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What next for justice?
Guest bloggers came from a wide range of viewpoints including several organisations with a particular criminal justice focus including prison reform, employment for women offenders, restorative justice etc. This, thankfully, made for very different priorities with limited repetition. Nevertheless, four key themes emerged from this spectrum of views.

Substance misuse and mental health in prison
Bradley found that mental health and substance misuse services in prisons did not work well together and that this situation did not improve in the five years between his two reports. RAPt’s experience is that only the minority of inmates with acute mental health problems currently receive treatment in prison, with the majority having to cope with their problems in a hostile prison environment without dedicated support.

Lowest number of offenders since records began
We know that crime rates have been falling steadily over the last 20 years but what about other trends in the criminal justice system. The MoJ has just (21 May 2015) published its report on activity in the criminal justice system for 2014. The total number of individuals dealt with formally by the CJS hit an all time low at 1.73 million.

We need a new focus on complex needs
The report recommends investing £216 million over three years which should realise extensive savings since the current annual costs for the 58,000 individuals with substance misuse, criminal justice and homelessness problems is estimated at between £1.1 billion and 2.1 billion per year.

The Justice priorities of Unlock
As things stand, a criminal record is for life, no matter how old or minor. This is despite knowing that, in particular, young people make mistakes when they’re young. In essence, young people should be allowed to fail. Ways to properly and fully ‘wipe the slate clean’ for minor offending should be established.

Public sector commissioning is changing rapidly
Times of change A recent (9 April 2015) report from New Philanthropy Capital – “Times of Change”
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