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Justice Data Lab gets up to date but not up to speed
The Justice Data Lab also now has access to reoffending data for individuals sentenced to community orders or released from prison in 2011 and so covers the full decade from 2002. Organisations are invited to make new submissions if they would like the most up-to-date reoffending information on their service users.

Can we afford the police service we need?
One of the difficulties in getting a more efficient police force that spends a larger proportion of its funds on policing rather than administration is getting rid of an excessively bureaucratic culture. The Stevens report treads a fine line here as some its remedies, to my mind, seem to imply introducing a number of new systems which will struggle to streamline procurement and cut waste.

What’s in the new probation contracts?
The MoJ has decided to stick to its decision to make PbR payments on both binary (reducing the proportion of people who commit further offences) and frequency (reducing the total number of offences) measures. However, providers can only receive the frequency payment if they meet the binary target – the so called binary hurdle remains in place.

The State of the Drug Treatment Sector
Survey respondents were asked to identify the top three priorities and challenges for their own services. Nearly 60% said that funding and service capacity was a priority; and about one third were concerned about both the frequency and quality of the recommissioning process, and staffing levels and morale.

Justice Committee on creating a probation market
The Committee expressed reservations that the MoJ would be able to run an effective competition process with the required level of transparency. It noted that a number of significant components of the programme had not been finalised. This issue was related to one of the Committee’s overall findings that the whole TR programme is being implemented too fast and without sufficient consideration and, where appropriate, piloting.

Latest proven re-offending rates January 2014
The overall findings are positive with the proven reoffending rate dropping to 26.5% compared to 26.8% for the previous year.This figure is the overall rate of reoffending for the 600,000 adult and juvenile offenders who were cautioned, convicted (excluding immediate custodial sentences) or released from custody between April 2011 and March 2012.
Employ Russell
Russell has over 20 years’ experience as a researcher and consultant specialising in substance misuse and crime.
Prison, probation, police, substance misuse, commissioning & payment by results.
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