The Impulse to Punish
Depressing if predictable trailing of the forthcoming Sentencing White Paper today, with Justice Secretary Robert Buckland telling Sun readers “it’s time for a tougher criminal justice system” and the Prime Minister writing in the Express that “some individuals are so dangerous or their crimes so abhorrent that they should never be released”.
Some comfort I suppose that after explaining his plans to lower from 21 to 18 the age at which people convicted of murder will be able to be sentenced to spend their whole life in prison, Johnson clarified that he wasn’t “talking about permanently locking up young people who make teenage mistakes or commit youthful indiscretions”. Thanks for that. And maybe some promise in his view that “we need more and better rehabilitation behind bars, improved monitoring of and support for ex-prisoners and more effective non-custodial sentences for low-risk offenders”. But all in all while the numbers directly affected by his draconian measures may be relatively small, there’s a real risk of an inflationary knock on effect on sentencing levels for less grave crimes.
It’s possible that courts may re calibrate their sentences downwards in the wider range of cases where two thirds rather than half will be spent inside. But for some reason I’ve never understood, they are not supposed to take too much account of what a sentence means in practice. More likely that some will take their lead from Johnson’s idea that public protection should be the single most important principle of sentencing and impose yet longer terms. Of course, public protection is important but the experience of the IPP sentence – widely acknowledged to be basically unjust -should serve as a warning against ignoring other purposes of sentencing.
Johnson may be surprised to know that he has some support in international law. The Nelson Mandela Rules say that the purposes of a sentence of imprisonment are primarily to protect society against crime and to reduce recidivism. They go on to say that those purposes can be achieved only if the period of imprisonment is used to ensure, so far as possible, the reintegration of such persons into society upon release so that they can lead a law-abiding and self-supporting life. And that's a problem.
Last week’s Public Accounts Committee Report showed the government’s abject failure to make progress on David Cameron’s 2016 vision of “a modern, more effective, truly twenty-first century prison system." Given the financial constraints facing the government in coming years its hard to see much in the future. We have heard about better rehabilitation in prisons for a decade but it seems much less capable of being delivered than are longer sentences.
Maybe the White Paper will have something more positive to say but I am not holding my breath. As Nietzsche said, “ Mistrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful".
Rob Allen
Given Bucklands stated position on the Governments intention to override the EU Withdrawal Agreement, I'm guessing he will have a very uncomfortable time at the dispatch box when introducing his White Paper.
ReplyDelete"We'll be tough on OTHERS that break the law"???
I hope he sets out how their new tough on crime (again) approach will enable people to be processed through the courts, and where spaces will be found for those that are sentenced to imprisonment.
It is, as noted, just distraction politics, and the Spectator last week began to set the tone for the upcoming Wite Paper with the following.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.spectator.co.uk/article/britain-s-prisons-aren-t-working/amp
'Getafix
Buckland has a get-out-of-jail card aka the biblical 'acceptability clause':
Delete"If I see the rule of law being broken in a way I find unacceptable, of course, I will go"
Ergo, if he sees the rule of law being broken in a way he finds *acceptable*, he will turn the other cheek and feel no shame in doing so, for he is Buckland, Lord Chancellor of Toytown.
And those below-the-belt punches keep coming from behind the curtain:
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/sep/13/uk-government-plans-to-remove-key-human-rights-protections
The government is planning to “opt out” of parts of the European convention on human rights in order to speed up deportations of asylum seekers and protect British troops serving overseas from legal action.
***The proposals are being coordinated by Downing Street aides.***
They are intended to rule out claims in areas where judges have supposedly “overreached” their powers.
Carry On Tory Eejits...
ReplyDelete"Due to an ongoing issue with Microsoft Azure, we are currently unable to update the data. We are monitoring the situation closely and will update the website as soon as the services are restored."
And people are expecting a world-beating testing system & tracing app?
Perhaps its because the data will be so grim they don't want to distract Bozo from his floorshow this afternoon?
FranK.
Today is, of course, the inaugural day of the Rule of Six - and also of Kit Malthouse's impromptu accompaniment, the Rule of Snitch.
Deletemeantime I'm trying to find the uk data on other sites...
FranK.
Hurrah for the BBC news staff:
Delete"2,621 new cases of coronavirus across the UK
There have been 2,621 new cases of coronavirus recorded across the UK.
It marks a fall of more than 600 cases on Sunday's figures, when 3,330 positive cases were recorded.
However weekend figures are often lower, due to delays in reporting.
A further nine deaths have been recorded since 09:00 on Sunday, bringing the total reported death toll across the UK to 41,628.
A death is anyone who dies within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19."
FranK.
Those banana-skin moments we all love our various national administrations for:
Delete"The details of more than 18,000 people who tested positive for coronavirus were published online by mistake by Public Health Wales.
The health body said the data of 18,105 Welsh residents was online for 20 hours on 30 August and it was viewed 56 times before it was removed.
Most cases gave initials, date of birth, geographical area and sex, meaning the risk of identification was low, Public Health Wales said.
However 1,928 people in living in communal settings were more at risk as nursing home residents or those living in supported housing also had the name of their place of residence published."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/no-coronavirus-tests-available-anywhere-18933145.amp
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/14/people-in-englands-10-worst-hit-covid-hotspots-unable-to-get-tests
DeleteMobile testing unit fails to show up in Bolton, despite highest infection rate in UK
PRITI AUNTY SAYS "DO NOT MINGLE!!!":
ReplyDelete"UK Home Secretary Priti Patel says the new "rule of six" means that a family should not stop on the street to talk to another family they know, as it is considered "mingling" and essentially breaks the rules."
Patel: "The rule of six is about making sure that people are being conscientious and not putting other people's health at risk. Mingling is people coming together. That is my definition of mingling."
And Priti Aunty is VERY cross:
Delete"Tests are available, you've heard me say, particularly in local lockdown areas, I've seen this myself."
She told BBC Breakfast it was "wrong to say" that there were no tests available after she was asked about the long delays in trying to book a test in Bolton where the infection rate is the highest in England.
FranK.
The testing programme in England is going "as well as could possibly be expected considering the demand", Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg has said. "The testing issue is actually a government success - if you think of the numbers who are being tested from a standing start earlier in the year, hundreds of thousands are being tested".
Delete"One of my children had a test last week, we got the result back and I got back to business," he added.
"Fewer than 100 coronavirus deaths in a week have been registered in the UK for the first time since March.
ReplyDeleteIt took five weeks in March and April for coronavirus deaths to rise from under 100 to their peak of nearly 9,500.
The journey back down below 100 has taken nearly five months."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-54157983
FranK.
The planned £271m acquisition of Interserve Support Services by rival Mitie is being investigated by the competitions authority.
ReplyDeleteThe Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) fears that the combination of the two support services powerhouses will diminish market competition in the UK.
It is inviting comments from interested parties by 29th September 2020.
Mitie and Interserve announced in June that they had agreed terms on the transaction, with Interserve getting £120m in cash and a 23.4% shareholding in Mitie. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The sales includes all of Interserve’s facilities management operations in the UK and overseas across both public and private sectors, except for its Citizen Services division, (which includes Interserve Healthcare, Interserve Learning & Employment (ILE) and work for the Probation Service).
Interserve Support Services made an operating profit of £38m in 2019 on revenue of £1,369m.
Not bad for a company in administration!
Of course a stay of execution has been granted just so they have time to do such deals and reach agreements with other multinationals that allow assets to be squirreled away or pawned to make the final settlement as painless as possible.
Wonder how much furlough money has been given to Interserve and Mitie combined. Just guessing, but I bet its a few quid more then Philip Green got and he did very well indeed.
'Getafix
Why is it that so many comments on this blog immediately go off topic?.
ReplyDeleteMaybe because lots of people read the blog but can't be bothered to comment on the topic posted.
DeleteBeing tough on crime again should also included those large outsourcing organisations that plunder the taxpayers coffers time and time again and offset their liability by nefarious backdoor agreements with other organisations of the same disreputable ilk.
I suspect that the reason people stray off topic is because they have so much to say about lots of probation and other related things, but no other forum in which to express themselves.
ReplyDeleteThere hasn’t been a blog post on the subject of wages, terms and conditions recently because there appears to be nothing happening. Doesn’t mean I don’t have an interest but I see no point in raising the matter with napo
Ian Lawrence in the Morning Star on reunification and more.
Deletehttps://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/probation-reunification-great-victory-real-work-starts-here
'Getafix
Probation reunification is a great victory - but the real work starts here
DeleteThe announcement by the Secretary of State on June 13 that all probation services will revert to public control and ownership in June next year was a huge step forward in rescuing the probation service from Chris Grayling’s disastrous Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms in 2014.
As well as being an historic triumph for Napo and our sister unions, it was vindication of the efforts of our members and activists, together with politicians and many stakeholders, outside organisations and individuals who have supported and taken part in the campaign over many years.
While the response to this dramatic shift in direction has been hugely positive, the real work has already started in terms of trying to stabilise the service and restore the gold-standard levels of delivery that existed prior to its part-privatisation.
A number of structural challenges will also arise from the creation of a revised regional command structure in the National Probation Service.
As we embark on a ballot asking our Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) members to accept the final package of measures and protections that form part of the Staff Transfer Agreement, nobody in the Napo leadership group underestimates the uncertainty that CRC staff are feeling about their future.
Nor will we forget the damage done to clients, communities, victims and their families as well as the wider profession as a result of probation privatisation.
So, as one vital part of the campaign has been secured, we very much focus on our priorities.
Napo has made it clear to government ministers and senior leaders in the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) that we intend to continue to campaign with the following demands which we believe should underpin a world-class probation service.
Having achieved reunification we must now protect unified service delivery from any future attempts to marketise public services.
When profit is the motive in public-service delivery, the only way to appease shareholders is to cut costs.
The TR disaster proves that marketising probation does not improve quality and the much-promised innovation is rarely seen in privatised services despite the best efforts of staff.
Probation should be taken out of the Civil Service and released from the prison-centric culture that still permeates parts of HMPPS
Probation and prisons are linked parts of the criminal justice system but based on a very different ethos.
A structure outside HMPPS and the Civil Service, as a non-departmental government body, would enable innovation, critical and creative thinking and the development of probation values.
A probation service built on evidence-based practice
It is not enough to think or feel something is right. Probation practice must be based on evidence and must adapt to new research and learning.
Sometimes the right approaches cost more and research inevitably carries a cost.
If we want to return to excellence in probation practice, we must use research-based evidence rather than a lowest-cost approach.
Probation staff serve communities by protecting them, probation clients are part of those communities which should be engaged in supporting them.
Probation services must be responsive to local needs and priorities and there must be genuine partnerships with local specialist services.
DeleteThere were some excellent examples of this prior to TR: most were dismantled in the hunt for profit, but some survived or have been rebuilt and this must continue through the next phase of change.
We have clearly made progress in securing the first of these demands but there is much work to do on the others.
As we reshape our campaign priorities for the future, we are heavily engaged with all employers during the Covid-19 crisis, ensuring that as services shift from exceptional delivery models to recovery programmes, we can protect staff and clients within cleaner and safer working environments.
Reunification is undoubtedly welcome; but rebuilding probation from the fragmentation that it has been subjected to will be a major exercise and will require substantial investment from government.
Ian Lawrence and Katie Lomas are general secretary and national chair of probation union Napo.
They may be but Lawrence couldn't tell you any basic details of probation or members terms like pay and has no idea or ability to reform probation.
Deleteuk feckless govt covid-19 data 15-9-2020
ReplyDeletetesting: 227,000 tests on 14 sept
new cases: 3,105 ; that's 9,056 Sun-Tues incl
deaths within 28 days of 1st +ve test: 27
hospitalisations: still stuck on 2/9 data
* When challenged on the reports of people struggling to get a test, Mr Hancock said it would take a "matter of weeks" to resolve the problems.
'Long Covid' - "Tens of thousands of people may require kidney dialysis or transplants because of coronavirus, according to experts who warn the long-term effects of Covid are causing an “epidemic in primary care”."
In April 2020 I wrote to my MP asking if there were plans to research/address the possible long-term effects of the virus:
"doctors are making claims of the virus being found in arterial blood & urine samples, leading to suggestions that the virus is 'embedding' itself into heart & kidney tissues such that, when a patient begins to recover, there is a fresh infection & collateral damage to those organs. US doctors (I think in California) are also exploring the possibility of the virus causing increased clotting, which would explain why the numbers of patients with strokes are rising fast."
She never replied.
FranK.
Oh, and never forget (as all probation staff know) that privatisation is the answer to everything - especially when it invoves Tory chums. This time its Deloittes:
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/15/private-labs-unable-to-process-all-covid-tests-nhs-email-reveals
"Laboratories that analyse swabs from people in the community, including care homes, were stretched to capacity even in late August, unable to process all the Covid test samples coming in and seeking help from the NHS, the Guardian can reveal... On 24 August, all NHS labs, which process hospital Covid tests, were sent an email from NHS England “regarding the urgent call for support from the pillar 2 team”... The appeal was so urgent that labs were asked to respond within 24 hours."
Who'd have thought it?
3 May 2020: https://www.ft.com/content/d45d8540-7bc0-4faa-aeda-a1ed73ed82f7
NHS England hired a team of about 60 consultants at KPMG to build seven temporary Nightingale hospitals that could treat thousands of coronavirus patients in need of critical care. The KPMG and Deloitte projects were contracted out to the accounting firms without competition, and the agreements, which detail the sums paid for the work, have not yet been made public."
1 July 2020: https://www.ft.com/content/e5079a62-4469-470d-af29-f79e82879853
"The opposition Labour party has attacked ministers for awarding one of the key coronavirus testing contracts without obliging the private provider to share the results of tests with public health bodies in England."
8 July 2020: https://bylinetimes.com/2020/07/08/the-cost-of-boris-johnsons-covid-19-business-as-usual/
"Even though the private sector contacts in this area don’t seem to have been very successful, the Government is preparing to award COVID-19 testing contracts – worth an estimated £5 billion – to private contractors, equivalent to the entire annual spend on English NHS laboratories."
FranK.
Covid blog
ReplyDeleteWrong, @17:44. Jim's blog. Jim's rules. That's why its successful, why it has lasted so long & why it keeps attracting irritating trolls who would rather it wasn't here.
DeleteAre you an irritating troll then? Blog is called on probation covid linked with that comes under that remit. Constant covid blogs do not. People want a space to discuss work issues that affect them, I'm sure that's what Jim intended.
DeleteThe Tory chumocracy leaves no opportunity un-exploited:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/15/brexit-barristers-question-selection-legal-team-uk-override-deal-eu
"The government is facing increasing scrutiny over its decision to use “committed Brexiteer” lawyers to provide advice on the legality of breaching the EU withdrawal agreement... opinion was sought from Guglielmo Verdirame QC, a professor of law at King’s College London, Richard Ekins, a professor of law and constitutional government at Oxford University, and Richard Howell, a barrister at Brick Court chambers in London."
All are committed Brexiteers, NOT on the attorney general's panel of approved legal advisors and all have strong connections with Cummings, Gove & Johnson.
Good luck to whoever gets allocated to work with Elphicke, a man in serious denial who intends to appeal:
ReplyDeleteEx-Tory MP Charlie Elphicke jailed for two years for sexual assaults... “You’re a sexual predator who used your success and respectability as a cover,” he was told by Mrs Justice Whipple as she passed sentence at Southwark crown court on Tuesday... "They [the victims] told the truth, you told a pack of lies – not just to the jury but, as became clear, to your wife, the whips and the police as well."
Elphicke was sentenced to 14 months in prison on count one, 10 months in prison on a second count, to run consecutively, and 10 months in prison for the third count, to run concurrently.
He was also ordered to pay £35,000 in costs, although his lawyer said he had “a fair bit of debt”, and that his estranged wife lent him £100,000 to pay legal bills.