The fact that women make up only 5% of the prison population and 15% of those on probation means their needs are often overlooked by a system which is focused on the profile and behaviour of male offenders.
The design of the CJS is not evidence-led, despite some attempts to reference evidence when it fits the prevailing ‘politics’. The prevailing ‘politics’ and public attitude is one of punishment first and foremost . Any discussion is predominantly an emotional response to the harm done by those who commit crimes, bounded by vested interests and political dogma.
Many readers will have first hand experience of commissioners seeking to achieve economies of scale by integrating drug and alcohol treatment and moving to one contract for a local area with the aim of delivering a co-ordinated treatment system led by a single provider.
The negative findings of this report stem largely from this lack of identification and the inspectors’ conclusion is pretty damning: “The needs of people with learning disabilities were often missed. There were pockets of good practice and examples of staff developing supportive relationships and “going the extra mile”, but these were far too often the exception rather than the norm, both in prisons and the community.”
I want a public sector provider that sits at the heart of the process. I can’t turn the clock back but I can make sure that one part of the system takes overall responsibility. It’s got to be the public sector because I can’t see that justice and transparency are served by any other sector playing the role.
We all know that huge technology companies keep track of us, but somehow we never quite imagine the full extent and detail of what they know about us. The infographic below from backgroundchecks.org is educational to say the least:
There are a hundred things I’d like to do as my third priority, like reverse the cuts to prison budgets or fully implement the Corston review. But unless I also happened to have time-shifting superpowers, the likelihood is that I couldn’t afford any of them. But there is one more thing that’s fairly inexpensive, cannot be cast as either soft or illiberal and would finally bring a much-n
This is a short and slightly disappointing report which seems intended merely to place a marker for the next government. Little substantive work has taken place since the Justice Committee’s initial enquiry into women offenders in March 2013. As a consequence, the report is reduced to expressing the hope
How does the new Justice Secretary direct extra resources at interventions that achieve the departmental objective of reducing reoffending, while managing what is likely to be a further 20-30% cut to the departmental budget? A brave leader would use this opportunity to end the madness of the highest prison population in Europe – costing taxpayers over £3 billion per year, a high proportion of which is
The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 is one of those wide-raging criminal justice acts which create numerous new offences, make substantial changes to sentencing and try to address lots of minor anomalies in a way that has become increasingly popular in the last two decades.
The Coalition’s policy of making prison “not smaller but cheaper” has left the system in a parlous state, endangering prisoners, staff and the wider public. An urgent rebalancing of penal policy is required to create an affordable and effective approach to people in conflict with the law.
The reasons for this litany of poor practice have nothing to do with resources or politics. The findings are particularly shameful because the inspectors also found numerous examples of excellent work in custody and community and, where this was the case, the children in question had not reoffended.
