Tuesday 27 July 2021

Sense and Nonsense

I'm pleased to note that the recent Bill McWilliams Memorial lecture by Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford is now published on YouTube and it makes the perfect antidote to todays criminal justice political nonsense from Prime Minister Johnson.      


This from today's Guardian:-

MPs and campaigners alarmed at UK’s ‘discriminatory’ crime reduction plans

Government’s proposals include more frequent stop and search and making community service street cleaners ‘more visible’.

MPs and campaigners have sounded alarm at a series of proposals in the government crime reduction plan, including more frequent stop and search, a trial of “alcohol tags” and criminals undertaking “visible” community service cleaning streets.

Liberty said the permanent relaxation of search powers would “compound discrimination in Britain and divide communities” and the former shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, said it was “alarming and counter-productive.” Labour said the policy was a “rehash” of a number of preannounced proposals and expansions of existing pilots.

The strategy will include a plan for every neighbourhood in England and Wales to have a named and contactable police officer as well as a league table for 101 and 999 answering times. Boris Johnson said the “beating crime plan” was part of the commitment to “levelling up” parts of the country plagued by crime and antisocial behaviour, but Labour criticised the strategy as lacking vision and said police were demoralised.

Among the proposals in the strategy are:
  • Permanently relaxing conditions on the use of section 60 stop and search powers for police to tackle knife crime
  • Expanding the use of electronic monitoring for thieves upon release from prison
  • Trialling the use of alcohol tags – which detect alcohol in the sweat of offenders guilty of drink-fuelled crime – on prison leavers in Wales
  • Making unpaid work “more visible” by getting offenders to clean streets and open spaces
Offenders doing community service will wear hi-vis as they clear canals or clean graffiti. “The intention is to make the price of crime visible,” one Home Office source said.

Emmanuelle Andrews, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: “We all want to feel safe in our communities, but expanding what have proven to be discriminatory police powers isn’t how we get there. Many communities, particularly communities of colour, experience overbearing and oppressive policing and the package the government has put forward will only worsen this. It will subject more young people to further coercion, punishment and control.”

The Home Office said the plan put special emphasis on causes of crime including alcohol and illegal drugs, citing statistics that half of all homicides last year were drug-related. That will include the £31m expansion of Project ADDER to eight more local authorities, a strategy that combines police resources to target local gang leaders driving drugs trade, while also investing in addiction recovery.

The government also said it would be investing over £45m in specialist support in mainstream schools and alternative provision in serious violence hotspots to support young people to re-engage in education. The plan includes a £17m package for violence reduction units to give specialist support from trained youth workers when a young person is arrested or admitted to A&E with a knife injury.

Johnson said the government “cannot level up the country when crime hits the poorest hardest and draws the most vulnerable into violence”. The prime minister is to make a series of visits to promote the strategy but is likely to encounter tension with frontline officers after the government said the majority of officers would see no increase in pay this year.

The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), which represents 130,000 officers, last week said it had no confidence in home secretary Priti Patel, saying the government “could not be trusted”.

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “This announcement of rehashed policies won’t make our streets safer. The Conservatives are all talk and no action when it comes to tackling crime. On their watch, police numbers are down and community policing has been decimated. Coupled with an insulting pay freeze, it is no wonder frontline police have declared no confidence in the home secretary.”

Thomas-Symonds said named officers were not a substitute for the effects of cuts on community policing. “Little wonder that, on their watch, antisocial behaviour is rocketing, there are record low convictions for rape and violent crime is devastating communities across the country.”

Abbott said the plan was “a checklist of gimmicks designed to get Priti Patel good headlines in the tabloid press in the short term but it does nothing about the long term problems in the criminal justice system.”

Johnson had initially pledged in an article for the Express that “if you are the victim of crime, you have a named officer to call – someone who is immediately on your side.” However, Labour said the policy appeared to have been diluted, pledging only that “every neighbourhood in England and Wales will have a named and contactable police officer dedicated to its service”.

A Home Office source called that a misreading – saying personal details for a named officer would be available for the area on police.uk which all victims of crime and concerned residents could call.

14 comments:

  1. Perfect juxtaposition, demonstrating why we must have a change in UK government if any shreds of Probation and social justice are going to be on the cards. In the meantime, should Drakeford's plan to have Probation devolved to Wales, predict a brain drain from along the West and SW of England to the sunny valleys of Wales.
    By the by, the first section of Drakeford' s lecture is just a heart-warming clarion call for solid socialism in government. Not scary, not radical, just healthy. It really should be on the curriculum. And at least watched by a wider audience than Probation aficionados.

    ReplyDelete
  2. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/dec/02/community-payback-orange-vests-slough

    "These were the first convicted UK criminals forced to wear controversial "vests of shame" - bright orange bibs designed as public reminders that offenders cleaning graffiti or laying pavements are being punished and not paid."


    https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/4063679.amp/

    " The scheme requires offenders to wear high-visibility vests bearing the words ‘Community Payback’ as they work in the community.

    The scheme was started in 2006 in Kensington, London, and has since been introduced in select areas across the country.

    It was introduced by the Government to restore public confidence that community punishments worked – though some have criticised it is unnecessary humiliation for those forced to wear the vests."


    https://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/criticism-over-justice-system-1854826

    "Among the initiatives introduced by Mr Straw is a scheme which sees criminals given community sentences ordered to wear hi-visibility jackets while working in public. The justice secretary has also pledged that fresh prison reforms will cut reoffending rates, reduce drug use in jails and give more skills to offenders.

    Speaking ahead of his visit, he said: “Community punishments like unpaid work can be more productive than prison in getting offenders to address the causes of their criminality. Offenders sentenced to 'pay' for their crimes within the community can already expect to work hard, with no pay and significant loss of free time. But the type of unpaid work that can be seen here today provides training for offenders that can lead to real employment opportunities and a reduction in reoffending.

    “The public has a right to know what unpaid work offenders are doing in their area to pay back for the wrongs they committed. That's why we introduced the high visibility jackets that offenders wear while working.” "


    https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/may/05/community-payback-jacket-refusal

    "District judge Philip Browning said: "The requirement to wear the marked vest was introduced and imposed some three months after the defendant signed his agreement, which did not include such a requirement, which in itself was an important and significant change."


    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/228540/7583.pdf

    "The Casey Review found
    that the respondents to a survey agreed with
    many of the aims and principles of community
    penalties, and in particular supported offenders
    being required to carry out demanding,
    visible work, to ‘pay back’ to and benefit the
    community... we would be introducing new uniforms
    for adult offenders undertaking unpaid work
    through the Community Payback scheme. We
    delivered on that promise quickly and decisively,
    launching the new, distinctive clothing – an
    orange high-visibility vest with ‘Community
    Payback’ on it – on 1 December. It is now
    being worn by all adult offenders carrying out
    Community Payback, except where certain
    exceptional circumstances apply."

    "Night-night" said Zebedee.
    "Night night" said Dougal.
    Cue music...

    ReplyDelete
  3. 2012: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/mar/17/sobriety-bracelets-alcohol-related-crimes

    2013: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-22855782

    2014: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/31/sobriety-tags-offenders-alcohol-related-crime-pilot-scheme-london

    2015: https://www.alcoholpolicy.net/2015/08/alcohol-offender-sobriety-tag-scheme-could-go-national.html

    2021: "Trialling the use of alcohol tags – which detect alcohol in the sweat of offenders guilty of drink-fuelled crime – on prison leavers in Wales."

    ReplyDelete
  4. https://data.justice.gov.uk/contracts/electronic-monitoring

    "Electronic monitoring was introduced in 1999 to support the police, courts, prisons and wider justice system in England and Wales."

    Electronic monitoring total caseload 31 Mar 2020 = 10,400


    2011: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/sep/30/electronic-tags-offenders

    "The use of electronic tagging has grown rapidly since it was first used in 1999 by courts in England and Wales to enforce curfews. Now more than 20,000 offenders are monitored by private security firms on any given day... Fewer than 3,500 electronic tagging orders were made in 1999, a figure that rose to cover more than 70,000 people last year."

    "Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation service union, said he was shocked that tagging had become a £1bn industry: "There is no evidence that tagging has any impact on reducing crime..."


    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26541375

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/10/g4s-fined-44m-by-serious-office-over-electronic-tagging

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25348086

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jul/03/serco-fined-229m-over-electronic-tagging-scandal

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Among the proposals in the strategy are:

    Permanently relaxing conditions on the use of section 60 stop-and-search powers for police to tackle knife crime.

    Expanding the use of electronic monitoring for thieves upon release from prison.

    Trialling the use of alcohol tags – which detect alcohol in the sweat of offenders guilty of drink-fuelled crime – on prison leavers in Wales.

    Making unpaid work “more visible” by getting offenders to clean streets and open spaces."


    Hmmm, wonder if there's any past information about the use of stop-and-search???

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your not wrong a new level for humiliation of CP clients. This tough on crime fiasco will fail to reduce crime but instead will scapegoat visible work parties. The police are against it. I don't see why though some of restoring local accountable police is probably a good thing even though plods will have to do some more work in being monitored. That can't hurt can it. I think in reality this is all diversion politics than a real sea change for policing.

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  7. 1983: Willis, C.F. The Use, Effectiveness and Impact of Police Stop and Search Powers, Home Office Research and Planning Unit Paper 15, London: Home Office.

    2002: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2246331.stm

    2009: https://www.historyextra.com/period/stop-and-search-what-can-we-learn-from-history/

    2010: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/ehrc_stop_and_search_report.pdf

    https://www.release.org.uk/law/stop-and-search

    2018: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/our-research/reading-lists/stop-and-search-reading-list

    ReplyDelete
  8. Making those on Community Payback stick out like sore thumbs, dosen't just make the offender identifiable and visible to the law abiding general public, it also makes them visable to others engaged in criminal activity.
    There's a lot of gang culture and postcode wars in our inner cities. Making some people so visable to everyone, may be just the same as hanging a target around their neck.
    Maybe Johnson would be better off making those polititions caught telling lies wear long wooden Pinocchio noses so they can be easily identified in public.
    There will be many that will say "good on you Boris, give them what they deserve", but a high viability jacket won't prevent reoffending, and all the extra tagging just means more taxpayers money being funneled into the private sector.
    There dosen't seem to be any notion of rehabilitation anymore, just crowd pleasing gimmicks.

    'Getafix

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  9. Here's the governments reasoning.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-sets-out-ambitious-plan-to-tackle-drivers-of-crime

    A record 1000 trainee probation officers last year and another 1500 coming this year?

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  10. Many fans with long-held tickets to Euro 2020 matches had their tickets cancelled due to Covid restrictions, but 19 MPs managed to attend for free courtesy of gambling companies and the Premier League.

    Wallace, the defence secretary, was one of 10 MPs who took advantage of corporate hospitality worth £3,547 from Gibraltar-based Entain, the owner of Ladbrokes, to watch England play in the Euros at Wembley.

    Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow work and pensions secretary, took the same £3,547 package from Entain, while Starmer’s parliamentary private secretary, Sharon Hodgson, accepted hospitality of the same value from the Betting and Gaming Council. Nigel Adams, a Foreign Office minister, also took free tickets worth £1,999.14 from the betting industry body to attend an England football match.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jul/30/mps-enjoy-free-tickets-worth-100k-during-covid-large-event-pilots

    ReplyDelete
  11. "The gambling industry hosted the MPs at a time when the government is undertaking a comprehensive review of the Gambling Act to consider further restrictions on advertising. Matt Zarb-Cousin, the director of the Clean Up Gambling campaign, said the industry appeared to have used an international tournament as “an excuse for wining and dining MPs” ahead of the review. The campaign group also warned that legislators “should think twice about accepting hospitality from a sector that derives the majority of its profits from people experiencing harm”."


    "THE Conservative Party has received nearly £18 million from donors with property interests in the past two years, according to new statistics.

    The figures from the Electoral Commission – the UK watchdog for election and party finance – are particularly controversial given the political backlash over the Tory government’s planning reforms, which critics say could benefit housing developers.

    Analysis from the Financial Times found donations made by individuals and companies in the property sector account for a quarter of total donations made to the Tory party since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister."


    "Its all perfectly normal. Nothing to see here."

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    Replies
    1. https://bylinetimes.com/2021/07/29/prominent-conservative-donor-wins-large-contract-with-ministry-of-justice/

      Delete
  12. Hi Jim

    I am unable to post direct sorry.

    I’m always interested to read about exhausted colleagues reaching for retirement before their due ages and want to raise the issue of pensions. As background, I am a burnt out PO who foolishly gave too much to make my job work when really what was asked of me was unattainable, like so many who are now leaving. I got my head down, never missed a target ( NPS employer priority) but worked ridiculous hours because I didn’t want to let down the people I supervised (my priority). I would go into our local AP at weekends to catch up and do my OASys etc. Had over 200 stored hours ( recorded just for my interest as no prospect of getting them back as the whole team was 140 % plus WLMT) when I resigned but this is how at that point I (mis)managed my stress. Yup definitely stupid but was on the hamster wheel and never looked up or thought about my future.

    The final straw was a straight forward lie told to me by the LDU head (I saved the emails) still in place, so I resigned. Interestingly no exit survey was sent to me and I let it all go because I knew it was NPS’ loss not mine and frankly, couldn’t face another battle drawn out in an exhausting process with little investment in the truth.

    So after some welcome recovery from the madness of being a probation employee I needed to think about family finances and I honestly thought I would just take my pension early, fully aware this would be reduced. What caught me totally unawares was the normal retirement age for me had been adjusted up several times over the years with obvious pension implications so in effect, taking my pension a couple of years early had now become six years early with the expected reduction in benefits much amplified. I’ve decided I’ll manage as best I can and try to get nearer my now later retirement age before claiming my pension as it seems to be the final insult to give up so much money.

    So for what it’s worth two pieces of advice firstly, ‘excellent’ appraisals really are meaningless and more importantly, don’t ignore your pensions, check your statements and know what it means for you.

    Resigned but not Retired PO

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