Something's In The Air

Regular readers will not be surprised to hear that I often have periods when I think I'm wasting my time with this blog. "It's all been said; the end is nigh; nobody is listening; nothing can be done; etc etc.," but then suddenly the heavenly bodies seem to align as if by some mysterious force and you get the distinct feeling something's definitely in the air. Here's the BBC's Danny Shaw writing a few hours ago:-  

Ex-prisoners lack support, says probation head

Too many prisoners leaving jail are merely being "signposted" towards rehabilitation services, the head of the Probation Service has admitted.

Michael Spurr said a new system of offender supervision in England and Wales "wasn't working" as it should. Low and medium risk offenders are monitored by staff from 21 community rehabilitation companies (CRCs). Managers involved say the system doesn't provide firms with enough incentives to tackle re-offending.

Mr Spurr addressed the issue at the annual conference of the Prison Governors Association near Derby, where one governor told him that 200 prisoners had been freed from the jail he runs with "next to nil" resettlement provision. Mr Spurr responded: "CRCs are not working as we would have wanted them to work," adding that for many there was only a "basic resettlement service" available for offenders. "Basic signposting is what's going on in a lot of places," he admitted.

The system was introduced by Chris Grayling, when he was justice secretary, to reduce re-offending rates among the 270,000 people who are released from prison each year or serving community sentences. For the first time, inmates let out after serving terms of less than 12 months were also subject to monitoring.

A new state body, the National Probation Service (NPS), was set up to supervise offenders assessed as posing a high risk of harm, with CRCs responsible for the rest, from 2015. Although the NPS is considered to be performing satisfactorily, there are huge difficulties at the CRCs. In a highly critical speech last month, Dame Glenys Stacey, the Chief Inspector of Probation, said: "Although there are exceptions, the community rehabilitation companies... are not generally producing good quality work, not at all."

Dame Glenys said new ways of managing offenders had "largely stalled", there'd been little "meaningful" improvement in helping prisoners resettle on release and less involvement by charities and voluntary groups than expected. "We often find nowhere near enough purposeful activity or targeted intervention or even plain, personal contact," she concluded.

There appear to be three underlying causes. First, the speed of the reforms. Mr Grayling wanted the plans to be embedded by the time of the 2015 general election to make it near-impossible for Labour to scrap them, should they be elected. That meant replacing 35 probation trusts with a part-privatised system within two years - without any pilot scheme.

Jacob Tas, chief executive of Nacro, a crime reduction charity which has a "strategic partnership" with the private firm Sodexo in six CRC areas, said that was a mistake, given the upheaval that had resulted. "If you engage with this size of change, from my experience it's a good idea to test it out first and see and then learn and then make it better."

The second reason concerns the CRCs' contracts. They're required to hit 24 performance targets relating, for example, to the timely completion of reports, but only 10% of their predicted payments depend on cutting re-offending. 

"We're hitting our target but maybe missing the point," said Chris Wright, chief executive of Catch 22, a charity which is sub-contracted by three CRCs to work with offenders. He said ministers had put an "industry of bureaucracy" in place to keep companies under control. "In a classic government way, they think the best way of holding people to account is by building a bureaucracy which ultimately takes you away from doing the things that really matter," said Mr Wright.

It was a concern Mike Trace had when the charity he's in charge of, the Forward Trust, was bidding for CRC contracts. "What became clear through the process is the innovation and the creativity to reduce re-offending was less important than the legal and financial risks or benefits," said Mr Trace. His organisation, then known as the Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust (Rapt), withdrew from competing for contracts. "I've got to say we were quite relieved not to be awarded any because they look to me to be misdirected and wrongly shaped," he said.

Thirdly, the way the payment mechanism for the CRCs was designed has left them with higher costs and lower income than they expected, leaving resources thinly stretched. As a result, the government has adjusted the contracts, paying the CRCs extra money, which the Ministry of Justice said would amount to an additional £277m over seven years. Over a decade, the maximum potential value of the contracts is put at £6.5bn.

Michael Spurr said taxpayers would still end up paying less for probation than they did before the Grayling reforms, but after his acknowledgment of how "basic" the service is in many areas, some may question whether it's providing value for their money.

--oo00oo--

This from the Independent:-

Criminals could be banned from drinking after they are released from prison

'At a time when prisons are full to bursting, expanding the channels back into custody even further seems frankly barmy,' says reform campaigner

Former prisoners could be barred from drinking alcohol after their release from custody under new measures aimed at reducing reoffending rates. The proposals would give probation officers across the country, the power to enforce tailored restrictions on criminals when they are released. They would be allowed to ban prisoners from drinking alcohol, gambling or accessing online content. Breaching the rules could result in their recall to jail.

“We are committed to improving the supervision of those on probation and challenging offenders to reform and lead law abiding lives on release," said Probation Minister Sam Gyimah. He said that the measures would help ensure more "intensive rehabilitation" took place in the community, adding they would help to "protect the public and tackle the issues that lead offenders to commit crime."

But prison reform campaigners condemned the move as "frankly barmy". Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon said the government's privatisation of the probation service had created a "crisis" in the sector and it was already failing to fulfil its existing duties.

"These measures will not address the root cause of this failure," he said. "In recent weeks the government has been forced to admit that it has handed tens of millions more to these failing private probation companies.This is further rewarding failure at a time when violent reoffending rates are up and as offenders struggle to get access to the basic services, such as housing and employment, needed to help them leave behind a life of crime." He added that under a Labour government "no option will remain off the table" in restoring the probation service, including renationalising the sector.

The numbers of prisoners surged over the summer to a record 86,000, with projections that numbers could reach 88,000 by March 2022. Prisons across the UK have experienced increased volatility in recent months, prompting growing calls for the Government to reduce the number of prisoners. The Prison Governors' Association said a riot at high-security Long Lartin prison earlier this week should set "ringing alarm bells at the most senior level". Inmates reportedly attacked officers with pool balls during the incident.

Responding to the new measures, Andrew Neilson, Director of Campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “At a time when prisons are full to bursting and the numbers of people being recalled behind bars are already rising fast, expanding the channels back into custody even further seems frankly barmy, The Ministry of Justice has clearly failed to think this one through."

He added that the criminal justice system was not the best place to treat alcohol and gambling addiction, and "misguided efforts" such as an alcohol ban would only set more people up to fail. “Our prediction is that recalls will soar and reoffending will not fall [after the powers are granted to probation officers]. Instead, a criminal justice system that is eating itself will just get bigger and the crisis in prisons and probation will only worsen," he said.