Here you can find more than 750 posts tracking every major development in probation since 2011. You can trace the rise and fall of Transforming Rehabilitation, see the latest performance figures and explore new practice developments. If you’re looking for something in particular, try the search box below.
This latest set of MoJ statistics adds power to the recent argument made by Professor Sean McConville (With Lois Blom-Cooper) that if we really want prison reform, we have to sideline politicians and have a Royal Commission.
The overall proven re-offending rate is 26.0%, the lowest level in over 10 years. This represents a small drop of 0.7 percentage points compared to the previous 12 months and a fall of 2.9 percentage points since 2002. Since 2002, the overall proven re-offending rate for adult and juvenile offenders has remained fairly stable, fluctuating between around 26% and 29%.
This information cannot provide much insight about the quality of service being delivered under the new system. The best measure of this is, of course, reoffending rates but they will not be available until Autumn 2016.
The Ministry of Justice has become increasingly committed to Restorative Justice over recent years. There was considerable emphasis on RJ in the recently completed Transforming Rehabilitation process with new providers urged to include restorative work and the police use of community resolutions is to be expanded.
There were 11,000 prisoners of this age incarcerated in June 2014, representing about 13% of the prison population. Indeed, over the last 10 years (2004 – 2014) prisoners aged 60 or over were the fastest-growing age group (125% increase) followed by those aged 50–59 (104% increase).
Last month (24 October 2014) the MoJ published a new set of statistics in readiness for the implementation of Transforming Rehabilitation – the reoffending rates for these short term prisoners. In effect these statistics provide the baseline against which reducing reoffending rates will be measured.
The main argument in favour of allowing prisoners to vote is that we need to do everything we can to give offenders a stake in society and disenfranchising them merely adds to a general social exclusion and hinders the desistance process. But if the UK is out of step with Europe, the situation in the USA is far more extreme.
Confirmation of the new prime providers in the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies introduced through the MoJ’s Transforming Rehabilitation project
It’s my depressing conclusion that much of the YJB’s meticulous work to prevent any more children dying in custody may be undone by the creation of large Secure Colleges such as the initial 320 bed institution currently under development in Leicestershire.
Perhaps the most important factor is the willingness for the MoJ to encourage and promote transparency in identifying what does – and does not – work to prevent reoffending.
Let’s hope this commitment to transparency continues when the new private probation providers start running Community Rehabilitation Companies in April 2015.
Perhaps the most concrete of the commitments in this document is the plan to consult on a new compensation system which would mean that victims received compensation on conviction, rather than having to wait for months and years “as and when the offender is able to pay.”
The report found that too often, family relationships are seen simply as a matter of visits which may be increased or reduced according to an offender’s behaviour. There was no evidence that families were involved in sentence planning for instance, even when an offender said they were relying on them for support after release.
