In this month's edition...
Clinks has a new and exciting opportunity for you to join as our Policy and Communications Officer. The Policy and Communications Officer will be part of the Influence and Communications directorate, and they will help support the delivery of core policy and communication functions. The deadline for applications is 9am, Monday 14 August.
On behalf of Clinks, Anne Fox signed a civil society statement from a coalition of 290 organisation condemning the passage of the Illegal Migration Act and standing in solidarity with all who will be affected. The passing of the Bill into law will result in many more people held in detention. Read the statement here.
Clinks also signed an open letter regarding the exclusion of the issue of women’s incarceration from high-level forums on women’s rights. Such exclusion impacts the global funding and prioritisation of policy change related to women’s incarceration. Read the letter here.
Clinks, along with a wide range of other organisations in the criminal justice sector and beyond, is supporting INQUEST’s “No More Deaths” campaign. This calls for a National Oversight Mechanism to be introduced. This would be a new independent public body responsible for collating, analysing, and following up on recommendations arising from inquests, inquiries, official reviews, and investigations into state-related deaths. Others can continue to support INQUEST’s campaign by signing their petition.
Clinks contributed to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) prioritisation of its mental health guidelines. The aim of prioritisation is to allow NICE to focus resources on topic areas where maintenance and update of recommendations add value in improving people’s health and care. Clinks commented on staff training, the criminal justice guidelines relating to mental health screenings, and support in prison.
The first annual report on the government’s 10-year drugs strategy | The government published the first annual report on its drugs strategy. It notes that an additional 1,670 drug and alcohol treatment workers have been recruited, of which 479 are focussed on criminal justice, the number of Incentivised Substance Free Living units has been doubled, and 18 drugs strategy leads have been recruited in prison as well as over 490 health and justice partnership co-ordinators in probation. The number of referrals from the criminal justice system has increased by 8% and the number of people leaving prison who continue their treatment has risen by 4.5%. An action-focussed set of plans will be developed on improving treatment and recovery routes from the police, courts, and for prison leavers, as well as improving treatment in prisons.
Letter from the Lord Chancellor about the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) Action Plan | The Lord Chancellor, Rt Hon Alex Chalk KC MP, has written to the Chair of the Commons Justice Committee, Sir Bob Neill MP, to provide the terms of reference for the Chief Inspector of Probation’s thematic inspection of the Probation Service’s practice in recalling people serving IPP sentences to custody. This will pass headline findings to the government later this year and publish its full report in 2024. The letter also gives an update on the IPP Action Plan: the Lord Chancellor notes the key actions are on track, with a review completed of where people serving IPP sentences in prison are held and whether the necessary interventions are delivered in those prisons. An annual report on the Action Plan will be published, beginning in March 2024.
Early Days in Custody Review | A team in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is conducting a scoping project on the Early Days in Custody Prison Service Instruction (PSI), which covers reception, first nights, and induction. The project will inform further thinking on whether a full review and update to the policy/guidance is needed. The team would welcome views from Clinks members on any issues you are aware of with current early days policy and practice, from the perspective of people in prison, providers or others. They would welcome any best practice you can share.
If you have anything to share on this topic, please email the Policy team with the subject heading ‘Early Days in Custody Review’. We will also be arranging a focus group for later this month – do let us know if you would be keen to attend, and let us know your availability on either the 16 or 17 of August.
New code of practice published for police cautions | Following the new cautions framework introduced in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published a code of practice for their implementation. The new framework involves a lower tier Community Caution and an upper tier Diversionary Caution. These would be issued with one or more “meaningful conditions” for rehabilitation or to provide “direct restitution” to the victim or local community. People would be required to admit to the offence to be eligible for the new cautions, and certain offences will be excluded. The MoJ is consulting on its draft code of practice, which closes on 13 October 2023. This announcement followed reporting the government is considering introducing mandatory prison sentences for people convicted of repeat offences. This has received criticism from MPs, and the voluntary sector (paywall).
Latest government 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 85,851 people in prison on 30 June 2023, and 239,518 people on probation on 31 March 2023. There were 313 deaths in custody in the year to June 2023, a 9% increase on last year. The number of self-harm incidents in prison rose 11% in the year to March 2023, with the rate of self-harm incidents per 1,000 people increasing 51% in female establishments and decreasing 5% in male establishments. The annualised rate of self-harm per 100 children in the CYPSE fell 25% in the quarter to March 2023, compared to the same quarter last year. The proven reoffending rate for the July to September 2021 cohort was 25.2%.
HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2022 to March 2023 | HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) published its Annual Digest for 2022 to 2023. During this period, the percentage of people in prison in crowded conditions increased by two percentage points, to 23%. The finds of drugs in prisons fell 17% on the previous year and finds of mobile phones fell 2%. However, alcohol finds increased 9% on the year before, as well as weapon finds which rose 17%. Protesting behaviour has not reached pre-pandemic levels, despite a rise in all types compared to the previous year. Applications to Mother and Baby Units also remained lower than in the year before, standing at 78 in the 12 months to March 2023, compared to 95 in 2019/20.
Prison Performance Ratings: 2022 to 2023 | The Ministry of Justice has published its prison performance ratings for 2022/23, following the introduction of a new prison framework to assess performance. In 2022/23, 13 prisons (10.9%) were given a rating of outstanding, the lowest number of prisons to receive this rating since 2016/17, and a decline of over five percentage points on the proportion rated as outstanding in 2019/20. There were also nine establishments given a rating of serious concern, two more than in 2019/20. Open, Category B, and Category C Resettlement prisons were the only functional groups where no prisons were given a rating of serious concern. Each of these groups also had one prison attain a rating of outstanding.
Community Performance Annual, update to March 2023 | The Ministry of Justice published its annual release looking at probation performance from April 2022 to March 2023. This notes that two out of 12 probation regions were rated as “good”, with all other regions rated as either “requires improvement” or “inadequate”. The release also highlights that Commissioned Rehabilitative Services performance has been improving across the year. The Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3) has seen 5,796 people placed in accommodation between 1 July 2021 and 31 March 2023. Of these places, 93.5% were for men and 6.3% for women.
Alex Chalk reverses Dominic Raab’s damaging changes to open conditions transfers | The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) have highlighted the change made by the new Lord Chancellor, Alex Chalk, withdrawing amendments made to criteria for transferring people serving indeterminate prison sentences from closed to open prison conditions made by his predecessor. The original amendments were introduced in June 2022 and resulted in a significant decrease in the numbers of people being transferred to open conditions. Following this, PRT and others raised concerns this would have serious impacts on the sentence progression of people serving indeterminate sentences. The new change removes the previously ambiguous test that a move to open conditions should be “considered essential” and that it should not undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system, which together resulted in the majority of recommendations being rejected by the government.
Electronic Monitoring (EM) statistics, June 2023 | The Ministry of Justice published the latest EM statistics. These show the number of individuals fitted with an EM device as of 30 June 2023 was 22% higher than 30 June last year. Court bail orders remain the largest cohort of people fitted with an EM device, accounting for 36% of all people fitted with an EM device. Of those people with an EM device, a location monitoring (GPS) device account for 45% of individuals, with the increase the result of the continued rollout of EM to new cohorts, particularly immigration bail. The number of individuals fitted with an alcohol monitoring device rose 119% from 30 June 2022 to 30 June 2023, reflecting the national rollout of the alcohol monitoring for prison leavers from June 2022.
Justice Data Lab statistics: Lancashire Women | The Ministry of Justice’s Justice Data Lab publishes tailored reports assessing the impact on rehabilitation programmes on reoffending behaviour. In the most recent set of publications, from July 2023, the Data Lab published a second evaluation for Clinks member, Lancashire Women, looking at participants of their programme between 2015 and 2021. The organisation offers support to women around societal stigmas, housing, emotional wellbeing, education, employment, and family and relationships. The overall results show that those who took part in the programme were statistically significantly less likely to reoffend, reoffended less frequently, and took longer to reoffend, than those who did not take part.
Funding opportunity: cost of living
The National Lottery Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund | This new grant funding programme from the National Lottery Community Fund is for small-medium sized organisations supporting low-income households and individuals. Funds are aimed at those already providing critical services around at least one of the following: food and emergency supplies, emergency shelter/homeless services, safe spaces, including domestic abuse services, warmth services and financial and housing advice. Your organisation must be facing both increased demand for these services and increased costs of delivering them. If you have an annual turnover of between £10,000 and around £1 million you can apply for between £10,000 and £75,000. Funding will take place from October 2023 and grants must be spent by the end of March 2024. The deadline for applications is 16 October 2023 at 12 noon.
Women
Dismantling Disadvantage: Levelling up public services for women with multiple unmet needs | In partnership with Changing Lives, Agenda Alliance have published its report highlighting the experiences of women with multiple unmet needs accessing public services, including criminal justice services, in the North East. It explores how these services can be improved post-pandemic to respond more effectively to women’s needs. The report makes a number of recommendations such as the need for early intervention and prevention; gender-, trauma-, and culturally responsive support; greater co-ordination between services; embedding co-production; and long-term and sustainable funding and commissioning.
Opening of One Small Thing’s Hope Street facility | The Princess of Wales joined Edwina Grosvenor to officially open the Hope Street facility in Southampton. One Small Thing's commitment to systemic change for women and their children in the justice system inspired them to build Hope Street, a facility designed by and for women providing safe accommodation and a compassionate approach to prevent trauma faced by mothers being separated from their children. Hope Street is piloting a new approach to working with justice involved women. From within a healing, trauma-informed, residential environment, women and children will have access to a range of specialist support. By taking a positive and compassionate approach, they aim to create a blueprint for change that can be replicated across the country and achieve better outcomes for women, their children and society.
Double disadvantage
Tackling Double Disadvantage Action Plan: ‘One year on’ Progress Report | Following publication of the Tackling Double Disadvantage Action Plan in January 2022, a progress report on the plan has been published. This highlights official statistics demonstrating the scale of the challenges. These include that racially minoritised women are over-represented at every stage of the criminal justice system, and that 16% of the women’s prison population are recorded as being from a racially minoritised background. To achieve progress, the plan calls for senior leaders to give a higher priority to ending intersectional discrimination and inequality for racially minoritised women in the criminal justice system, fostering a strategic, cross-government approach to change. It says this should include a focus on impact and a commitment to transparency, focussed on the expertise of women with lived experience and voluntary and specialist organisations.
Westminster Hall debate on the criminalisation of victims of violence against women and girls from ethnic minority and migrant communities | Kate Osamor MP, the Labour/Co-operative MP for Edmonton, led a debate in Westminster Hall. She argued there is a “continuing failure to take domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls seriously. Victims continue to be prosecuted and convicted for offences that result directly from their experience of abuse.” Ms Osamor noted the work of the Centre for Women’s Justice and the Tackling Double Disadvantage partnership, and presented recommendations to the Minister including the implementation of a firewall to end the sharing of victims’ and witnesses’ data between the police and Home Office for immigration enforcement purposes. The Minister said the recommendations would be “carefully looked at” and highlighted work being undertaken, including that of the female offender minority ethnic working group (FOME).
Health
My Story, My Words, My Mouth | A team of researchers at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Dundee created a short film exploring the oral health experiences of people with convictions and their experiences of accessing healthcare on release. The film’s storyline and script were written by those with lived experience of the criminal justice system. Inspired by the stories of people with lived experience of the criminal justice system and their struggles in accessing dental care, the film features professional actors Ric Renton and Megan Samuels, hired through the Synergy Theatre Project. The project received funding from the BASCD-Borrow Foundation Early Career Research award. It aims to stimulate conversation, change perceptions, and inform oral health policies for this underserved group.
Youth justice
HM Inspectorate of Probation published its annual report on the inspection of Youth Offending Service | HM Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell, describes the report as “generally positive”, noting a significant number of services inspected last year were “good” or “outstanding”. He notes the accelerating trend towards children being dealt with informally through “community resolutions”, rather than through the courts, but points out the Ministry of Justice does not make data on these disposals available despite previous recommendations. Russell also highlights local inspections show some significant improvements in the quality of work done with out-of-court disposal cases. However, he raised concern around education and training, an area where lots of recommendations are being made in inspection reports. Russell also notes little progress has been made on resettlement of children leaving custody, with little evidence of progress since a previous review in 2015.
Open letter calls for urgent government action to prevent crisis in the children’s secure estate (CYPSE) | The Alliance for Youth Justice (AYJ) has written to the Minister, Rt Hon Damien Hinds MP, to raise the alarm about deteriorating conditions in the CYPSE and the measures being put in place in those settings. The letter has been signed by over 30 signatories working with and on behalf of children and young adults in the criminal justice system. The letter highlights concerns about poor and potentially unlawful treatment of children and young people in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), the proposed rollout of PAVA spray to the CYPSE, and the significant increase in the number of young people aged 18 or over being held in the CYPSE.
Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) write to the Minister about urgent action to improve poor conditions “endemic” in Young Offenders Institutions (YOIs) | The IMB National Chair, Elizabeth Davies, has written to the Minister, Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP, to urge him to take urgent action to improve the conditions in YOIs in England. IMBs found children were subject to severely restrictive regimes, commonly spending 19 to 21 hours a day in their rooms; they were being denied access to purposeful activity and education, often caused by significant staff shortages; violence remains a problem and, in some cases, incidents were caused by the impact of restricted regimes; attempts to manage violence by keeping certain children apart was a growing issue with Feltham A attempting to manage nine different regimes; and an increasing cohort of children with complex needs which were not being met.
Criminal justice system
Close to home: The case for localising criminal justice services in England and Wales | Transform Justice published a report making the case for decentralising criminal justice services. They argue that crime can be reduced and communities made safer by giving local leaders the power and incentives to tackle crime at a local level, by localising justice services and budgets. This would involve delegating justice budgets for prison places, magistrates’ courts’ administration, policing, prosecution, and probation to police and crime commissioners or mayors. Local services could be financially incentivised to shift investment upstream, from enforcement to prevention, by allowing them to benefit from the savings in investment, with standards being monitored through inspectorate, effective community scrutiny, and a newly created interdepartmental board. They propose the Crown Prosecution Service, Crown Courts, and prisons continue to be managed nationally.
Prison
Calls for full review of Ministry of Justice vetting processes | The Criminal Justice Alliance, in collaboration with Clinks, The National Women’s Justice Coalition and Revolving Doors, has complied a joint briefing paper highlighting the detrimental impact of vetting delays and denials on individuals and organisations working in the criminal justice system. The paper presents case studies and expert insights, calling for a comprehensive review of vetting processes and making urgent recommendations, such as greater clarity on criteria and decision-making, fast-track routes for core staff, and the introduction of a centralised system to eliminate repetitive applications. The goal is to prompt the Ministry of Justice to reevaluate and improve vetting procedures.
A death row of sorts: Indeterminate custodial sentences in the UK | The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies published a briefing on indeterminate custodial sentences in the UK. This explains the different types of indeterminate sentence in different jurisdictions across the UK, before highlighting some of the risks and challenges of them, including the failure to manage the period of uncertainty beyond the tariff, the lack of access to effective courses and programmes, and the lack of adequate post-release support and the frequency of recall. The briefing concludes that there are common features between the indeterminate sentences across the UK, particularly the incorporation of preventive detention in the latter part of a prison sentence. It argues that important change of status, once a person has passed the minimum tariff, calls for appropriate detention conditions, which differ from typical conditions.
Probation
A necessary but painful journey: Experiences of unification in a probation service region | An article in the Probation Journal presented initial findings from the first year of a longitudinal study of the experiences of probation unification by probation staff. Despite working in what was often described as an unsettled and fractured environment, marked by ongoing staff shortages, and responding to the impact of the pandemic, among most staff their remained a high level of loyalty to the profession, or the idea of probation. While many expressed optimism regarding the longer-term outcomes for the unified service, there were also concerns about how this would play out in the short to medium term. The article also notes some described an “overbearing pressure to manage risk, coupled with a fear of being exposed if people whom they supervised committed a Serious Further Offence”.
A tripartite strategy for unpaid work in the community | HM Inspectorate of Probation has published a new Academic Insight, A tripartite strategy for unpaid work in the community. This paper proposes the advancement of a tripartite strategy, based on the principles of desistance, restorative justice, and social justice, to guide policy and operational developments relating to unpaid work in the community. It also raises two practical challenges to implementing this strategy: public perceptions and the challenges of monitoring and evaluation. It suggests approaches need to be developed to communicate with the public to enhance understanding of the unpaid work requirement and to gain public support and buy-in. It also emphasises the need to develop and use a wider range of monitoring tools to comprehensively evaluate unpaid work and further develop its use.
A thematic inspection of work undertaken, and progress made, by the Probation Service to reduce the incidence of domestic abuse and protect victims | In this thematic inspection, HM Inspectorate of Probation found there have been improvements to the leadership of domestic abuse work at a national level, and clearer policies are now in place to guide this work, but there is still room for improvement. While a good range of domestic abuse interventions were available, there was little delivery of structured interventions, and practitioner workloads were “excessively high” in too many places. Moreover, poor-quality risk assessments were found concerning domestic abuse that missed essential details or did not provide sufficient analysis. Information from other agencies or previous probation assessments was underused. Recommendations to the Probation Service include engaging in multi-agency training and awareness-raising events with partner agencies. Following the publication of this report, the Ministry of Justice published its action plan.
Arts
Findings from the 2022-23 Participation Survey, giving nationally representative estimates of engagement with the arts | The Participation Survey found 90% of adults engaged with the arts at least once a month in 2022/23, a two point increase on last year. Of those adults, 63% engaged exclusively physically, while 27% engaged both physically and digitally, and 1% engaged only digitally. Digital engagement with the arts was lower and less frequent than physical engagement. The most popular modes of physical engagement were reading, cinema, and playing video games, similar to what was seen in 2021/22. For digital engagement, the most common mode was watching a pre-recorded music or dance event. The top barriers to physical engagement were a lack of interest, followed by no reason in particular, whereas the top barriers to digital engagement were no reason in particular followed by lack of interest.
Breaking the cycle of crisis and crime: the role of magistrates | Revolving Doors spoke to three of their members to explore what led them to being caught up in the cycle of crisis and crime, how they broke free of it, and how magistrates can support people with desistance. One member explained they served a number of short sentences in their teens, but these did not act as a deterrent, because the challenge they were facing around substance use was the underlying issue, and this was not addressed by a short custodial sentence. They noted these sentences uproot someone from their community, and when they leave prison, they face even bigger challenges. When asked what they would tell a magistrate, the members said magistrates should treat everyone like a human and listen to the person in front of them.
Locked in? Initiating debate on crisis, scandal, and criminal justice | Alongside the publication of its new discussion paper, the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) has published a blog written by Claudia Vince, the Programme Co-ordinator for their Building Futures Programme. This paper’s purpose is to encourage open and constructive discussion about crisis and scandal, and the role they play in shaping policy and practice. Vince writes that people in prison often take the brunt of knee-jerk policy responses following particular crises and scandals, particularly those serving long sentences. This group noted prison life is often defined by an endless cycle of crises and scandals, with many achieving little substantial change but harming the wellbeing of people in prison.
Beyond mere ‘maintenance’: what people experiencing multiple disadvantage need from the criminal justice system | Revolving Doors published a blog from a member of their National Expert Citizen Group. The blog rejects trauma-informed practice existing within the system, with the author drawing on their own experiences to suggest the objectives of interventions is to provide a means of “maintenance” until release. For instance, they describe being prescribed antidepressants and told to keep taking them until their release, then speak to their doctor for “help with more personal treatments”. They go on to suggest practical changes that could make a significant difference. These include ensuring every alternative is considered before imposing a “short” prison sentence. When a custodial sentence is the only option, a thorough assessment of mental health needs and access to appropriate resources must be made available throughout, from pre-sentence to resettlement.
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This month's edition was written by...
Clinks Policy Officer Franklin Barrington
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