Delivering the female offender strategy

The Ministry of Justice has today published its Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan 2022 to 2025, four and a half years since the strategy itself was published. Many commentators will feel that the publication of a plan which covers 2022 in January 2023 typifies the MoJ’s slow progress on implementation… The Delivery Plan sets out how Government will deliver four key priorities to reduce women’s offending over the period of the 2022–25 Spending Review...

What are the factors associated with young people being sent to prison?

Interesting new research published by the Office for National Statistics last week found that going to a lower-quality school, as rated by Ofsted, is one of the many factors linked with a higher likelihood of someone being imprisoned. The research  The study uses Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Department for… The majority of people given an immediate prison sentence before the age of 24 had been convicted or cautioned for an offence before the age of 16....

The support needs of adult victim-survivors of sexual violence

In 2021, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) made a commitment in the Rape Review Action Plan to conduct “targeted research with rape victims to better understand their experiences and what they want from support services so that future provision meets need”. To meet this commitment and to fully inform the… The MoJ has published the findings of research into the needs of RASSO victims ...

Good news on youth justice

A number of positive long-term trends continue; the two most important being: the number of children entering the justice system for the first time reached another all-time low, of just over 8,000 children the number of children in custody was, on average, 450 – the lowest figure on record Reoffending… Today’s publication of the annual youth justice statistics (for 2021/22) provide, in the words of Keith Fraser, Chair of the Youth Justice Board (YJB), “ a glimmer of hope”....

What’s gone wrong with prison education?

Every time they inspect a prison, inspectors assess its progress against four areas – safety, respect, purposeful activity and rehabilitation and release planning – and award a score: four for good; three for reasonably good; two for not sufficiently good; and one for poor. Purposeful activity has consistently been the… The latest blog by the Chief Prison Inspector Charlie Taylor focuses on the decline of prison education. ...

Probation staff 'forgetting' to do police checks due to high caseloads

Probation staff have caseloads "so big" that they often forget to undertake standard police checks while assessing offenders, hugely affecting how effectively risk can be detected. Following recent serious further offence reviews (SFOs) for quadruple murderer Damien Bendall and Jordan McSweeney, Justin Russell told Sky News that risk assessment is “the weakest area… Following the damning SFO review of Jordan McSweeney, HM Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell has said that police aren't always being consulted about domestic abuse risks....

McSweeney murder highlights probation staffing concerns

Following last week’s SFO review of the case of quadruple murderer Damien Bendall, (see our coverage here)  the inspectorate has now issued its independent serious further offence review of Jordan McSweeney. Mr McSweeney should have been recalled to prison since he was not attending his probation appointments before he sexually assaulted… His Majesty’s Inspector of Probation has today published another serious further offence review revealing the tragic consequences of the chronic under-staffing of the probation service....

London probation staffing crisis

The Committee joins the Probation Inspectorate in highlighting a number of concerns about probation in London, in particular the impact of chronic and worsening under-staffing. The report is the result of an investigation undertaken by the Committee to see how the London Probation Service was performing one year after its… The London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee has today published a report into Probation Services in the capital. ...

Probation service seriously at fault in Bendall quadruple murders

Damien Bendall murdered Terri Harris (aged 35), John Paul Bennett (aged 13), Lacey Bennett (aged 11) and Connie Gent (aged 11). He also raped Lacey. These crimes took place in September 2021 in Killamarsh, Derbyshire. He pleaded guilty in December 2022 and was later sentenced to a whole-life prison term.… His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation has today published its independent serious further offence review into the four murders committed by Damien Bendall when he was being supervised by the probation service....

Experiences of fast track probation officer training

This pilot tested an accelerated 13-month work-based training pathway for existing PSOs, with and without previous Level 5 qualifications (foundation degree or equivalent), with offender manager experience. Those who completed the pathway gained the Professional Qualification in Probation. The pilot ran in 4 probation areas from January 2021 to March… Yesterday the Ministry of Justice published a process evaluation of its probation services officer (PSO) progression pilot...