Thinking Skills Programme (TSP) Does Reduce Reoffending

Authored by Aimee Brinn, John Preston, Rosina Costello, Tyler Opoku, Emily Sampson, Ian Elliott and Annie Sorbie, the 92-page evaluation concludes that : “over a two-year period from release, those who had participated in TSP were less likely to reoffend, reoffended less frequently, and took longer to reoffend, compared to… Last week (27 July) the Justice Data Lab published its impact evaluation of the prison-based Thinking Skills Programme (TSP) on reoffending. ...

HMP Bristol the latest prison to need urgent improvement

Urgent Notifications are the inspectorate’s last resort when a prison is, frankly, dangerous to live and conditions and very poor. They are used very rarely. There was only one issued in all of 2022 but this is the second to be issued in the last three months (HMP Cookham Wood… More dreadful news today with the Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor invoking the Urgent Notification process for HMP Bristol which he described as a prison with “apparently chronic and intractable problems”. ...

10 interesting facts from the HMPPS Annual Digest

1: “Proper jobs” Let’s start with some good news for a change. In the 12 months ending March 2023, an average of 1,088 prisoners worked each month and were subject to the Prisoners Earnings Act. This is basically an indication of those earning a proper wage working for outside employers.… The MoJ published a raft of statistical bulletins and annual reports today and included within them was the official HMPPS Annual Digest for 2022/23, a sort of compendium of facts and figures not included in the regular statistical bulletins. We thought readers would be interested in some of the more arcane facts and figures hidden within its 40 pages....

The latest criminal justice trends

Prisons As we know, the prison population has been growing rapidly this year. There were 85,851 prisoners in England and Wales on 30 June, 6% more than last year. One of the contributory factors to this rising population has been the increasing remand population trend that we have seen since… The Ministry of Justice and Office for National Statistics have today published the latest edition of the Offender Management Statistics covering the first quarter of this year. While sometimes this set of statistics confirms lots of things we already know about the prison and probation system, on this occasion there are some significant changes....

Latest prison inspection report makes for grisly reading

When I first started working in the criminal justice field, HMP Risley was known as “grisly Risley”; today’s inspection report makes it appear that nothing has changed for the better over the last forty years. HMP Risley is a mixed sex offender and general category C men’s resettlement prison near… A prison for sex offenders and with a high proportion of foreign offenders is struggling to shake off its long standing moniker ...

A new strategy for unpaid work

Unpaid work is frequently the Cinderella of the probation service, largely ignored except for in photos accompanying MoJ press releases emphasising how tough on crime the latest government is. So it’s refreshing to see it being the subject of the latest Academic Insight from HMI Probation. “A tripartite strategy for… New research highlights the need to enhance understanding of the unpaid work requirement and to gain public support and buy-in....

Counter-terrorism offender management work rated good

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation, alongside HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), and HM Inspectorate of Prisons have today published a report looking at the work of the Probation Service’s National Security Division (NSD) and multi-agency arrangements for the management of terrorist offenders in the wake of… Prison, police and probation services were found to be working together with a high quality of casework found in the inspection of the management of terrorist offenders....

Probation still not protecting victims of domestic abuse

Today’s (4 July 2023) thematic inspection of “work undertaken, and progress made by the Probation Service to reduce the incidence of domestic abuse and protect victims” does not make for comfortable reading. The inspection is based on the work in six Probation Delivery Units and included two case samples: 60… A thematic inspection has found improvements in policy but not practice...

Prisoner wellbeing

The article, written by Kate Netten and Dr Rachel A. Gibson who are part of the Evidence Based Practice Team in HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), starts by summarising what we know about wellbeing in the general population, that it is linked to a range of positive outcomes, including… An article in the latest edition of the Prison Service Journal looks at how we can apply the lessons from recent research into wellbeing to people in prison. ...

The Good Jobs Project

The Good Jobs Project, led by the business charity ReGenerate, is a new alliance of stakeholders, including businesses, government bodies, investors, and support organisations, all united by a common goal: to bridge the gap between labour shortages and marginalised groups seeking employment opportunities. In a new report the project argues… The report follows a year long study based on a survey of 500 hiring managers, HR and recruitment professionals and senior business managers...