In this month's edition...
We have launched the 2022 State of the sector survey. This is your chance to tell us about the challenges your organisation has faced over the last year and help us influence key decision makers on your behalf and ensure that our support meets your needs. We regularly meet with HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to speak up on behalf of voluntary organisations and to capitalise on opportunities for the sector. But we need up-to-date evidence to do this effectively. That is why we are asking you to complete the survey. Your anonymised responses will contribute to a report highlighting the changes and challenges the voluntary sector, and its service users, are experiencing and how organisations are adapting.
The Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3) met on 21 June for its quarterly meeting. The group heard from Ian Wybron, Head of Future Prisons Policy at the MoJ, following the publication of the government’s response to the consultation on the Prisons Strategy White Paper. The group also heard from Chris Gunderson, Head of Future Regime Design at HMPPS, on the next steps, following the exit from the National Framework, and the team’s future engagement with the sector. The RR3 will be convening a special interest group on future regime design where a National Regime Model will be developed. The first meeting of this group will be held on 22 July.
Changes in government | On Thursday (7 July), Boris Johnson announced that he was resigning as Conservative Party Leader. In the run up to Mr Johnson's resignation, many ministers resigned from his government including: Victoria Atkins, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ); James Cartlidge, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the MoJ; Alex Chalk, Solicitor General; and Kemi Badenoch, Minister for Equalities. Kit Malthouse has been moved from his role with the Home Office (HO) and MoJ to the Cabinet Office. Mr Johnson has made a number of new appointments to his caretaker government, including: Sarah Dines and Simon Baynes being appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State jointly at the MoJ and HO; Tom Pursglove becoming a Minister of State jointly at the MoJ and HO; Stuart Andrew becoming a Minister of State at the MoJ; Edward Timpson becoming Solicitor General; and Amanda Solloway being appointed as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Equalities).
Conservative Party leadership contest | Following Boris Johnson's resignation as Conservative Party Leader, the party has now announced the process for electing its new leader. Nominations will open and close on Tuesday (12 July), and MPs will vote in the initial group of candidates to leave two, by 21 July. All Conservative Party members will then vote for their choice of leader from the final two, with the result to be announced on 5 September. It is expected Mr Johnson will remain Prime Minister until the new leader is chosen and asked to form a government. Clinks will share updates impacting the sector through Light Lunch, and we will be engaging with both the interim government, and the new administration, to continue to advocate for the criminal justice voluntary sector.
Living with Covid-19: prisons and youth custody settings | Following the decommissioning of the National Framework, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) are moving to a local risk-based approach. They aim to retain a focus on core protective measures, but be ready to respond quickly and act at a system level if the overall risk increases and requires it. The campaign to promote vaccination across the estate will continue; HMPPS will maintain Covid-19 surveillance through wastewater-based surveillance and a level of testing; and handwashing and other core infection prevention and control measures will be maintained along with the necessary safety equipment and PPE. Control measures will no longer directly limit the delivery of regime, except when there is an outbreak or significant increased risk of transmission.
Prison education: a review of reading in prisons action plan | HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has published its action plan, following the review of reading education in prisons. It has agreed with all six recommendations made in the review, with the plans for them to all have been completed by September 2023. The recommendations to HMPPS included that the education, skills, and work offer should include initial and ongoing assessment that pinpoint the specific knowledge and skills in reading that people in prison are missing or need to improve; a distinct part of the curriculum offer dedicated to teaching reading; and specialist training and development on teaching adults to read. Recommendations to prison governors include that they should lead a whole-prison approach to reading that facilitates reading for pleasure, purpose, and rehabilitation.
Neurodiversity in the criminal justice system action plan | The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published their action plan in response to the Neurodiversity in the criminal justice system report from July of 2021 in an attempt to address the six recommendations that the report suggests. Positively, the MoJ has committed to working closely with all agencies involved in the criminal justice system, including those in the voluntary sector, to ensure that the needs of neurodivergent people are well met. However, they have only partially agreed to the other recommendations such as; instituting a universal screening tool, making adjustments to meet the needs of neurodivergent individuals in prison, developing a neurodivergence strategy, and the collection of improved screening data.
Welsh government outlines plan for Wales to become anti-racist nation | The Welsh government has published its Anti-racist Action Plan, outlining actions focussed over the next two years, set against a vision that Wales is anti-racist in 2030. The plan includes a section on crime and justice. This commits to working with criminal justice partners to publish the Criminal Justice Anti-Racism Action Plan for Wales in summer 2022, setting out the concrete and tangible action they will take forward to tackle inequality and to create an anti-racist criminal justice system. A joint anti-racism work programme will be developed and delivered by criminal justice organisations alongside the Welsh government, embedding an anti-racist approach across the justice system in Wales. The Criminal Justice Board for Wales will provide oversight of the plan, ensuring progress is made, and outcomes improve.
Bill of Rights | On 22 June 2022, the Lord Chancellor published the government’s Bill of Rights Bill, following the consultation it ran earlier in the year. Under the proposals, the Bill will replace the Human Rights Act in its entirety, but the UK will remain a state party to the European Convention on Human Rights, and people will continue to have recourse to their convention rights through domestic courts. The Bill plans to introduce changes to the way in which people can bring challenges in UK courts, by introducing a permissions stage for claims, and limiting foreign nationals who have been convicted of an offence from appealing their deportation through recourse to their right to family life. Mark Elliott, Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge, has published a blog setting out his view of the Bill, which summarises some of the proposed changes in detail.
Justice Committee inquiry into public opinion and understanding of sentencing | The Justice Committee has launched an inquiry into public opinion and understanding of sentencing. As part of this inquiry, they have issued a call for evidence, inviting evidence on questions including: what does the public know about the current approach to sentencing in England and Wales; what are the barriers to improving public awareness of how sentencing works; to what extent does public understanding of sentencing affect public confidence in the criminal justice system; and to what extent should public opinion inform sentencing policy and practice? Submissions to the Committee can be made until 5pm on 21 July 2022.
Prison leavers tagged to cut alcohol fuelled crime | The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) have announced that from 15 June, people released from prisons in England can be banned from drinking alcohol and have their drinking electronically monitored through a tag if their probation officer thinks they could reoffend when drinking. This launch follows the scheme’s rollout in Wales last year. A person’s licence can stipulate that the alcohol tag must be worn for a minimum of 30 days, up to a maximum of one year, with reviews carried out every three months to ensure it is still necessary, reasonable, and proportionate to the risk they pose. It is also possible for the requirement to be removed and reimposed again later, if deemed necessary and proportionate to risk.
Monkeypox: prisons and places of detention | The UK Health and Security Agency has released information regarding the recent spread of Monkeypox, and the specific effect that it may potentially have on people within the detained estate. Treatment for monkeypox is mainly supportive. The illness is usually mild and most of those infected will recover within a few weeks without treatment. Further information about the clinical features of monkeypox is available. Recent cases are predominantly in gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) aged 20 to 59 years. These groups are being advised to be alert to any unusual rashes or lesions on any part of their body, especially their genitalia, and to contact a sexual health service if they have concerns.
Multiple disadvantage
Multiple disadvantage and co-occurring substance use and mental health conditions | The Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) Coalition, of which Clinks is a member, has published a report exploring co-occurring conditions. Overall, MEAM found access to appropriate support remains extremely difficult, and systems that keep the commissioning, design, and delivery of substance use treatment and mental health services separate from one another inevitably struggle to meet the needs of people with co-occurring conditions. Their recommendations include that the Department for Health and Social Care should begin recording where, when, and how often individuals are refused mental health treatment due to an existing substance misuse issue. In addition, where appropriate, services for people likely to face co-occurring conditions should be commissioned jointly, such as services for people newly released from prison.
Reducing offending
Do criminal sanctions reduce violence against police and NHS staff? | A new report released this week by Transform Justice suggests that not only are increased criminal sanctions ineffective in deterring violence against police and NHS staff, but they are also sweeping more people with mental health conditions, cognitive impairments and/or who are neurodivergent into the criminal justice system. Transform Justice surveyed police officers, NHS staff, defence lawyers, and people with mental health conditions who had been accused of assaulting an emergency worker, to understand how we stop rising levels of abuse. The report makes practical recommendations for how employers can improve their support to victims and give better training to staff to prevent incidents from happening. It also explores the effective options for resolving the harm without going to court, such as diversion and restorative justice.
Unpaid work
The future of unpaid work | The Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI) has published their report focussing on unpaid work. The CJI note the use of unpaid work could increase in the near future with the recruitment of additional police officers, and that the cohort of people undertaking unpaid work will continue to age. Their review of evidence suggests unpaid work that promotes desistence from crime needs to be, and seen to be, “purposeful” by those carrying it out. This means unpaid work should be characterised by projects that build skills and/or restore places or provide services of benefit to the community. On the future of unpaid work, the CJI focus on empowering local regions in delivery, investing in community involvement, diversifying placements, and honouring the value of unpaid work.
Prisons
Coping with Covid in Prison: The Impact of Prisoner Lockdown | User Voice and Queen’s University Belfast have published a report on the experience of people in prison during the pandemic. Speaking to over 1,600 people across nine prisons, they saw a message emerging of widespread trauma from extended periods of isolation. Respondents reported inconsistent implementation of Covid-19 responses left people feeling abandoned, with measures varying from prison to prison, and wing to wing. Participants reported every day as feeling uneventful and “endless”, with an almost complete end to rehabilitation opportunities affecting people’s ability to progress through sentences, and leading to fears around impacts on release. On the support received, participants rated prison governors the lowest and families the highest. Peer support from other people in prison serving sentences was rated higher than any other group in the prison.
Children and young people
Adultification bias within child protection and safeguarding | HM Inspectorate of Probation published the latest report in its Academic Insight series. This raises awareness of adultification bias and looks to improve child protection and safeguarding practices by introducing the Professional Inter-Adultification (PIA) Model. It describes adultification as “when notions of innocence and vulnerability are not afforded to certain children”. The report argues this erodes children’s rights and leaves them at a greater risk of harm because of a dereliction of safeguarding duty from individuals and organisations. It sets out the PIA model as a way of illustrating the process of adultification and how it occurs, providing opportunities to identify early indicators of the bias and ways to counteract it.
A joint inspection of education, training and employment (ETE) services in youth offending teams (YOTs) | HM Inspectorate of Probation undertook a joint inspection with Ofsted and Estyn. Some of the strengths identified by the inspection include YOT boards consistently prioritised ETE work in service delivery, operational staff had enough time to deliver high quality work with children, and YOTs delivering good ETE work had well-developed partnership agreements. The inspection also identified areas for improvement, including that the quality of ETE work was poorest for those children who most needed it, and this was particularly evident when a child had an Education, Health and Care Plan in England or Individual Development Plan in Wales. In addition, there were too many cases where children were not making progress and whose vulnerability was increasing because of low levels of engagement in positive work.
Sentencing
Making sense of sentencing: Doing justice to both victim and prisoner | The Independent Commission into the Experience of Victims and Long-term Prisoners, chaired by The Rt Revd James Jones KBE, former Bishop of Liverpool, published its final report. It concludes sentencing for serious offences is not working for victims, people in prison, or society as a whole. Its main recommendation is for a national debate on sentencing backed by a Law Commission review of the sentencing framework for serious offences, a citizen’s assembly on sentencing policy, and strengthening the remit of the Sentencing Council in promoting public understanding of sentencing. From the evidence it heard, the Commission found victims and their families feel overlooked, neglected, marginalised, and further traumatised, and people in prison feel that the present workings of the system fail to foster people’s reform and rehabilitation.
State of the sector 2022 survey: why your response is crucial | Following the launch of Clinks’ 2022 State of the sector survey, Policy Officer Franklin Barrington has written a blog setting out why your response to the survey is crucial. Looking at four reasons why organisations’ responses are so important, he explains the data gathered enables Clinks to understand the current landscape of the criminal justice voluntary sector, and provides the robust evidence needed to influence for change. In addition, this year’s survey has a focus on the financial sustainability of the sector in light of concerns raised in the 2021 survey and the challenging economic environment. Finally, he explains how the survey is also an opportunity to celebrate the work of the sector, with last year's report finding the sector is leading the way in lived experience involvement.
“Oh no, not again” – the story of the Human Rights Act and the new “Bill of Rights” | Following the publication of the Bill of Rights Bill, lawyer and commentator David Allen Green has written about the government’s plans. Green sets out the context to this announcement, exploring the history of rights in England, the development of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the developments around rights over the second part of the twentieth century in England, including the introduction of the Human Rights Act 1998. Then, he sets out previous attempts to amend the Act, before turning to the current proposals. He argues the new Bill will mean the essentials of the Human Rights Act will remain but introduces a number of provisions making it more difficult for litigants to rely on those rights in domestic courts.
Clarity needed on changes to eligibility for open conditions | Following the government’s announcement to changes to the way people serving indeterminate prison sentences would be given the opportunity to show they can be safely released, the Director of the Prison Reform Trust, Peter Dawson, has written to the Minister asking a series of practical questions. These focus on the evidence supporting this change, and how it will actually operate. Dawson argues that the fact someone has had to write and ask those questions, “shows what a half-baked policy this is, but also the lack of concern for the people who will be most affected by it”. He has published his letter to the Minister online, and commits to also publishing the government’s response.
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons: how good leadership can transform prisons | HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor has published a blog that looks at the importance of leadership in prisons. Focussing on the recent experience of the Inspectorate at Feltham, Bedford, and Doncaster, he believes that positive change is possible, and, for him, the key to this is effective leadership. In each of these establishments, leaders knew and understood their organisations through a good use of data, and by spending time on the wing talking to people in prison and prison staff. Taylor describes them as all having a clear idea of what needed to improve and were able to articulate their vision and priorities to staff. He concludes by setting out what he thinks are the eight habits of the best prison leaders.
Running prisons with purpose | HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, has also written about purposeful activity, describing an “inertia from leaders” and a “comfort with maintaining a limited regime”. This has seen inspections at HMP Rochester, HMP Brixton, and HMP The Mount find that most people were locked in their cells for 22 hours or more a day, and there are delays in getting people back into education, training, and work. This contrasts with HMP Coldingley, where inspectors found people spend an average of seven hours a day outside their cells. He noted two reasons for the differences: the culture of Coldingley was that, providing people behaved, they could be trusted to spend most of their day unlocked, and leaders were much more ambitious.
Ministry of Justice Digital and Technology: network services in recent months | Nava Ramanan, Deputy Director – Head of Networks, Voice, Video and Hosting services for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), has written a blog, highlighting some of the work being carried out on the MoJ’s digital technologies. They highlight some of their recent work in achieving the goals of the Justice Digital Strategy. This includes planning for two major procurement projects, to cover services for their Local Area Network, and Wider Area Network. They have also been carrying out work to remediate some existing physical infrastructure to improve uptimes and make repairs simpler, and helping to deliver the in-cell technology programme, by providing Wi-Fi access for both people in prison, and staff, enabling connectivity all the way to the cells.
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Written monthly by...
Clinks' Policy Officers Franklin Barrington and Noorjehan Piperdy
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