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In this month's edition...
Following delays to the announcements around funding for the voluntary sector for 2023/24 from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), Clinks CEO, Anne Fox, continued to engage with officials on behalf of the voluntary sector to gain clarity about the evolving funding landscape. Following engagement with Amy Rees, Chief Executive, HMPPS, and Phil Copple, Director General Operations, HMPPS, asking for an explanation of these delays and exploring actions to move forward with this, Ms Rees wrote to Clinks. This letter confirmed departmental spending plans will not be completed until the end of the Efficient and Savings Review, commissioned by HM Treasury. This review will settle departmental spending plans through the identification of possible savings but remains ongoing. Ms Rees said HMPPS continues to expect a “significant level of spend” on commissioned rehabilitative services, but the exact amount will not be finalised until the completion of the review. You can read more about the impact of this efficiency and savings review on funding for the voluntary sector and the full letter from Amy Rees in our blog.
Clinks is delighted to welcome Sam Julius to the organisation as our new Head of Influencing and Communications. He has joined from Clinks member organisation, Nacro, where he led on their policy and public affairs work. Previously, Sam worked on devolution policy for Local Trust, ran municipal campaigns in Toronto, along with holding several other public affairs roles. He also ran the UK’s biggest political ideas festival – the Big Tent Ideas Festival – in the Summer of 2019.
A new workplan is being developed for 2023/24 for the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3). We look forward to sharing this in due course. We are also delighted to welcome two new members to the RR3: Maria McNichols from St Giles takes up the education seat, and Steve Matthews from Shelter takes up the housing seat.
Clinks held its “Creative Inclusion: where education, health, and justice merge” event in early March, looking at the needs of neurodivergent people. This event brought together voluntary sector organisations, that work with neurodivergent people, with commissioners, referrers, providers, and others. If you are interested in being involved in our future work in neurodiversity, or our other health and justice work, please contact Rachel Tynan, Influence and Policy Manager, or Olivia Dehnavi, Senior Policy Officer. You can keep up to date with all of Clinks’ work in this area, and with relevant health and justice information by signing up to our monthly Health and Justice Bulletin.
HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) response to thematic review on the experience of adult Black male prisoners and Black prison staff | In its response to HM Inspectorate of Prison’s thematic inspection, HMPPS has said improving outcomes for Black people in prison and staff will require long-term commitment from the entire organisation. The response says it is HMPPS’ “clear intent to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to racism and discrimination”. The response notes this contributes to the One HMPPS agenda, by aligning activity in England with activity in Wales, which is currently implementing its Criminal Justice Anti-Racism Action Plan. The response sets out four areas of primary focus: greater insights to develop an appreciation of Black people’s experiences and what drives improvement, improving relationships between staff and people in the criminal justice system, community cohesion through meaningful activities, and equality of opportunity.
Plans for a Victims and Prisoners Bill | The government has announced a new Victims and Prisoners Bill, which was presented in Parliament on 29 March 2023. The proposals include introducing ministerial veto over Parole Board recommendations to release of people convicted of specified offences, requiring the Board’s membership to include people with law enforcement experience, and giving the Secretary of State powers to prescribe that particular classes of cases are dealt with by particular kinds of Board members. For example, the government says this latter power would initially be used to require panels considering the cases of people convicted of the specified offences to which the ministerial veto applies to include at least one member with law enforcement experience. It would also amend the statutory release test to “ensure that the focus is on the potential risk posed by an offender when the Board is considering them for release”, and prevent people serving whole life orders from marrying or entering a civil partnership in prison.
Anti-social behaviour action plan | The government published its anti-social behaviour action plan, setting out a new approach across four areas. The first is stronger punishments, including “immediate justice pilots” where people undertake manual reparative work that makes good the damage suffered by victims and increasing fines. The second area looks at increasing the police presence in “anti-social behaviour hotspots” and replacing the Vagrancy Act 1824, including criminalising “organised begging” and prohibiting begging where it causes “blight or public nuisance”. The third area is about prevention and intervention, providing more funding for young people in areas with high levels of anti-social behaviour and expanding eligibility for the Turnaround programme. The fourth area aims to improve accountability, with a new digital tool for people to report anti-social behaviour. The Home Secretary summarised the proposals in a statement to the House of Commons.
Update in planning application for residential women’s centre (RWC) | The Minister, Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP, has written to the Justice Committee to provide an update on the planning application for the RWC in Wales. He explains the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) submitted an application for a RWC at Trehafod in Swansea in July 2022. While the application was recommended for approval by the planning officer, the Planning Committee refused it in October 2022. Subsequently, following “careful consideration”, the MoJ has decided to appeal the decision via Planning and Environmental Decisions Wales. Mr Hinds says the government has taken this route because it “still [believes] Trehafod is the right location for the women’s centre and that [its] application meets the necessary planning requirements”.
Rapid deployment cells unveiled to increase prison places | The government presented its new rapid deployment cells that can be built and rolled-out at speed to help increase prison capacity at HMP Norwich. These units were the first of 1,000 to be deployed at 18 prison sites across the country, with the 48 cells at Norwich being constructed and lifted into place seven months after being commissioned. The rapid deployment cells have a lifespan of about 15 years and are designed to create extra capacity across the prison estate quickly to meet rising demand, while longer-term expansion is underway.
Updates to guidance on employing people with convictions | The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has updated its guidance on employing people in prison and people who have been convicted of offences to set out information about the Employability Innovation Fund, including the Future Skills Programme and HMP Academies. It will enable prison governors to work with more employers and training providers to repurpose workshops to deliver sector-specific skills training. The Future Skills Programme and HMP Academies will both receive funding from the Employability Innovation Fund. HMP Academies is about investing in fixed prison training spaces that will be hosted and branded by employers for people in prison to learn “on the job training” linked to job opportunities on release. The Future Skills Programme is to deliver short sector-specific training courses linked to job commitments on release.
Funding to increase literacy of people in prison | The government has announced £1.8 million for two charities to pilot new reading and writing programmes over two years, to get more people in prison into class and increase their chances of securing work or training after they are released. Shannon Trust is using the funds to recruit full-time staff to rollout out peer-to-peer reading programmes in nine prisons, building on support offered by existing volunteers to people in prison with little or no reading ability. The National Literacy Trust will run events at six prisons for more advanced readers, including reading groups, and creative writing sessions, to build their confidence. The government explains the pilots will offer crucial insights into best practices, with learning from the pilots used to shape the new Prisoner Education Service.
New Prisons and Probation Ombudsman appointed | The Secretary of State for Justice has announced the appointment of Adrian Usher as the Prison and Probation Ombudsman for a tenure of three years, beginning on 24 April 2023. Mr Usher recently retired from a career as a senior police officer for the Metropolitan Police Service, that he joined in 1987. He has previously served as both Counter-Terrorism and Anti-Corruption Commands, and he has been a Senior Investigating Officer in a variety of roles. Mr Usher retired as Commander for Learning and Development in the Met, where he led the training requirements across policing operations, including changing training to accommodate new legislation, law enforcement best practice, and improving policing standards.
Guidance on experience of care | The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published a guide to how prisons, probation, and local authorities can work together to support people with care experience in custody and on probation. It includes information gathered from care experienced people in the criminal justice system about what would help them and recommends that prisons and probation incorporate these practices in their support offer for those with care experience in their regions. The guidance also explores areas including: the identification of people with care experience; support from Personal Advisors; sentence and resettlement planning; financial support; clothing, footwear and possessions; release and resettlement itself; and additional considerations for specific groups, such as care experienced women and foreign nationals.
Clinks publications
Clinks response to the Justice Committee inquiry on the public understanding of sentencing | Clinks published its response to the Justice Committee’s inquiry. We argued there is a lack of public understanding of the long-term implications of sentencing and criminal records disclosure, and current sentencing policy is uneven, resulting in disparities between different groups of people. Before asking whether public opinion should inform sentencing policy and practice, it is imperative the government informs the public of the reality of effective sentencing by adopting the expertise and research of the voluntary sector working with people in contact with the criminal justice system. Clinks recommended that sentencing policy be evidence-based and developed in consultation with the voluntary sector working in criminal justice and people with lived experience. This would help create a fairer system, improve public confidence, and increase public trust in the criminal justice system.
Prison
Work and Wages in Prison | Nacro has published the first in a series of briefings looking at work and wages in prison, and the impact they can have on people’s ability to turn their lives around on release. Nacro argues that prisons should be places of “learning, earning and true rehabilitation”, recommending that the use of Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) is improved so that all people who are eligible have genuine opportunities to be released during the day, work in the community, and earn a real wage. Nacro also recommends a national pay scale for people in prison should be established, reviewing current wages in order to ensure people have sufficient funds to by the things they need, keep in touch with friends and family, and save for release.
Weekends in prison | HM Inspectorate of Prisons conducted a thematic review of weekends in prison, based on 11 unannounced visits to adult prisons on a Saturday or Sunday. It found 60% of people have less than two hours out of cell each day at weekends, and most were not unlocked for long enough to complete essential domestic tasks like showering, cleaning their cell, making phone calls, and submitting applications. Where there was association time, people were left with little to do; recreation equipment was often broken or out of use, and there were few enrichment activities. Inspectors also found opportunities for engaging in constructive activities limited, if they existed at all, with access to gyms inconsistent and libraries closed at weekends. Time in the open air was also not guaranteed.
A thematic inspection of Offender Management in Custody (OMiC) post-release | HM Inspectorate of Probation conducted the second part of a joint inspection of OMiC, finding it was not working as intended. Focussing on outcomes after people are released from prison, inspectors considered how practitioners assessed, planned, and reviewed the work required to support successful resettlement. It found that only four out of 10 people in the sample went into settled accommodation on release from custody, 8% of those available for work went into employment, recall rates were high with 30% on average being returned to custody, and in some probation regions, almost half were recalled to prison. Most recalls were caused by homelessness, a return to drug or alcohol use, or a failure to ensure continuity of a case pre and post release, rather than reoffending.
Lammy’s prison recommendations five years on | Following the Lammy Review, published in 2017, Prison Reform Trust (PRT) has gathered evidence of progress on the 11 specific recommendations concerning prisons, and three overarching recommendations on recording, monitoring, and acting to address disproportionate outcomes. It found that six recommendations had seen no progress and eight had seen partial progress. However, none were rated as having been made and having the desired impact. One of these recommendations, on which there has been no progress, concerns the use of force in prisons, and despite repeated assurances, PRT highlights that regular statistics on the use of force are still not published and there is no available evidence of performance in the application of the use of force policy.
Exploring gambling and its role within prison culture | The Howard League for Penal Reform published a report by Dr Sarah Lewis and Justine Best on gambling within the cultural context of prison. Using a participatory model of research it found, despite not being officially sanctioned, gambling activity in prison was widespread and diverse, accessed by both people in prison and staff, but it was surrounded by a degree of secrecy. People gambled with currencies ranging from money to material goods, to acts of service. It also found limited staff awareness of the ways gambling activity could be problematic, usually in relation to the resultant debt or violence. In addition, where gambling behaviour was recognised, it was often left to continue. Recommendations centre, among other things, on the review of the prison system’s guidance on gambling.
Probation
Ethical humility in probation | HM Inspectorate of Probation published its latest Academic Insights paper, which looks at ethical humility. This is generally defined as having an awareness of moral fallibility, and implies a quality where practitioners are less than absolutely certain about their moral instincts and judgements. The report concludes the concept of humility is central to probation, with a comprehensive application of the concept entailing several elements including an understanding of the diverse implications of ethical humility in probation settings, the ways ethical humility can help prevent overconfidence, and the mechanisms to enhance probation practitioners’ ability to identify and meaningfully address workplace challenges that arise at the individual, interpersonal, and organisational levels.
Youth justice
HM Inspectorate of Probation: evidence base on youth offending services | HM Inspectorate of Probation has published a series of webpages exploring the evidence base around youth offending services. It aims to present concise summaries of research findings, beginning with the principle that youth offending practice should be evidence led as the inspectorate believes the government’s strategic aim for youth reoffending services will most likely be achieved if this is the case. The Inspectorate says it will continue to develop this resource and update it when required to reflect the latest evidence. The resource covers evidence on general models and principles; organisational delivery; supervision when working with children; and specific areas of delivery, such as family relationships, substance use, and adversity and trauma.
The implementation and delivery of community resolutions: the role of youth offending services | HM Inspectorate of Probation published its latest Research and Analysis Bulletin, on the role of youth offending services in community resolutions. These resolutions are a type of out-of-court disposal that allows the police to deal with less serious offences in an informal way, providing a diversionary approach without formal court proceedings. Key findings include that there was national variation in the implementation and delivery of community resolutions, such as around the types of offence eligible for the resolution. It also found young people spoke positively about the impact of community resolutions on their thinking and behaviour, but raised feelings of frustration with what were perceived as repetitive sessions. The report found the lack of published data on the resolutions remains a significant gap to understanding their use and effectiveness.
Arts
“We are what we eat”: an exploration of prison food | The Museum of London approached HMP Pentonville to ask if people serving sentences would be interested in contributing to “London Eats”, a year long community project to document, record, and collect information around Londoners’ relationship with food. The Prison Art Group at HMP Pentonville agreed to participate, with the group producing over 40 pieces of art and short texts about prison food over six months. These were self-published in the booklet We Are What We Eat. The works produced explore things including the importance of cell kettles for cooking food purchased from the canteen list, the lack of variety of the prison menu, and the lack of communal spaces to eat, forcing people to take their food back to their cells.
Race
Race consciousness and the law | The Howard League for Penal Reform published a report written by Dr Alexandra Cox, based on focus groups with criminal lawyers in England and Wales. It found that widespread adherence by the legal system to the notion that the law should be “colourblind” or “race neutral” is a barrier to eradicating and challenging racist and discriminatory practice, and that there is a lack of financial and educational support to help lawyers challenge and eradicate racism. The report recommended lawyers engage in race conscious advocacy of their clients, which acknowledges clients often-negative experience in the criminal justice system. It also recommended lawyers cultivate expert witnesses who can help make clear and contextualise how systemic racism has contributed to their clients’ experience over the course of their life.
A safe place and a safe time | The Centre for Justice Innovation published a report about providing effective advocacy to racially minoritised survivors of domestic abuse and harmful practices in contact with the criminal justice system. The report notes these “victim-survivors” are more likely to choose to withdraw their case or see them dropped, and there is evidence they face even greater barriers to participating in the criminal justice process than non-racially minoritised counterparts. Findings include that reporting abuse is often not a priority for racially minoritised victim-survivors who have more pressing needs such as accessing accommodation or safety planning, and they may face additional barriers which make them less likely to report abuse. Recommendations include specialist domestic abuse courts being revived to improve co-ordination and partnership working, and advocates being provided with specialist training.
Strip searching of children in England and Wales | The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, has published a further report into the strip searching of children under stop and search powers in England and Wales. Dame Rachel found 2,847 were strip searched between 2018 and mid-2022. Moreover, it was found that 52% of searches took place without an appropriate adult confirmed to be present, 45% did not have search locations recorded, and 51% resulted in no further action. 38% of strip searches were of Black children, who were disproportionately more likely to be searched, compared to the national population figures, while white children were disproportionately less likely to be searched. Recommendations include amending the Police and Criminal Evidence Codes A and C to strengthen the statutory safeguards for children strip searched by the police.
Sentencing
Public understanding of sentencing polling data | As part of its inquiry into the public understanding of sentencing, the Justice Committee commissioned public polling, the findings of which have been published. When asked about important factors in setting sentences, protecting the public from further harm emerged as the most important (with 64% ranking it in the top three), followed by ensuring the victim and/or their family feel they have secured justice (56%), and the punishment of the person who committed the crime (52%). Rehabilitation of people convicted of offences was ranked sixth with only 27% ranking it in the top three factors. The polling also asked about mitigating factors in sentencing, with 48% saying a mental health condition or learning disability should be taken into account, the most commonly chosen factor.
Restorative justice
Understanding barriers to restorative justice for young people, young adults, and victims of crime | Why Me? published a report on barriers to restorative justice for young people and young adults. It found a lack of awareness of restorative justice and its availability, and that restorative justice terminology can be confusing, including the term “restorative justice” itself. Once aware of restorative justice, the report found a lack of formal processes through which it can be accessed. The disparity in uptake of restorative justice for racially minoritised young people and young adults was often due to a lack of trust in services, particularly the police. Recommendations include regional probation directors promoting restorative justice as a recommended intervention, and the introduction of a ring-fenced restorative justice budget, separate to the Victim’s grant to ensure financial sustainability and equal access.
Reflections on the Race and Justice Network | Clinks Race and Justice Network Co-ordinator, Kaiya Caines, has written a blog about the work of the network. From conversations with many network members, the need for collaborative working, and use of the network as a “safe space” to identify challenges and how they can be overcome have been highlighted. This will be pursued through regular forums spotlighting members wishing to raise issues. Conversations also raised a need for members to feel equipped and able to build organisational capacity. Ways of doing this over the coming year are being explored. Looking to the year ahead, Kaiya notes some of the recent changes across government suggest discussions about race and direct discrimination have been put back on the agenda.
International Women’s Day: Have we thought about women in prison? | HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ Team Leader for Women, Sandra Fieldhouse, has written about the particular needs of women in custody. Noting there are distinct differences between the needs of men and women in custody, Fieldhouse highlights recent findings from an inspection of HMP New Hall, where they found the situation was better. The commitment to regular contact reduced frustrations and benefits were seen for women across all areas of prison life. Inspectors found a wide range of support for women who had experienced trauma, and the rates of self-harm were markedly lower than in similar prisons. She argues this cannot be a coincidence. Fieldhouse said there is still a long way to go, but if she could change one thing today, it would be to get the basics right.
Healthy relationships make the biggest difference | Youth Justice Board (YJB) member Sharon Gray, has written about the impact of trauma on children and the benefits of healthy relationships in a trusted and safe place to support recovery. To support practitioners, Gray notes the resources available in the Youth Justice Resource Hub, and highlights the importance of building trust between a practitioner and child and of the physical environment, with trusted spaces varying from child to child. Gray argues we must always listen to the voice of the child. Highlighting some of the YJB’s activity, she discusses work with the Association of Colleges to raise and maintain awareness of older children being denied access to courses due to youth justice system involvement, and developing their trauma-informed work, including evaluating a pathfinder in the South West.
The rates of stillbirth for women in prison in England | The Observer ran a story highlighting women in prison have a seven-times higher probability of suffering a stillbirth than those in the general population. They found this was an increase from a five-times higher probability than two years ago. For the years 2020-22, stillbirths were at a rate of 27.1 per 1,000 births, compared to 4 per 1,000 births for the general population. It also found 25% of babies born to women in prison were admitted to a neonatal unit, compared to the national figure of 14%, and 12% of babies born in prison were found to have a low birth weight, compared to 6.5% among the general public. The government said it is taking action to improve the support available for pregnant women in prison.
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This month's edition was written by...
Clinks Policy Officer Franklin Barrington
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