In this month's edition...
Clinks has published the latest review in its evidence library on the issues and challenges of the ageing prison population. No place for old men written by Louise Ridley, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Northumbria University, explores the current evidence base and covers several key issues including the disproportionate growth in the number of older people in prison. Clinks’ online evidence library is co-ordinated by Russell Webster on behalf of Clinks.
Clinks has determined its three core projects for next year as part of the Health and Wellbeing Alliance. The first is a project exploring inequalities in mental and physical healthcare for racially minoritised men in the criminal justice system, focusing on three areas: epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorders and neurodiversity (including traumatic brain injury). The second focusses on health and wellbeing for older people in the criminal justice system. The third project will look at social prescribing for people in and leaving prison. If you are working in any of these areas, we want to hear from you please contact Rachel Tynan, Influence and Policy Manager, or Olivia Dehnavi, Senior Policy Officer
On 9 March 2023, Clinks held its Creative Inclusion: where education, health and justice merge event, which brought together voluntary sector organisations who work with neurodivergent people with commissioners, referrers, providers, and others working in this space. We would like to thank our speakers who shared their perspectives and insights on education, health and justice. The event was well attended and harnessed useful learning and connections for those involved. To find out more please contact Rachel Tynan, Influence and Policy Manager.
Government action plan on thematic inspection report on the experiences of Black and Mixed Heritage boys in the youth justice system
Following the HM Inspectorate of Probation thematic inspection on the experiences of Black and Mixed Heritage boys in the youth justice system, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published its action plan. This covers 18 recommendations, with the MoJ either accepting or partially accepting them all. This includes partially accepting the recommendation that the Youth Justice Board (YJB) should publish data to show how well individual youth offending services are addressing disproportionality. It was accepted that the Home Office should publish local and national data on stop and search statistics, broken down by gender and age as well as ethnicity, and “release under investigation” statistics including outcomes broken down by gender, age, and ethnicity. Read the full action plan and the response from HMPPS here.
Prison population projections: 2022 to 2027
The Ministry of Justice has published its latest prison population projections, covering 2022 to 2027. This forecasts the prison population is expected to increase, with a central estimate of 94,400 people in prison by March 2025, and a range of 93,100 to 106,300 by March 2027. This projected increase is said to be based on factors including the increase in police officer numbers which could increase charge volumes and so demand for prison places, and changes in sentencing policy to keep more people convicted of serious offences for longer periods. The 50-year-old and over population is projected to increase from 14,193 as at November 2022 to 14,700 in November 2024. This projected increase in the 50-year-old and over prison population is said to be driven by the increasing determinate population and the knock-on impact of the recall population as prisoners released after determinate sentences are recalled. The adult female population is also expected to increase from 3,245 as of November 2022, to 3,800 in November 2024. Any future impacts of the Female Offender Strategy have been excluded from the baseline projection due to the limited time between its publication and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it difficult to disentangle any effects of the strategy on the prison population. Read the report here.
Latest criminal justice statistics published
The Ministry of Justice published statistics covering people in the criminal justice system, safety in custody and in the children and young people’s secure estate (CYPSE), and proven reoffending. There were 81,806 people in prison on 31 December 2022, and 240,674 people on probation. There were 301 deaths in custody in the year to December 2022, a 19% decrease on last year. The number of self-harm incidents in prison rose 5% in the year to September 2022, with the rate of self-harm incidents per 1,000 people increasing 16% in female establishments and decreasing 1% in male establishments. The annualised rate of self-harm per 100 children in the CYPSE rose 46% in the quarter to September 2022, compared to the same quarter last year. The proven reoffending rate for the January to March 2021 cohort was 24.3%, which represents a decrease of 0.4 percentage points from the same quarter in 2020 but an increase of 1.2 percentage points over last quarter. These statistics are likely to continue to oscillate because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key performance indicators for youth justice services
Youth justice services will report on 10 new key performance indicators (KPIs) from 1 April 2023, to improve monitoring of the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and support in identifying barriers to reducing reoffending. The KPIs were designed by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in consultation with the YJB, frontline services, inspectorates, and other government departments. The 10 KPIs include accommodation, education, training and employment, special educational needs or disability/additional learning needs, mental health and emotional wellbeing, substance misuse, out-of-court disposals, management Board attendance, wider services including social services, serious violence, and victims. Initial findings from national data on KPIs are expected to be published in Spring 2025. Read the full guidance here.
Improving the quality of health services for people in prison and in the community
An update to the National Partnership Agreement for Health and Social Care in England: 2022 to 2025 has been published. This agreement outlines the joint goals that the Ministry of Justice, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and UK Health Security Agency, commit to pursue to improve health and wellbeing of people in their care. They aim to reduce health inequalities, reduce reoffending, and support rehabilitation by addressing health-related drivers of offending behaviour, and support access to, and continuity of care through the prison estate, pre-custody and for the first time, post-custody into the community. These objectives will be delivered through a focus on ten priorities, which include learning lessons to prevent death and self-inflicted harm as well as improving the quality of data collection and enabling better data-sharing between partners. Read the full agreement here.
New Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody (IAPDC) appointed
The government has announced that Lynn Emslie has been appointed as the new Chair of the IAPDC, beginning on 27 February 2023. The IAPDC is a source of expert advice to Ministers, departments, and agencies with the central aim of preventing deaths in custody. Ms Emslie’s career covers acute healthcare, mental health, health in criminal justice, and local authority social services. Amongst other things, she worked strategically with the Department of Health and the NHS to inform policy, linking academic research into service development, in the voluntary and private sectors. She also supported the implementation of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT). Ms Emslie has been a Trustee at Nacro since 2017 and is the Chair of Arc, a homelessness charity local to Somerset. Read the press release here.
No Place for old men: what the evidence tells us
Lord Sidley, senior lecturer in Criminology at Northumbria University, will discuss the latest evidence around key issues and challenges of our ageing prison population. This event [20 April, 14:00, Online, Free] is part of Clinks “A matter of fact: what the evidence tells us” series, to accompany Evidence Library, giving you the chance to ask your own questions of leading academics talking about the latest research on an important criminal justice topic. There will also be a chance to ask Louise questions in a Q&A session. Book your place here.
The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman newsletter on remand deaths
The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has published the latest edition of its Investigator newsletter. Given the increase in the prison remand population, Issue 12 shares insights from research into fatal incidents within this cohort in 2022. People on remand had the highest rate of self-inflicted deaths, which accounted for 35% of all self-inflicted deaths in custody. The PPO outlines several recommendations from their investigations to address these statistics, relating to issues around receptions, initial assessment, and the identification of risk factors and potential triggers for self-harm or suicide. The newsletter also includes an article about the PPO’s post-release death investigations pilot and the importance of its subsequent evaluation. The evaluation shows that as much attention needs to be given to identifying risk factors on release as it does when an individual leaves prison. Read the full newsletter here.
Alcohol treatment services
The National Audit Office has published a briefing on alcohol treatment services. Collating publicly available evidence, the briefing describes the background of alcohol consumption and associated harm, spending on, and commissioning of alcohol treatment services, as well as access to, and outcomes from, treatment services. In England, 6% of referrals to alcohol only treatment services in 2021-22 came from the Criminal Justice sector and the number of people receiving treatment overall has been trending downwards since 2013-14, with a slight increase for 2020-21 and 2021-22. The briefing details the wide variation in reported spending on alcohol treatment services, from £4,000 per 100,000 people to £1.12 million per 100,000 people in 2021-22. Three local authorities reported spending zero on alcohol treatment services. Read in full here.
What families say about prison healthcare
Pact has published a report that sets out families’ insights into the impact of the criminal justice system on health and wellbeing and highlights the role they play in supporting people in prison. Based on their findings, Pact has made a number of calls to action. These include calling for families’ knowledge and expertise to be recognised, valued, and acted upon in the pursuit of better health outcomes and the new National Regime Model being developed in line with Lord Farmer’s recommendation that family and significant other involvement be integral to all aspects of prison delivery. Pact also recommends the creation of a “single point of contact” for families within justice health care systems to inform and empower family and significant other engagement in patient health and wellbeing. Read the full report here.
Improving prisoner death investigations and promoting change in prisons
The University of Nottingham has published a report authored by Dr Sharon Shalev, independent researcher at SolitaryConfinement.org, with input from Dr Philippa Tomczak at the University of Nottingham. The paper notes that investigations of deaths in custody by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) could be a valuable catalyst for changes that improve prison safety, but the sustained high number of self-inflicted deaths in prison in England and Wales suggest this is not happening. The paper makes several recommendations to the PPO, including that it requires new terms of reference that transparently, accurately, and accessibly define the PPO’s remit and activities, which would be particularly useful for coroners, bereaved families, and prison staff. It also recommends the PPO publishes its methodology for investigating deaths in custody. Read the report here.
The wellbeing of young men and young Black men in prison
Spark Inside has worked with the Being Well Being Equal Alliance to publish a new report which calls for immediate action and prioritisation of the wellbeing of young men and young Black men aged 18 to 25 in prison. The report sets out fourteen calls to action to address the issues it sets out. These include HM Prison and Probation Service seeking to further understand whether existing services and interventions meet the distinct needs of young men, and particularly young Black men. It also calls for prison establishments to draw on the knowledge, expertise, and innovation of the voluntary sector to develop the skills and approaches to effectively empower young men to have a voice in the policy and practice that affects them. Read the full report here.
Race, death, and British policing
INQUEST has published a new report that investigates the processes, procedures, and evidence base of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and the coronial system to examine how accountability for racism is delivered. INQUEST said they found a system which works against delivering accountability, that appeared blind to evidence, and where racial discrimination was not addressed meaningfully. The report found that data not previously made public shows Black people are more than seven times more likely to die than non-racially minoritised people following the use of restraint by police. In addition, the report found no death of a Black person following police custody or contact has led to officers being disciplined for racism at a conduct or criminal level. Read the report here.
The Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Services workforce
The NHS Benchmarking Network has published its findings of the National Workforce Census of Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Services. There were 535 data submissions of which 347 were treatment providers, and 78% of treatment provider submissions were received from voluntary organisations. Key findings of the census show that the voluntary sector accounted for almost three quarters of the drug and alcohol workforce, and 12% of the treatment provider workforce are unpaid, comprising of volunteers and peer mentors. Vacancy rates ranged from 11 % (voluntary sector) to 25% (Local Authority delivered treatment sector” for all staff groups. The voluntary sector also reported the highest staff turnover rate at 27%. Read the full findings here.
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