From yesterday's Mirror:-
Prison crisis talks called as Justice Secretary warned over early release of inmates
Probation staff will warn Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood that the service is at breaking point ahead of an announcement expected on the early release of prisoners.
Keir Starmer is this week expected to sign off emergency measures to let thousands of prisoners out of jail early to ease overcrowding. But the probation service, which monitors newly released offenders, has said it “simply cannot cope” with demand as it is.
In an urgent meeting on Thursday, Ms Mahmood will be told that probation staff are expected to support the “possibility” of strike action for the first time in around a decade after years of being “batted away” by the Tory Government. She and Prisons Minister James Timpson will be told they have the chance to avoid walkouts by reopening pay negotiations with probation staff.
The new Justice Secretary will also be urged to commit to long-term investment to attract more staff to the profession amid fears public safety could be put at risk as workloads increase. This week the Government is expected to announce plans to free some prisoners after serving just 40% of their sentences.
Sources in the probation service told the Mirror this method of early release is favoured as it still means offenders have a scheduled release date. This is compared to the emergency early release scheme, which the Tory government introduced and sees prisoners freed up to 70 days early at a moment’s notice.
Concerns have been raised that rushed releases mean prisoners are being freed without support such as stable accommodation or employment plans. Some people are then either purposely reoffending to return to jail to avoid life on the streets, while others are committing crimes such as shoplifting for food out of desperation, sources say. There are also fears particularly for victims of domestic abuse, if offenders are being released without proper safety plans.
In January Mr Starmer told Rishi Sunak the probation service is "on its knees" in the wake of Zara Aleena’s murder in London. He slammed "systemic failures" after a report found probation staff missed a “catalogue of chances” to stop Jordan McSweeney murdering the 35-year-old law graduate.
Ian Lawrence, the General Secretary at the probation service’s union Napo, told the Mirror: “We know prisons are full but so is the probation service. We cannot simply cope with the sheer volume of people emerging from prison as it is, let alone with the early release.”
He added: “We need to be listened to as we don’t want to get into industrial action. We’d much rather engage positively. With the new Government, what we feel is we’re going to get listened to. The last Government batted everything away and expected the Probation Service to pick up the slack.”
UNISON head of probation Ben Priestley said: "Staff are stretched too thinly to give newly released prisoners the support they need. Plus the stress of the job is so great that experienced workers are leaving the service all the time. Investing in probation is key to fixing the crisis in the justice system. Rehabilitating people in the community is far more effective than locking them up in already overcrowded jails."
A Government spokeswoman said: “The prison system is under immense pressure, which is straining the entire justice system. The Lord Chancellor is committed to addressing this imminent crisis and is acutely aware of the impact this is having on hard-working probation staff. We will work with unions across the justice system to ensure the public is protected and the Probation Service can continue to deliver high-quality supervision in the community.”
--oo00oo--
This from yesterday's Guardian:-
Starmer ‘shocked’ about prisons crisis as early release scheme prepared
Government to announce terms which could free more than 20,000 inmates in coming months to manage capacity.
The “shocking” prisons crisis is even worse than feared, Keir Starmer has said as the government prepares to release tens of thousands of inmates early in a bid to prevent jails becoming full.
The prime minister suggested he was opposed to freeing violent criminals and sex offenders when ministers announce the terms of a new prisoner release scheme for England and Wales on Friday.
The Guardian understands that ministers are examining whether the scheme can exclude domestic abusers.
It is expected to allow early release for those who have served 40% of their sentence, instead of 50% under current rules for inmates serving determinate sentences. Whitehall sources have said this could lead to the release of more than 20,000 inmates over many months.
The former Conservative justice secretary Alex Chalk is understood to have pushed the former prime minister Rishi Sunak for months to change those rules, but Sunak is said by insiders to have repeatedly overruled Chalk, believing that it would be politically toxic and that numbers could be managed within existing systems.
One figure from the previous administration said: “We held our nerve on this for months and found other ways to keep the system operational and get new prison places online – Labour have bottled it.”
Speaking to reporters on a trip to the Nato summit in the US, Starmer said that Conservative government had been reckless in letting prisons come within a fortnight of reaching overflow.
“It is shocking for our country to have got into a state where we have too many prisoners and not enough prison places,” he said. “To a point where any government is now in a position where it has to release prisoners early. That is a shocking indictment. That is a total failure of government.”
Prisons are understood to have been operating at 99% capacity for 18 months with 100 net prisoners being added every week. A government source said: “What we encountered when we came in was a shocking act of self-harm to the country. They had pulled small levers to try and delay prisons reaching capacity by weeks, but had never taken the tough decisions. There are now no good options.”
A decision must be made this week to prevent full capacity being hit by 1 August. The justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, will make a statement on Friday about the terms of the prisoners’ release.
Starmer pointed to a report in May which found that a high-risk prisoner had his release date brought forward despite a history of stalking and domestic abuse, and being subject to a restraining order.
Asked what the terms of the prisoner release scheme would be, Starmer said he had “pressed Rishi Sunak hard” on that case in parliament, adding: “We will set that all out when we make a statement in coming days. But you know from my question to Mr Sunak … where I stand on this.”
Starmer said: “Some of what we’ve found is shocking … The situation is worse than I thought it was. I’m pretty shocked that it’s been allowed to get into that situation.
“It’s reckless to allow them to get into that place … We’re going to have to set out the state of affairs; what we intend to do about it, but it will include this question for risk categories.”
Labour’s manifesto promised a tough line on domestic abuse and pledged to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, including dedicated “rape courts” and domestic violence experts taking 999 calls.
On Wednesday a Home Office adviser warned that the pledge would put more pressure on prisons, with an additional 10,000 domestic abuse convictions if just one in three victims came forward.
Nicole Jacobs, the government’s domestic abuse commissioner, wrote to Starmer to highlight that the current prisons crisis was taking place at a time of historically low rates of convictions for those perpetrating domestic abuse.
Other experts warned that the early release system was a short-term fix and the overcrowding crisis would need significant investment in the coming years. Tom Wheatley, the president of the Prison Governors Association, said Starmer appeared to have heeded warnings for emergency action, but warned that investment would also have to be found to fix a broken system.
“We’re hopeful that the penal populism of the last government is a thing of the past and that the new government is willing to invest in our service so that we can effectively protect the public by reducing the likelihood of reoffending,” he said.
Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said Starmer’s promise to act followed years of neglect by Tory governments.
“By the end of July, prisons will be full,” he said. “So no matter what people’s opinions are, or how unpalatable the announcement may be, there is an urgent need to decrease the prison population and give our members some breathing space so we can start to reverse the chaos of the last 14 years.”
Last week Starmer appointed James Timpson as his prisons minister. The owner of a successful chain of keycutters, Timpson has long employed ex-offenders and has argued the country is “addicted to punishment … locking people up far too long. And we’re sending people to prison when actually all the evidence suggests prison is not the right place for them.”
A Ministry of Justice source said there were no plans to extend the early release scheme from 70 days early, as announced in May. It was previously extended to 60 days, from 18 days in March. The government is understood to have no plans for a queuing system for sentences and it is hoped that the releases will buy enough time to begin efforts to build capacity and start to address reoffending rates.
Speaking to the Today Podcast, Chalk said the releases were “the right way to proceed” but said it would “buy you 18 months, but it won’t buy you any more than that. You have to, as the new justice secretary, be very frank and credible about the long term.”
neither a cohesive nor a subtle argument from probation:
ReplyDeletewe can't cope & we're on the brink of total collapse but ... give us a pay rise & we'll go back to our computers & continue not coping as best we can in a particularly hostile environment
pure genius... give that man a raise!
I am a qualified probation officer who left after 1 year as a NQO, and after nearly 2 years in a very cushy local government role with the almost complete absence of stress and dread, I would need more than an appeal to my better nature to get me to return. More money would be a start, but a hard limit to caseloads based on people not arbitrary risk factors would be essential. Following a YOS model of sharing the risk across a team instead of individually would also be important, to counter the feeling that a PO will be thrown under a bus in the event of an SFO because it's less embarrassing for an organisation to have a single bad officer than admit organisational fault.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx72g0vevz0o
ReplyDelete"But the Probation Service is already struggling with its workload."
And where's the focus?
"A report published by the HM Inspectorate of Probation earlier in the year said senior probation officers “had too many responsibilities which get in the way of their focus on the quality of work delivered by their teams”..."
More money is always nice, but I think it's the stress, the constant change, the ridiculous targets, the fact SPO's want nearly all cases deemed HROSH to cover there backs which in turn increases workload, the bullying, the inconsistency between managers decisions and running of teams, the awful ROTL process (in our area at least) the churn of recalls, Part A, B, C, Oral hearings every month for no real reason other than to tick a box. All this and more leads to staff going off sick or leaving and thus making it all much worse. Make Amber the new Green for a start...maybe have local staff councils so any changes can be discussed, amended, agreed or rejected instead of being forced on us. Most officers, not all but most, want to spend most of their time with the people on their caseloads, not just filling out forms and writing pointless reports. Fingers crossed as ever eh
ReplyDeleteMore money is welcome, but what use is that when you're ill? No price your health. Probation needs to stop emphasising the practice of POs as being the issue not the workload when that is clearly the problem. Probation Reset will probably start from the prisons to get offenders out more quickly. A blunt instrumental resettlement plan and then hope for the best, and, yes, here's a leaflet if you feel unable to reintegrate. I suspect PQIPs will do more co-working high risk cases much earlier and POs will be expected to act as auxiliary SPOs without extra pay. The trouble is that the HMPPS barely recognises Probation. It might as well have just one 'P'. Probation in prisons will transform into loyal cap doffers of the prison service and this will create more division. Yep, prisons are in crisis, but they have primacy in times of desperation and the powers that be will bake-in clauses to shut probation up and expect them to suck it up. If it all gets too much, well we're in the business of managing risk and they'll see how it all goes. Bottom line: if you're an offender in custody, you need rehabilitation, support, skills to survive in the community, offence-focused work and resettlement- if none of these occur, you can expect probation to recommend recall and the fun starts all over again. Prevention is better than cure. Tangible support is better than warehousing and let's forget this 'P' for Prison Primacy nonsense- 'P' needs to mean Parity.
ReplyDeleteIndependent yesterday:-
ReplyDeleteSir Keir Starmer’s new government has “no other alternative” but to release prisoners 40 per cent of the way into their sentence to ease the overcrowding crisis behind bars and avert the collapse of the criminal justice system, unions have warned.
The new justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is expected to announce such measures on Friday, with exemptions for more serious offenders, after Sir Keir described his shock at the extent of the mess he has inherited from the Conservative government.
Rishi Sunak’s administration is understood to have drawn up similar plans before abandoning them prior to calling the general election in June. He had already been forced to release prisoners progressively earlier since October, reaching up to 70 days early in May.
Describing the bringing forward individual prisoners’ release dates as having caused “absolute mayhem” for the probation service, Napo union chief Ian Lawrence said he hopes the new move of a more blanket recalculation of sentences will ease some of the pressure.
Describing the bringing forward individual prisoners’ release dates as having caused “absolute mayhem” for the probation service, Napo union chief Ian Lawrence said he hopes the new move of a more blanket recalculation of sentences will ease some of the pressure.
“We’re not opposed to the early release of prisoners to free up capacity for those who deserve to be behind bars, but you have to do it in an orderly way and the current scheme does not do that – it’s not giving enough time for assessment to be made about the risks of a particular individual,” he told The Independent.
“That’s caused absolute mayhem for probation staff because we’re trying to deal with people at short notice. If they’re not in place with a rehabilitation plan, the chances are they’ll be recalled (to prison) in a week or two, so it’s a revolving door scenario.”
The probation union chief called for a “properly monitored scheme” which gives probation staff sufficient time to assess each individual prisoner, adding: “None of that was part of last government thinking. They just wanted to clear the cells, come what may, and not listen to the experts.”
He added: “That will give us more time to play with, but it’s the volume that still concerns me. How are we going to deal with this with the limited capacity we have?”
Warning that the probation service is in desperate need of a major financial rescue package, Mr Lawrence said: “You’ve got to pay staff sufficiently to recruit, retain and motivate.”
Demanding that the new government look at reopening pay negotiations immediately, he warned that the £150m a year touted by the previous administration “hasn’t produced the results we need”.
Indicating that the prospect of strike action remains on the table, he said: “Napo have taken a decision to postpone the prospect of immediate industrial action while we await engagement with the minister.”
And as Sir Keir touts the idea of private help for the public sector, Mr Lawrence warned Napo “will be utterly opposed to any concept of private sector involvement into the work of probation”, saying: “Any government ought to have learnt their lesson by now that that was a disaster for the taxpayer and the service.”
With probation officer caseloads already well over capacity, Mr Lawrence expressed hopes for a review of the service itself and a “root-and-branch” review to establish “whether our sentencing policies are fit for purpose and meet the need of the times”.
Starmer has had a golden start . These Tory crisis he has to resolve are not going to bother starmer. 1 he had changed the labour party to centre politics. 2 he threw out Corbyn who polled a bigger vote than starmer. 3 He threw out Dianne abbot ignoring her status too. 4 He took up a direct absorbing strategy and managed bullshit Johnson abuse. 5 When sunak showed no learning of the tactics starmer absorbed that little shits abusive bumptious attempts to diminish him. 6 starmer gets a massive elective endorsement and has supreme power to deliver an economic revival as his priority. This means renewal financially sound . 7 it means if starmer says so it will be so. Now it grates when Ian Lawrence speaks on radio 4 yesterday and is quoted here as to suggest he wants more money and no external support when stating probation as is is in crisis. Lawrence is not able to understand he has no position and talking of delayed threat strike actions is pathetic stupidity. Strike should be impossible in the short term and early release is on the game plan Lawrence should be looking to jettison all cases to zero supervision excepting violence and order as before of less than a year. This will reduce case loads. Also the Napo supremo ought to understand his position as will starmer and crew when your complaining and want more money for the same old song private intervention will be seen as help and given Lawrence's known disposition on bullshit like Boris it's most certain Lawrence will have already signed a blank document letting privateer run again in the sections of service we should have had a proper strategy to protect. Lawrence is not up to this job clearly.
DeleteSuggesting that there was “much to be learned” from the “courageous” attempts of Tory ministers Rory Stewart and David Gauke to end the use of short sentences in order to reduce reoffending, he added: “Unless you do that, the cycle will continue and prisons will become full again very quickly.
ReplyDelete“Is this government going to take the brave steps to really have a look at short-term sentencing?”
In the short term, Carl Davies of the Prison Governors Association warned that Sir Keir has “no other alternative” than to release most prisoners 40 per cent of the way into their sentence, as opposed to halfway through.
“Prisons are all but full” and “to some degree, we’re in a ‘one in, one out’ scenario in some parts of the country” already, he said.
Warning that the previous government’s early release scheme had seen probation’s limited resources “channelled into managing a capacity crisis in prisons, and that’s a waste of their skilled and valued resource”, he added: “Having an automatic 40 per cent mark does away with that additional workload.”
Steve Gillan, head of the Prison Officer Association, also told The Independent that it is “inevitable” that Sir Keir would have to strategically release prisoners “otherwise the criminal justice system would have collapsed”.
“The reality is that this is going to have be done and done quickly to relieve the pressure on system”, and the new scheme must free up between three and five thousand spaces, said the union chief, warning that “anything less than that would be a complete waste of time”.
Warning that more long-term solutions are needed, Mr Gillan insisted you “can’t build your way out of a crisis”, as he suggested spending the £4bn earmarked for new prisons internally instead to immediately improve conditions while planning “a proper sentencing policy that actually reduces the population”.
Strap in, workloads are about to become a whole lot worse.
ReplyDelete