While we await the statement on the future of probation services from Robert Buckland due later this morning in the House of Commons, this from Danny Shaw on the BBC website:-
Some high-risk offenders in England and Wales may not have been monitored as closely as they should have been during the lockdown, a report suggests. An internal Ministry of Justice document shows probation staff did not carry out planned checks in about half of cases, during one four-week period.
The National Probation Service (NPS) has insisted supervision was adequate. It comes as the government is expected to announce the NPS will take over the probation system in England and Wales. This would end the involvement of private companies.
Since the coronavirus lockdown, the state-run NPS has scaled back face-to-face supervision of thousands of sex offenders and violent criminals, to prevent infection. Emergency plans were drawn up for most offenders to be contacted by telephone or visited on their doorstep. But, according to the MoJ document seen by BBC News, in the four weeks to May 17, only 51% of high-risk offenders under supervision had the contact that had been planned for.
The statistics also show that during the week leading up to May 17, 18% of high-risk prisoners did not have immediate appointments with probation officers on release. They should have had a meeting within one "business day" of leaving jail.
However, the NPS disputed the significance of the figures. A spokesperson said: "This data is partial, experimental and unreliable. We don't use it in isolation to judge performance and the public shouldn't do either. All our wider evidence in combination shows offenders are receiving the right levels and types of supervision."
Private firms, known as community rehabilitation companies - which supervise low and medium-risk offenders in England - had planned contact in 61% of cases during the four weeks, according to the data. Under government plans, outlined in May 2019, the companies would have lost their offender supervision role to the NPS - but would have been able to bid to run unpaid work schemes, drug misuse programmes and training courses.
But ministers have halted the process and are believed to have decided that the NPS should deliver rehabilitation services as well as managing the entire caseload of offenders. However, it is thought there will still be opportunities for voluntary groups and charities to operate specialist offending behaviour schemes.
Since the coronavirus lockdown, the state-run NPS has scaled back face-to-face supervision of thousands of sex offenders and violent criminals, to prevent infection. Emergency plans were drawn up for most offenders to be contacted by telephone or visited on their doorstep. But, according to the MoJ document seen by BBC News, in the four weeks to May 17, only 51% of high-risk offenders under supervision had the contact that had been planned for.
The statistics also show that during the week leading up to May 17, 18% of high-risk prisoners did not have immediate appointments with probation officers on release. They should have had a meeting within one "business day" of leaving jail.
However, the NPS disputed the significance of the figures. A spokesperson said: "This data is partial, experimental and unreliable. We don't use it in isolation to judge performance and the public shouldn't do either. All our wider evidence in combination shows offenders are receiving the right levels and types of supervision."
Private firms, known as community rehabilitation companies - which supervise low and medium-risk offenders in England - had planned contact in 61% of cases during the four weeks, according to the data. Under government plans, outlined in May 2019, the companies would have lost their offender supervision role to the NPS - but would have been able to bid to run unpaid work schemes, drug misuse programmes and training courses.
But ministers have halted the process and are believed to have decided that the NPS should deliver rehabilitation services as well as managing the entire caseload of offenders. However, it is thought there will still be opportunities for voluntary groups and charities to operate specialist offending behaviour schemes.
Is it mere coincidence or 'news management' that a story critical of probation supervision of high-risk cases crops up on the very day that probation returns to public ownership? Probation has just been discussed on BBC's Today programme and it's the supervision issue that headlining, not the mess the Tories have made of probation.
ReplyDeleteA cynical diversion to distract from the role of Grayling, the money wasted and the damage done by a probation model that promised a rehabilitation revolution, but caused untold damage because it was 'irredeemably flawed'.
Awe nipper cmon !! It was a revolution. It failed let them manage the messaging as long as we get some recovery. We know your right but they need a new truth to succumb to the reality.
DeleteFrom hmpps website:
ReplyDeletehttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/891231/HMIP_Action_Plan_Post_Release_Supervision_for_short_term_prisoners_Final....pdf
From moj website - 9/6 significant changes/updates to the document originally dated 2/6 but this new version is not on hmpps website.
ReplyDeletehttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/889468/Probation-roadmap-to-recovery.pdf
VIA TWITTER
ReplyDelete"Chris Edgerton LCGI
@DementiaView
·
5m
#probation reform
House of Commons statement by #Justice secretary #RobertBuckland
Watch live or catchup https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/bce17d1e-1b0a-4964-9c6f-a65e0da78262?agenda=True
I have just clicked the link - it is not broadcasting yet and seems as if some other business will preceed any announcements about probation such as "Questions to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office" which is the first agenda item but presumably Mr Buckland is due to speak at some time today.
Chris Edgerton has now Tweeted that the BBC are suggesting Mr Buckland will speak around 12 noon today 11th June 2020.
DeleteAccording to the Guardian who give the order of the day in Parliament, Buckland has a half hour slot between 11.30 and midday.
Delete10.30am: Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, answers a Commons urgent question about his intervention in a planning decision that helped the Tory donor Richard Desmond.
11.30am: Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, makes a statement to MPs about reforms to the probation service.
'Getafix
12.00 pm BBC Parliament or Sky 504
ReplyDeleteA bit of filler before Buckland does his thing:
ReplyDelete"Fury as Justice Secretary Robert Buckland admits Government 'CHOSE' not to test care homes for coronavirus
- Justice Secretary Robert Buckland admitted government made a 'choice' between the NHS and care homes
- He conceded that low testing capacity in initial phase of outbreak hampered the government response
- Ministers have been criticised for allowing patients to be sent back to care homes from hospitals without tests
- Therese Coffey appeared to blame the government's coronavirus blunders on the 'wrong' science advice
- Downing Street heaped praise on experts as it distanced itself from the comments by the Cabinet minister"
From Daily Heil a month ago. This could be why Buckland's being undermined. Probably Cummings' lot again...
A bit more while we wait - this from Guardian:-
ReplyDeleteThe director of public prosecutions, Max Hill, is being threatened with legal action over the failure to investigate Dominic Cummings for alleged breaches of the lockdown rules.
A legal team, headed by the barrister Michael Mansfield, has twice written to Hill, expressing concern that no action has yet been taken against Cummings after a Guardian and Daily Mirror investigation revealed the prime minister’s chief adviser travelled with his family to Durham and Barnard Castle during the lockdown.
The letters were sent on 3 and 8 June on behalf of Martin Redston, a 70-year-old London engineer who is concerned that the lockdown laws should apply to everyone irrespective of their position in government.
Replying to Redston’s second letter, Hill’s office confirmed his complaint had been passed to a special crime division of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and a full response would follow in “due course”. But it stopped short of saying the matter was being actively considered, as requested by Redston’s legal team, which also includes the firm Hackett & Dabbs.
In a new letter to Hill sent on Tuesday, Redston’s lawyers claim the failure to provide a substantive response were grounds for a judicial review. And it threatened to begin proceedings if no action is taken by Hill by 4pm on Thursday 11 June.
The letter said the demand for urgency was “proportionate” given “a very serious loss of public confidence in the due process of the rule of law” at a time of a continued public health emergency that requires public compliance. It also warned any delay risked losing evidence such as CCTV footage and credit card records relating to Cummings’ movements in the north-east.
The letter also pointed out that in his statement from the rose garden of Downing Street, Cummings admitted returning to work at No 10 on 27 March after tending to his wife who was displaying symptoms of coronavirus. He then admitted travelling to Durham with his wife to seek childcare for their four-year-old son, the letter pointed out.
A spokesman for Hill and the CPS said: “We have responded to the letter today referring those involved to the relevant police force as investigating alleged offences is a matter for the police not the CPS.”
Redston’s lawyers point out that under the CPS’s own policy it may receive an allegation of an offence from a member of the public and can refer such cases to the police.
Redston, whose complaint is being funded by donations to Crowd Justice, said: “The prime minister was absolutely unequivocal when he said people needed to ‘Stay at home, Protect the NHS and Save Lives’. The rules were entirely clear and should apply to everyone.”
He said he was prevented from attending a friend’s funeral due to the lockdown restrictions. And he has also been unable to see his grandchildren since the start of the outbreak.
After recovering from coronavirus, Cummings admitted travelling to Barnard Castle with his family on 12 April to test his eyesight.
An initial three-day investigation by Durham police into Cummings’ travels found that he might have breached health protection regulations when he took a 52-mile round trip to the town.
But it said Cummings’ 516-mile round trip from London to Durham and back had not broken health protection regulations. The force decided to take no further action after making no finding in relation to “stay at home” government guidance.
On Sunday, a separate campaign for a new investigation into Cummings over alleged breaches was launched, by lawyers with the backing of health workers and some families of coronavirus victims.
Revisionist bollocks from District Judge Buckland:
ReplyDelete"we have provided previously unavailable supervision of short term prisoners as promised in the 2010 election manifesto"
2010 Manifesto Promises:
* We are determined that early release will not be introduced again, so we will redevelop the prison estate and increase capacity as necessary to stop it.
* Extend early deportation of foreign national prisoners to reduce further the pressure on the prison population
* Introduce a system where the courts can specify minimum and maximum sentences for certain offenders.
* Extend the length of custodial sentences that can be awarded in a magistratescourt from six to twelve months.
* Examine the case for greater Parliamentary scrutiny of sentencing guidelinesso that the public can be confident their views are accounted for in deciding sentences.
* Make it clear that anyone convictedof a knife crime can expect to face a prison sentence.
* When offenders leave prison, they will be trained and rehabilitated by private and voluntary sector providers, under supervision.
* Use payment by results to cut re‐offending, with organisations paid using savings made in the criminal justice system from the resulting lower levels of crime.
* Pilot a scheme to create Prison and Rehabilitation Trusts so that just one organisation is responsible for helping to stop a criminal reoffending.
* Implement the Prisoners’ Earnings Act 1996 to allow deductions from the earnings of prisoners in properly paid work to be paid into the Victims’ Fund.
* The Fund willbe used to deliver up to fifteen new rape crisis centres and give existing rape crisis centres stable, long‐term funding
About time buckers we now see the end of crcs stop cheering. That porn scandal mp green speaks up but does not understand the sea change. Neither does bojo he is really killing his party their Tory voters the wider economy and our people whatever backgrounds. Under the Tory failure to act to a known bilogical threat so the royals could have Cheltenham gold cup and a bit of footy an additional 20 thousand have paid the ultimate price. In the meantime the er er er stammering Berk bonson cowward fool clown denies any ownership with puppet science experts. He will need to think about where grayling has parked his low aptitude within intelligence after the billions squandered by tr. His gut feeling needs a reworking. Hanging on to Cummings the liar and another danger to life has poled tory popularity behind labour . Good news starmer then. No Napo union victory here eitheryeither did nothing and the membership has paid the price. Don't get involved in the reorganisation for charity sector will you members will be better off without your complacency to shafting us.
ReplyDelete