Thursday 5 November 2015

Gove Charm Offensive

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By all accounts it seems to have been a bit of a mutual 'love-in' at the Howard League's AGM yesterday. In stark contrast to Chris Grayling, who famously refused to have anything to do with the much-respected charity, Michael Gove was only too happy to turn up and charm the audience. 

Until we get the text of his speech we will have to rely on the odd tweet, or the BBC's report from Danny Shaw available here. I'm sure the idea of getting prison officers to wear body cameras so as to monitor their behaviour will go down really well with the POA and I dare say some members are already thinking up creative ways of making sure they regularly malfunction. 

Continuing with the policy of air-brushing probation completely out of the picture, I gather we didn't get a mention from Gove and he merely talked of an aspiration to 'improve the rehabilitation of prisoners'. How is he going to achieve that by doing nothing to halt the TR omnishambles that is slowly destroying the probation service?

The fact is we continue to lack a champion or effective voice and I don't expect a peep out of the likes of Napo or the Probation Institute. All in stark contrast of course to a very well-orchestrated assault and publicity campaign currently being waged by the police. Here's Danny Shaw's report:-

Justice Secretary Michael Gove has said he wants to reduce the prison population in England and Wales.

Addressing the Howard League for Penal Reform's conference, Mr Gove said he hoped numbers would "fall over time". He also indicated there could be major reforms to sentencing - but added that he did not want to "leap to any conclusions". The use of body-worn cameras, currently being trialled, would improve the prison staff behaviour, he also said.

"If prison officers are wearing body-worn cameras that does mean they're less likely to be assaulted, it also means they're more likely... to behave appropriately and decently as well," he told the central London conference.

'Effective' rehabilitation

The justice secretary was directly asked by a panel member whether the prison population, currently 85,000, needed to be cut. He replied: "Obviously I'd like to see the prison population fall over time. I believe the best way we can do that is by dealing effectively with those offenders who are in our care at the moment, through effective rehabilitation."

Mr Gove's remarks echoed David Cameron's comments at the Conservative Party conference last month, in which the prime minister called for an end to the sterile "lock 'em up or let 'em out" debate. The justice secretary said he wanted to "transcend the old divisions that used to bedevil the debate".

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said that in recent years government minsters had tended to shy away from answering questions about wanting to reduce prison numbers, worried that they could appear "soft" or that their aims would not be achieved.

'Sensitive' regime

Mr Gove also indicated that there could be major reforms of sentencing. "We do need to look at our whole sentencing framework," he said, adding that he did not want to "leap to any conclusions".

He said more research was needed on the effectiveness of sentencing before devising plans as to how a "more sensitive" regime could be achieved and said it was "worth analysing" the impact of short sentences.

Other options ministers are understood to be looking at include greater use of electronic tagging as an alternative to imprisonment, and reducing the number of inmates who are recalled to jail for beaching the terms of their release.

The Howard League conference was also told about the justice secretary's plans to give prison governors more control and the sell-off of older prisons, which he said had support at the "heart" of government.
 

26 comments:

  1. Free Labour? Good job Sodexo are advertising for CRC directors at £90K, otherwise what would they do with all that spare money they stole from the EVR pot?

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  2. I think if Gove is genuine in wanting to reform sentencing he will need to do it fairly swiftly, otherwise the next election will be upon him before he knows it, and the calls of "soft on crime" will start flying around.

    Having said that, there could also be an element of bowing to pressure from CRC owners who have seen much lower volumes than they were expecting - greater use of tagging along with those lovely RARs?

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  3. I hope everyone was heartened to see Chris Grayling winning an award for Conservative MP of 2010-15, apparently for his "work for under-represented, deprived and minority communities".

    http://l2b.thelawyer.com/home/news/chris-grayling-wins-award-for-his-time-as-justice-secretary/3040469.article

    This must rank alongside Henry Kissinger's Nobel Peace Prize.

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    1. The Grayling award clearly falls into the "you could not make it
      up" category. Re Kissinger, it was the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Kissinger that caused the great American satirical song writer Tom Lehrer, to end his performing career, on the basis that
      "political satire is now dead."

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  4. Following the introduction of body cameras for police officers in California, in the first year after the cameras' introduction, the use of force by officers declined 60%, and citizen complaints against police fell 88%.

    These positive findings show that cameras can make a real difference – to policing, in prisons and immigration centres and care homes for the vulnerable.

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  5. In a total free market economy the police would be privatised

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  6. What's all this talk about CRCs getting less money than expected?

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    1. The numbers that were forecast at bidding stage by MOJ are not currently coming through so less money

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    2. Baroness Corston asked:

      "To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the proportion of people in the justice system currently supervised by the National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Companies is different to the proportions predicted during the Transforming Rehabilitation contracting process; and whether any differences between the predicted and actual numbers of people so supervised has had any impact on the development of the supply chains contained in the winning Transforming Rehabilitation contract bids."
      Hansard source
      (Citation: HL Deb, 29 October 2015, cW)

      Lord Faulks replied:

      "No prediction of the case allocation split between the National Probation Service (NPS) and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) was made at the time of the Transforming Rehabilitation competition. Instead, actual data was used to identify the proportion of cases that sat with either the NPS or CRCs. The actual proportion of offenders allocated to the NPS or CRCs is now different compared to that at the time of the competition. Any shift in the relative caseloads held between NPS and CRCs would be as a result of a change in the mix of offenders within the system

      The Ministry of Justice monitors offender case allocation and expects providers to implement the supply chains that were set out in their bids during the TR competition, unless otherwise agreed with the Authority. We are working with suppliers to ascertain any potential impact on the supply chain."

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    3. I'm not sure all areas are making use of the supply chain either i.e. the extra 'services' CRCs charge for.

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    4. NPS staff in one area have been told not to use the supply chain because there is no money to pay for things like Programmes, benefits advice, ETE and Accom advice. They are to give as much advice as they can.

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  7. whats this about NPS not being able to carry leave over - not even the 5 days Use it or lose it apparently

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    1. Same in my area, no carry over leave unless in exceptional circumstances which presumably includes the entitlement to carry over a statutory number if days in the event of long term absence, I think that is right.

      What do others think of the E3 blueprint? Significant changes for the the function in which I am based. Big management changes across the area with talk about job evaluation.

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    2. my area has confirmed that we cant even carry over 5 days with immediate effect. I don't really see the point of this, how are MOJ gaining by making NPS staff not carry days over? I'm wondering if the instruction's been misinterpreted because my contract tells me that I can carry up to 5 days over.

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  8. It crazy how some are saying CRCs in their areas are not getting numbers expected and NPS are so stretched. Not my experience, its so vastly disproportionate - its a mad mad world in both camps up and down the country. It is not lost on me that 2 years ago we were fighting hard to stop this madness, now feels everything we said would happening is steadily unravelling

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  9. E3 blueprint -NPS PSOs will hold medium ROSH, complex and DV cases. Why would the CRCs pay POs to do the same?

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    1. Heard nps want most reports to be done as oral reports on the day by psos including high risk & dv ???

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    2. Yes good point why would CRC pay PO to do this

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    3. 90% same day reports with PO's only writing in exceptional cases, presumably assessments of dangerousness. No room for police or social services checks on dv cases. No proper treatment needs assessments for sex offenders. No properly condidered assessments for drug or alcohol treatment. No chance of researching and organising mental health treatment requirements. I could go on and on and on and on. NAPO and Unison must campaign on this. Mags and Judges must be canvassed and encouraged to speak out. This will make a mockery of the NPS. Use the managements apparent biggest fear, reputational damage.

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    4. As observed many times on this forum, the Courts were Probation's marketplace; they were where we shone brightest, where we earned respect amongst sentencers, legal practitioners & our clients, where our workload was generated. Court Duty Officers were our eyes & ears, our intelligence gatherers & our shop front. When piss-poor myopic management targetted & destroyed our presence in the Courts we lost control of our own destiny.

      E3, CRC, NPS, NOMS, TOM, Dick & Harry... its all gone to ratshit on the whims of ideological fantasists with alphabetti-spaghetti and greedy arseholes with power. Not one politician seems to be able to speak without lying, we have the current government cosy with despotic & murderous regimes (egypt, saudi, china) & desperate to bomb somewhere and a criminal justice system that, already frail from Labour's interfering hand, has been poisoned by its former guardian ad litem, aka C S Grayling, who's recently been rewarded for his treachery. A bit like naming Harold Shipman as "GP of the Century".

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    5. PO's being taken out of magistrates court to be replaced again with PSO's.

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    6. I'm a PO in CRC and therefore have not seen the E3 blueprint but would the medium ROSH, complex and dv cases held by PSOs in NPS be MAPPA eligible? We can't have MAPPA cases in CRC, therefore medium ROSH, complex and dv cases would still be held by POs in CRC but they wouldn't be MAPPA....?

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    7. Mappa 2 and 3 should be held by NPS POs according to the blueprint, if not they'd be held by PSOs.

      CRCs will look at the risk profiles managed by PSOs in the NPS and wonder why they're paying a PO to manage the same degree of complexity and risk as NPS PSOs.

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    8. Also: the OS role will be defunct, cases will not be routinely coworked so those PSOs won't have PO oversight on those complex, medium rosh and dv cases

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  10. Apparently Michael Gove was speaking "off the cuff" so no text of speech from MoJ...

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    Replies
    1. And there was silly old me thinking that Gove was talking out of his hat.

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