Children’s experience of domestic abuse and criminality

Yesterday Dame Vera Baird, the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, published a literature review on children’s experience of domestic abuse and criminality. The report, authored by Julian Molina and Jade Levell, looks at children’s experiences of domestic abuse and their criminality, including childhood criminal exploitation, serious youth violence and… Work with Offenders looks at a new literature review from the Victims’ Commissioner...

How are our prisons tackling coronavirus?

Everyone is worried about coronavirus but we now know that two main groups are particularly at risk: older people and those with underlying health problems. Our prisons hold large numbers of both groups. We know that almost 2,000 prisoners are aged 70 or older and that 36% of people in… Work with Offenders reviews current policy and thinking around risk within the prison system ...

What did the budget say about criminal justice?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer tends to talk about all the positive measures in his speech to the House of Commons and then the Treasury publishes the “Red Book” for the financial experts to pore over at their leisure. The bald figures are encouraging; the Ministry of Justice’s overall resource… Work with Offenders looks at the details of Rishi Sunak’s first budget...

What do we know about murder?

Earlier this month, the Home Office published a fascinating 80 page research report entitled “The trends and drivers of homicide”. In this article, we share some of the main findings. Homicide trends The Home Office is keen to put our murder rate in some sort of context. The best estimate… Work with Offenders explores a new research report from the Home Office...

The redesign of probation

On Tuesday this week Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service finally published its “Draft Target Operating Model for the future of probation services in England and Wales”. As most readers will know, last May the Government finally accepted that the part privatisation of the probation service introduced by its Transforming… Work with Offenders looks at the detail of the new design of the probation service...

How Integrated Offender Management lost its way

Last Friday (28 February 2020) the Probation and Police inspectorates published a joint report which concluded that the Integrated Offender Management scheme, designed to manage our most prolific offenders, had lost its way. What is IOM? The Integrated Offender Management approach was originally established in 2009 as the next stage… Work with Offenders looks at the detail of a new joint inspection report into how we manage our most persistent and problematic offenders....

The plight of veteran offenders and the impact on their families

New research from Barnardo’s provides a glimpse into the ‘invisible’ lives of the children and families of veterans in custody. The charity was commissioned by the Forces in Mind Trust to assess their unique needs as part of a two year project. This follows previous work by Barnardo’s supporting children affected by… Work with Offenders looks into a new report into the needs of veterans in custody and their families and children...

Is the Ministry of Justice living on borrowed time?

It’s easy to think of our government departments as long-standing and venerable, representing centuries of stability and tradition. However, that’s not always the case. The Ministry of Justice, for instance, was only formed in May 2007 when some functions of the Home Secretary were combined with the Department for Constitutional… Work with offenders looks at the rationale behind an interesting reshuffle....

Women leaving prison struggle to find work

Two charities, the Prison Reform Trust and Working Chance, have jointly published a new report which found that fewer than one in 20 women (4%) were in employment six weeks after release from prison, compared with over one in 10 men (11%). Many readers will be familiar with the Prison… Work with offenders explores a new report from two leading charities...

How do you close a prison?

After Prison Many readers will be aware of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies which is an independent educational charity whose remit is to advance public understanding of crime and criminal justice. CCJS has just embarked on a new and ambitious project which aims to radically downsize the prison… Work with Offenders profiles an exciting and ambitious new project from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies....