monitoring | Following the publication of a National Audit Office (NAO) report on electronic monitoring, Russell Webster has written a blog summarising the key points. He highlights the finding that; “Evidence on the effectiveness of tagging remains weak, particularly on reducing reoffending and diverting offenders from prison”. Russell notes that HM Prison and Probation service (HMPPS) has failed to modernise the system, and the monitoring system is not doing what it promised. Furthermore, HMPPS’ ability to carry out analysis and evaluation is severely constrained by the poor quality and availability of data. Therefore, they have not analysed reoffending and “offenders’” diversion from prison as planned.
Secure schools | Rob Allen writes about secure schools in his regular blog post – Unlocking Potential. He notes conflicting comments made by Victoria Atkins, Minister of State for Prisons and Probation, to the Justice Committee, which suggested that construction for the first secure school has begun, yet Ministry of Justice officials had told the Public Accounts Committee that construction had not yet begun. He further comments on the existing model of secure children's homes and questions why so many have closed despite their proven success. He goes on to mention his ongoing recommendation that youth justice policy should sit with the Department for Education, recently called for by the Social Care Review, and concludes that, “Unless it happens, I can’t see any major change to the way we lock up children”.
Residential women’s centres | Following the announcement by the Ministry of Justice that Swansea will be the location of the first residential women’s centre, Russell Webster has written for ‘Work with Offenders’ on the long overdue progress of the Female Offender Strategy. He summarises the role of the centre, scheduled to open in 2024; which has been “specifically designed to address the fact that many women who commit low-level crimes, such as shoplifting, and minor drug and alcohol-fuelled crimes, [which] are driven by underlying and complex factors”. He outlines that women at the centre will receive “one-to-one mental health therapy, counselling to address their trauma from previous abuse and support to overcome addictions.”, and “longer-term support for women to help them find a job and maintain family relationships […] to help prevent reoffending.”.
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Written monthly by...
Clinks' Policy Officers Franklin Barrington and Noorjehan Piperdy
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