But with Quality Street already stacked high in Tesco, Christmas having seemingly started on 1st August, we will soon be into the party political conference season with normal service resuming. Brexit not withstanding, the crisis in all parts of the Criminal Justice System cannot be ignored for much longer and something fundamental has to happen. Here's Rob Allen musing on things and in a double bill highlighting the news manipulation tricks the MoJ regularly engages in:-
Why we need a new Woolf Inquiry into Prisons
When Lord Woolf inquired into the 1990 Strangeways riot and those which followed, he concluded that prisons need to keep three dimensions in balance - security, control and fairness. The first two requirements had been prioritised at the expense of the third, fuelling the grievances which drove the protests. The report into the 2016 Birmingham riot, finally released yesterday suggests that it was a lack of control which was key. The prison had seen a deterioration in the use of legitimate authority, chronic staff shortages and a corrupted system of violence reduction (VR) reps - prisoners with backgrounds in organised crime serving long sentences who policed disputes not always using peaceful means to keep order.
Lack of control was behind yesterdays’ decision to take HMP Birmingham back into the public realm - albeit temporarily. The ghastly consequences spelled out in graphic and distressing detail by Peter Clarke in his Urgent Notification letter mark a new low in the treatment of prisoners and have secured a day’s headlines at least. But what next?
There are two immediate questions to resolve. First, why did the Ministry of Justice not intervene earlier? Prison Minister Rory Stewart was told by the local independent monitoring board in May that “basic humanity, safety and purposeful activity were simply not being delivered”, and the prison service’s own on site monitor allegedly agreed that prisoners rather than staff, appeared to be controlling many of the wings. We deserve to know whether, as Peter Clarke says, someone was asleep at the wheel or whether as Stewart says yesterday’s forceful action follows an ”intensive period of Ministry of Justice measures to compel improvements”.
Second, how far is this debacle down to privatisation? Unions and Labour apart, the consensus is that the question may be a distraction. I’m puzzled why G4S allowed the prison to descend into chaos and suffer the undoubted reputational damage. There's history of course, with recent scandals at Medway Secure Training Centre and Brook House Immigration Removal Centre (where an independent inquiry is underway).
Apart from the disgusting conditions and unchecked violence at Birmingham, staff locked in their offices, unwilling to tackle drug misuse, and not knowing where their prisoners were at any given time, doesn’t look good for what is at heart a security company. The G4S CEO chairs the International Security Ligue, an association of private security organisations responsible for defining, establishing and maintaining the highest ethical and professional standards of the private security industry worldwide. If nothing else, he will not have been impressed by the arson attack during the week of the inspection that destroyed nine staff vehicles. The assertion by former Justice Minister Phillip Lee that “companies are currently ripping off taxpayers” also needs proper investigation.
Peter Clarke has argued for a thorough and independent assessment of how and why the contract between government and G4S has failed, without which he sees no hope of progress. The independent investigation should arguably cover the broader question about the role of the private sector.
But, like part Two of Woolf’s report, the immediate disaster needs to be a springboard for a wider and searching look at the use and practice of imprisonment in England and Wales. The practical response to the crisis at Birmingham - to reduce prisoner numbers and increase staff – is a clue as to what needs to be done across the system.
Rob Allen
--oo00oo--
Headlines and Deadlines
When Lord Woolf inquired into the 1990 Strangeways riot and those which followed, he concluded that prisons need to keep three dimensions in balance - security, control and fairness. The first two requirements had been prioritised at the expense of the third, fuelling the grievances which drove the protests. The report into the 2016 Birmingham riot, finally released yesterday suggests that it was a lack of control which was key. The prison had seen a deterioration in the use of legitimate authority, chronic staff shortages and a corrupted system of violence reduction (VR) reps - prisoners with backgrounds in organised crime serving long sentences who policed disputes not always using peaceful means to keep order.
Lack of control was behind yesterdays’ decision to take HMP Birmingham back into the public realm - albeit temporarily. The ghastly consequences spelled out in graphic and distressing detail by Peter Clarke in his Urgent Notification letter mark a new low in the treatment of prisoners and have secured a day’s headlines at least. But what next?
There are two immediate questions to resolve. First, why did the Ministry of Justice not intervene earlier? Prison Minister Rory Stewart was told by the local independent monitoring board in May that “basic humanity, safety and purposeful activity were simply not being delivered”, and the prison service’s own on site monitor allegedly agreed that prisoners rather than staff, appeared to be controlling many of the wings. We deserve to know whether, as Peter Clarke says, someone was asleep at the wheel or whether as Stewart says yesterday’s forceful action follows an ”intensive period of Ministry of Justice measures to compel improvements”.
Second, how far is this debacle down to privatisation? Unions and Labour apart, the consensus is that the question may be a distraction. I’m puzzled why G4S allowed the prison to descend into chaos and suffer the undoubted reputational damage. There's history of course, with recent scandals at Medway Secure Training Centre and Brook House Immigration Removal Centre (where an independent inquiry is underway).
Apart from the disgusting conditions and unchecked violence at Birmingham, staff locked in their offices, unwilling to tackle drug misuse, and not knowing where their prisoners were at any given time, doesn’t look good for what is at heart a security company. The G4S CEO chairs the International Security Ligue, an association of private security organisations responsible for defining, establishing and maintaining the highest ethical and professional standards of the private security industry worldwide. If nothing else, he will not have been impressed by the arson attack during the week of the inspection that destroyed nine staff vehicles. The assertion by former Justice Minister Phillip Lee that “companies are currently ripping off taxpayers” also needs proper investigation.
Peter Clarke has argued for a thorough and independent assessment of how and why the contract between government and G4S has failed, without which he sees no hope of progress. The independent investigation should arguably cover the broader question about the role of the private sector.
But, like part Two of Woolf’s report, the immediate disaster needs to be a springboard for a wider and searching look at the use and practice of imprisonment in England and Wales. The practical response to the crisis at Birmingham - to reduce prisoner numbers and increase staff – is a clue as to what needs to be done across the system.
Rob Allen
--oo00oo--
Headlines and Deadlines
Prisons Minister Rory Stewart is making headlines by offering to resign if his “Ten Prisons Project” doesn’t succeed in cutting levels of drugs and violence. It certainly seems refreshing to hear a minister put his career on the line in this way although I thought I’d heard him say something similar before. He did. Nearly seven months ago he told MPs on the Justice Committee:
“If I am not able in the next 12 months to achieve some improvements in making these prisons basically clean, with more fixed broken windows and fewer drugs, I am not doing my job, and I would like you to hold me to account for that in 12 months’ time”.
It might seem churlish to ask but when should Mr Stewart expect his performance to be judged? On January 24th, 2019 a year after his parliamentary offer. Or next August as he proposes today. Either way let’s hope that the “new model of excellence” – will start to make a real difference to life on the landings unlike so much of the rhetoric to come out of the Ministry of Justice in the last few years.
Today’s announcement puts more flesh on the bones of the strategy launched by Stewart’s boss last month. David Gauke’s 10 July speech was cleverly timed to overshadow the scathing annual report of the Chief Inspector that followed the next day. Is there something similar about the timing of today’s announcement?
Last Friday 10th August, the Inspectorate confirmed a BBC report that it had decided to issue an Urgent Notification (UN) in relation to HMP Birmingham, following significant concerns raised by their inspection of the G4S run prison. The Inspectorate tweeted that they would not release any further information about the inspection until they had published the Urgent Notification letter they send to the Justice Secretary explaining their concerns.
That letter should be sent within seven calendar days of the end of the inspection on 10th August - so by the 17th of August. The fact that Rory Stewart visited Birmingham on Wednesday 15th as he put it “to follow up on the recent inspection”, suggests it’s been sent. So why hasn’t it been published?
The protocol between the Inspectorate and the MoJ says the Chief Inspector “will publish an urgent notification letter to the SoS and will place this information in the public domain”. The MoJ document about the process says the letter will be published on the "Trigger Day"- the day the letter is sent.
It's the middle of August and people are away so that might explain the delay. I expect the letter will be published on Monday. If not , it will be legitimate to ask questions about whether the first private prison to be subject to the process is being treated differently from the public ones which preceded it.
Rob Allen
The focus now turns to Pentonville.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6086561/HMP-Pentonville-spot-light-amid-reports-violence-against-staff.html
A second high-profile prison has come under scrutiny after a watchdog revealed 17 members of staff at Pentonville were attacked in the space of a month.
DeleteThe Category B Prison, in Islington, north London, has seen 114 violent incidents this year amid reports of drugs and mobile phones used openly and inmates not let out in the open for weeks on end.
Crumbling Pentonville holds 1,200 inmates in a 175-year-old jail designed for 900 and has the highest number of seriously disturbed prisoners of any local prison in the UK.
The report revealed gang fights breaking out during a prayer meeting and a prisoner being stabbed as he entered the chapel.
The study said: 'There has been an increase in gang-related incidents during gatherings for prayer. On one occasion, a gang fight erupted and ministers had to run for cover. On another occasion, a prisoner was knifed as he entered.'
Visiting group the Independent Monitoring Board laid many of the problems at the nick on failed service provider Carillion – with the prison radio service out of action because the firm took six months to fit an aerial.
In its annual report into conditions at the jail, the IMB said: 'Running a full regime hinges on having sufficient prison officers.
'There were too few for most of the year. Wings were shut down for 3 or 4 half-days a week. Activities and association time were restricted and some prisoners went weeks without exercise in the fresh air. Security lockdowns to search for contraband - mainly drugs and mobile phones - exacerbated the situation.'
'Pentonville remains porous: old windows we first reported in 2016 are still insecure and compromise the safety of staff and prisoners. Pentonville is in the 'Top 10' of prisons most in need of investment. Twelve hundred men live in a building certified to hold nine hundred. Vermin is rife. Plumbing is overloaded and struggles to decently meet the needs of hundreds of men. There are too few telephones for prisoners (even when they are all working) which disrupts vital links to family and friends.'
And it rounded on failed service provide Carillion, adding: 'Carillion failed as a maintenance provider – slow, expensive, sometimes clueless - and then failed as a company.'
This week conditions at HMP Birmingham were described as being perilous, with inmates and not warders running the wings. Now Pentonville in London has been placed under the spotlight.
The IMB said in March this year 17 members of staff were hurt in 14 incidents and in January a total of 114 violent incidents were reported in the jail. And despite a double escape in 2016, grilles had still to be fitted to windows.
The IMB said of the squalid conditions': 'Men continue to live in inhumane conditions—sharing a cell 12 x 8 feet with a badly screened toilet. Showers are routinely found to be not working properly or providing enough hot water to allow for a decent wash. At one point in the year, it was observed that 150 men were reliant on three sub-standard showers.
'Vermin remain in evidence throughout the prison: the men in the industrial cleaning workshop were covered in flea bites, cockroaches range in the lower levels, and mice in the kitchen.'
'Rubbish (including food and faeces) in the gullies below old windows is a magnet for vermin. Rentokil insisted that Carillion pay its outstanding bills before doing more work. Prisoners complained about no outside exercise and referred to their 'right' to at least half an hour or more of fresh air each day.'
The IMB added that queues for telephones created a market for illegal mobiles, saying: 'Queues for telephones are a feature of association time in Pentonville, adding to prisoner tension and fuelling the demand for illicit mobile phones.'
Regarding the impressive catalogue of MoJ failures, a civil servant somewhere in Whitehall must have devised a flow chart detailing the process, set targets & calculated a Staff Rewards Scheme.
DeleteHow does Michael Spurr keep his job and performance bonuses?!?!
ReplyDeleteHe's a very well-connected, devout Christian who no doubt gives generously to his Church. Higher powers are at work here.
DeleteThat explains it - irrational beliefs and thoughts derived from superstition lead to an increased risk of irrational behaviours and decisions.
DeleteThere may be more outrage from the general public if they were not seeing the same conditions being replicated in their own communities
ReplyDeleteDrug fueled violence is common place in many inner city districts. Bin collections have been cut and rubbish is being left on the streets attracting rats and cockrroaches.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/996566/rats-stinking-bags-dumped-streets-true-cost-of-slashed-bin-collections-janet-finch-saunder
The fact is this government are creating the same condition in HMP 'outdoors' as it has with HMP 'indoors'.
'Getafix
Violence wrecks prisons — here’s how we’re tackling it
ReplyDeleteRory Stewart, Prisons Minister, blogs about the three things we can do to reduce violence in prisons.
There are many drivers of prison violence — the greatest is probably the surge in the use of Spice and other mind-altering drugs. But the trend is clear. Assaults have risen steadily over the last five years and there were more than eight thousand attacks on prison staff last year alone. Violence wrecks prisons. It doesn’t only make it challenging to perform the most basic tasks — from cell inspections, to running classes for prisoners — it poses an unacceptable risk to our staff; it makes it very difficult to turn around prisoners’ lives, to prevent reoffending and ultimately to protect the public.
So our key task must be to reduce violence in prisons. We have begun by recruiting an extra 3,500 prison officers — creating a key-worker system where each officer is assigned around six prisoners, spending at least forty-five minutes a week with each, one on one, developing a constructive relationship and working on their behaviour and needs. But this will not be enough, unless we achieve three further things: massively reduce the supply of drugs; restore basic decency; and above all provide the training and support for prison officers to challenge the behaviour that drives violence.
We have an increasingly detailed understanding of how new psychoactive substances have driven prisoners into aggressive frenzies, and self-harm, and trapped them in dangerous drug-debt. And we have better intelligence on how organised criminal gangs smuggle the substances in. But we should and can do far more to improve our basic security procedures. Better netting and window-grilles will prevent throw-overs and drones, new body scanners will detect drugs being smuggled in through the gate. So will more sniffer dogs. And we need to improve our searching of everyone who enters the prisons — accepting that, although the vast majority of families and prison officers are not engaged in the trade, we need to search and catch those who are.
The second priority, is to restore basic decency. Broken windows are not only unsightly — and a route for drones — they breed a culture of carelessness, while filth and graffiti around the cells breeds resentment and violence.
But the most important priority is to provide training and support to our staff, and in particular to the uniformed officers, working long shifts outside the cell doors. We need to invest in the slightly more senior staff — ‘Band 4 Officers ‘in our language — and help them to be role-models for the new staff on the landings. We need to provide a staff college to make sure that governors have the best possible training before they take over a prison. And above all we need to invest in the thousands of officers who have recently joined the service.
Prisons can be intensely intimidating environments. It is not easy, for example, to know what to do if a prisoner swaggers up to you on a busy landing and swears at you. I recently witnessed an officer who chose to simply ignore it, telling me that the prisoner had a troubled past. But, if we are serious about getting on top of violence, we need to train new officers on how to challenge such behaviour. Ignoring aggression doesn’t help the prisoner, who needs to learn to take responsibility for his behaviour. And it has a destructive impact on the hundred other prisoners, who witnessed that scene and suddenly feel less safe on the landings — or feel tempted to be violent themselves.
ReplyDeleteWe have to set very clear expectations about behaviour for prison officers and prisoners — right down to the way clothes are worn, the state cells are kept in, and prisoners’ attendance at education or work. Clean, regularly inspected cells, for example, make it more difficult to hide or use drugs; order, calmness and safety are all mutually reinforcing. But enforcing high standards takes incredible energy, and commitment from prison officers day in and day out. They have to be strict and consistent, while also treating prisoners with dignity, and making it clear that the objective is not to exercise power, but to change lives, and thus prevent reoffending. In other words, for the Prison Service, as much as for, say, the Army, or a great company, it all comes down to how well you train and support the people on the frontline.
We have more than a hundred different prisons, each with a slightly different history, and culture, staffed by tens of thousands of people — some of whom have been working for forty years. No-one can hope to change an entire system overnight. So we have selected ten prisons to roll out this model. They include some of the prisons with the worst drug figures in the country, and some of our toughest prisons from Wormwood Scrubs to Nottingham, and Leeds.
We will put some additional resources into drug-scanners, and fixing cells in these prisons — adding to the wider £30 million investment announced last month. But this is not just about resources. It is fundamentally about creating — through training, through clear expectations, and relentless energy and management — a culture, which supports and respects prisoners, while challenging poor behaviour. I believe that within twelve months we can reduce the quantity of drugs in these jails, reduce the violence, and prove that it is possible — despite all the problems of the new drugs — to create calm, orderly, decent prisons that, ultimately, lead to more rehabilitation, less reoffending and fewer victims of crime.
Rory Stewart
A new tool to assess prisons risk is to be introduced into prisons.
ReplyDeleteWill that replace OASYS? Or what happens when the new tool conflicts with OASYS?
https://www.ukauthority.com/articles/prisons-to-get-digital-categorisation-tool-for-offenders/
'Getafix
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is to introduce a digital categorisation tool to help identify the risk around offenders who may be involved in organised crime.
DeleteIt pointed to the plan as one of a series of measures aimed at raising the performance of prisons, along with a programme to introduce digital kiosks in prisons.
The tool is being developed as a £1 million project to improve security inside prisons by better assessing offenders’ possible role in organised crime.
It will take information from a range of sources to support judgements on whether an offender might be involved in violence, disruptions or attempts to escape so the authorities can take steps to reduce the risk and ensure offenders are sent to the appropriate prisons.
The MoJ said it plans to make the tool available around the country’s prisons within 12 months, but declined to provide any further details of how it will work and the sources of data it will use.
The existing system categorises prisoners based on the type of offence and length of sentence.
Other measures to improve security include technology to block the use of illegally held mobile phones, and steps to prevent drones entering prisons to smuggle in drugs and phones.
There is also digital element of plans to reduce tensions inside prisons, with a programme to extend the use of kiosks that enable prisoners to arrange visits and manage their money.
Earlier in the summer the Prison Service signed a deal with Unilink to set up a workshop at HMP Littlehey to supply other institutions with the kiosks.
https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/chris-grayling-unfit-to-be-minister-say-labour-frontbenchers-in-extraordinary-letter-to-pm_uk_5b7e6241e4b0348585fd738e
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bfz9pw
ReplyDeleteR4 - Architecture of Incarceration - brilliant piece of radio today
As Britain opens the latest in a series of large new jails, architect Danna Walker looks at the unique tensions in architecture's relationship with the judicial system - where the go-to design for prisons is 250 years old, and where ideological conflicts between incarceration and rehabilitation dominate. In the late 18th century, British utilitarian thinker Jeremy Bentham developed the Panopticon - a circular design featuring a central hub from which a single watchman could observe all prisoners without them knowing they were being watched. Bentham described the design as "a mill for grinding rogues honest". Over the centuries, the standard, go-to design for prisons has been based on Bentham's ideas, apparently unchallenged. Yet report after report damns poorly-designed buildings, inadequate for rehabilitation. Outcomes are concerning - people who have already been through the criminal justice system commit approximately half of all crime, at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of £10-15 billion per year. A prison transformation programme is underway, with the Ministry of Justice earmarking 10,000 places in old Victorian prisons for replacement with new purpose-built facilities. New prisons like HMP Berwyn in Wrexham are not places of beauty - they follow the centuries-old blueprint of plain facades, punctuated by tiny windows. Yet the work that takes place inside them is of fundamental importance to the safety of our society. Visiting London's oldest jail, HMP Brixton, as well as the unusual setting of HMP Styal near Manchester, the programme questions the role of prison, whether it should make people feel happy and whether good design can drive better outcomes.
Deletealso worth a look:
Deletehttps://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10413/13896/Goga_Nadia_2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
and here:
Deletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7138110.stm
and here:
Deletehttps://www.cfmoller.com/p/Storstroem-Prison-i2730.html
"Storstrøm Prison is the setting for the world’s most humane and resocialising closed prison, with architecture which supports the inmates’ mental and physical well-being and also ensures a secure and pleasant workplace for employees.
One of the project’s major architectural challenges is for the high-security prison, which can accommodate around 250 inmates, to be less institutionalised.
The overall architectural intent is to create a facility that echoes the structure and scale of a small provincial community. This will ensure a familiar and varied experience of the prison environment and keep the prison’s institutional atmosphere to a minimum. The townlike structure also resembles the surrounding villages, and is thus a natural element of the landscape.
To create further variation, facades and roof ridges are angular in different ways and the facade materials alternate between light-coloured bricks and a combination of concrete and galvanised steel – all durable materials which weather beautifully and do not need much maintenance.
The cells are gathered in units comprising four to seven cells, placed around a social hub. The units have access to a living room area and a shared kitchen, where the inmates prepare their own meals. The living room areas are decorated in colours which are less institutional, just as structurally-integrated art and artworks created especially for the prison can be found throughout the prison.
Daylight is important for people’s well-being and each cell has daylight flowing in from two windows, from where the inmates also have views of the surrounding landscape and the sky. Physical activity is also important for the inmates’ mental social welfare, and both indoors and outdoors, there are opportunities for sport, games and physical exercise."
Denmark is home to the world’s most humane maximum security penal institution, Storstrøm Prison. Designed by Danish architects C.F. Møller, the building has been hailed for its strategic features that create a vibrant community for the inmates, in lieu of the severe living conditions typically found in prisons around the world.
DeleteStorstrøm, which can hold up to 250 people, is designed to be a mini-community where inmates can spend their time in an environment that is as “normal” as possible. Working with the Danish Prison Service, the architects created a vibrant community where the inmates would be reminded of a life they once left behind, therefore encouraging an eagerness to leave the system and return to society.
The prison layout spans the size of 18 football fields and is centered around social activities. There are ample options for the inmates to spend their time exercising, studying, creating art, or praying in the onsite church. Additionally, inmates buy their own food at the grocery store.
“We have concentrated all buildings around a center for joint activities. Here we have a square with, for example, an activity house, a grocery store, a school, a church and a devotional room. We have also made an effort to promote communication between inmates and staff,” architect Mads Mandrup of C.F. Møller told the Danish newspaper Berlingske.
The cell conditions are also designed to provide a bearable lifestyle while incarcerated. The cells are 13 square meters and come equipped with a refrigerator, closet, and a 22-inch television. The cell’s floor-to-ceiling windows flood the interior with natural light, but are angled in a way to protect privacy.
Although being hailed as a strategic design to help prisoners adjust to prison life, the various amenities have caused some to criticize the design as being too lofty for lawbreakers. However, officials claim that despite the decent living conditions on the inside, the prison is still a high-security fortress with a six-meter high wall and tension steel wires around the perimeter of the complex.
I hope the government get a grip on HMPPS, it is important. There is some good work happening, people are being assisted to change their lives. However, Grayling and co really did mess things up (badly). I keep getting drawn back to some Wizard of Oz scene where a beleaguered Minister of Justice is saying, 'privatisation and outsourcing of important public services will work, it will, it will, it will!' And, in my dream I am saying, 'Wake up, wake up!'
ReplyDeleteCharity calls for prisoners not to be released on Fridays.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45290205
Prisoners should stop being released on Fridays because it can prove hard for them to access benefits, medication and assistance, campaigners have said.
DeleteA third of all prisoners in England and Wales are currently freed on a Friday but social justice charity Nacro says it is "often a race against the clock".
Some agencies close early, leaving newly-freed prisoners sleeping rough and at risk of re-offending, it says.
The Ministry of Justice confirmed it was examining Friday releases. More than 25,000 prisoners were released on a Friday last year.
Nacro says while support may be put in place during the 12 weeks prior to release, "the day itself is often crucial for putting in place the basic building blocks for life outside of prison".
"We know that there is often a window of opportunity for people on release when they are keen to make change and move on," it said.
"However, this can be quickly lost when the barriers are too high and things are not in place to help them move forward and away from crime."
The charity said prisoners sometimes find they are without vital medication and have to survive on a £46 discharge grant until support services reopen on Monday.
Nacro chief executive Jacob Tas said ending Friday releases would be a "simple and cost-effective step" to take as the government consults on reforms to probation services and takes action to deal with violence and drugs in prisons.
The Ministry of Justice said "decisive action" was being taken to improve probation services, including spending £22m on extra support for offenders leaving prison.
A spokesperson said that as part of its consultation on probation reform it was already considering whether a Friday release presents "challenges" to people coming out of prison.
However, it said initial analysis suggests re-offending rates are not affected by prisoners being released on a Friday.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/court-judicial-review-send-council-1859642
ReplyDeleteTwo Bristol mums who took Bristol City Council to High Court over its £5million funding cuts to vulnerable children have won their landmark case.
DeleteOn Friday, August 3, the High Court ruled the council had been wrong to make those cuts to the education budget for children with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and ordered it to reverse those savings.
In his judgement, Judge Barry Cotter QC said Bristol City Council had acted unlawfully, and that there was no need for a reduction.
When ordering the cuts to be squashed, he said the council needed to find the money "without disturbing other aspects of the budget or in particular the council tax calculation".
This is the first court case of its kind in the country, and is expected to set a precedent for cases in other local authorities - there are already two waiting to be heard.
Shortly before the case, one mum, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Bristol Live how her son had been excluded to the point he was attending school just a handful of days a term because of a lack of support.
She said she did not want other parents to go through the same struggle, and that she had been “fobbed off” by the council too many times.
Councillor Craig Cheney, deputy mayor for finance, said they were disappointed at the decision and would decide what to do next.
Judge Cotter said the council had "no regard" for children's welfare and was only interested in balancing the books.
"There is no evidence, from the extensive paperwork evidencing the defendant's [council] decision-making process, that members of the council had any regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, still less 'actively promote' children's welfare, when making the decision to proceed with the proposed savings.
"Indeed, the decision-making process appears to be driven entirely from the standpoint of ensuring a balanced budget by 2020/21."
In his judgment, he added: “The relief sought by the claimants [parents] is a squashing order in relation to the High Needs Block budget allocation.
“In my judgment, this form of relief is proportionate, as it requires the defendant [Bristol City Council] to reconsider its funding allocation in this area in the light of the resources available at the material time, without disturbing other aspects of the budget or in particular the council tax calculation and without the court telling the defendant how its resources should be expended.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-6100903/DOMINIC-LAWSON-justice-frees-convicted-killers-murder-again.html
ReplyDeleteFrom the Times.
ReplyDeleteThe prison watchdog has criticised a policy of moving sex offenders to help stabilise troubled jails without providing opportunities for them to tackle their behaviour.
Peter Clarke, chief inspector of prisons, expressed alarm after jail bosses doubled the number of sex offenders in Birmingham prison following a 14-hour riot in 2016 that caused £6 million of damage.
Sex offenders, generally among the most compliant prisoners in the system, were rushed from other jails to the G4S-run prison in an effort to bring stability. They usually keep their cells and wings clean and tidy, accept the regime and cause little trouble for staff. Many are middle aged or elderly and want a settled life until they are freed.
Mr Clarke, who made an unannounced inspection of…