New resource for youth justice practitioners

The Youth Justice Board has adopted Constructive Resettlement as its ‘theory of change’, championing it as a new, actionable approach for the sector, with a clear, united focus. The aim of the resource is to support youth justice practitioners in implementing Constructive Resettlement in their daily work to achieve sustained,… The London Resettlement Partnership (LRP) has just launched a new resource hub which acts as a central source of Constructive Resettlement guidance ...

Concerns about prison-probation merger

A new leadership model The Ministry of Justice has just announced what it describes as ”a new leadership model” for HMPPS. Two new Director General (DG) posts have been created; DG Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a DG Operations. The two new DG posts will replace the existing DG Prisons… A merger of leadership between prison and probation services has heightened fears that the latter is the Cinderella part of the organisation ...

£24m dedicated to support female offenders

£24m has been ring-fenced to support women whose crimes have been “fuelled” by addiction, mental health issues and domestic violence. Over 60 per cent of women in prison have experienced domestic abuse, while 50 per cent have drug addictions. £21m will be invested in women’s services tackling the causes of… The MoJ has today announced funding to support women in the justice system. ...

Probation performance improving

Last week the Ministry of Justice published the annual probation performance statistics covering the year up to the end of March 2022. As regular readers will know, this means that the stats cover the last three months of the Transforming Rehabilitation era and the first nine months of the reunified… Probation performance has been predominantly above target during the latest quarter according to MoJ figures....

Will prisons ever move on from COVID?

Inspectors said they were disappointed by a lack of progress in safety, respect, and purposeful activity with the 520 men held in the jail were spending long periods locked up in dirty conditions, with very limited access to work, education, or activity. The Chief Inspector, Charlie Taylor, has repeatedly complained… A report by the prison inspectorate into conditions at HMP Lewes, a category B prison in Sussex, repeated many of the same issues which have plagued the prison estate since the pandemic....

Think Tank congratulates MoJ on successful reunification of probation

The report looks at the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) preparations for the reunification of services and their transition back into the department, highlighting successes, challenges, and areas of focus for the longer-term improvement of probation services.  In 2019, the government announced it was bringing the management of medium- and low-risk… A new report from the Institute for Government on the reunification of the probation service concludes it was delivered as planned with virtually no disruption ...

Staffing emergency in probation and prison services

Yesterday (18 August 2022), Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) published its latest quarterly workforce statistics, showing staffing levels at the end of June this year. They make for pretty grim reading. The main concern is a big jump in the number of staff leaving both services. Prison staffing… Attrition rates for the probation and prison service are causing growing concern....

Justice system still not recovered from the pandemic

Today’s edition of the quarterly criminal justice statistics for England and Wales (covering the year up to 31 March 2022) show that while business at the courts is increasing, it is still a long way from getting back to normal. Headlines 1.36 million individuals were dealt with by the criminal… There has been a significant change in the profile of offences going through the courts over the last two years....

Courts get involved in parole changes

The Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab recently issued new rules which prohibits probation staff from offering explicit recommendations (either for or against release) when they submit reports to the parole board. The rules were followed up by new guidance attempting to restrict probation officers’ ability to answer… Regular readers, particularly anyone involved in the world of probation, will be aware of the recent major changes taking place in the parole process. ...

Separation centres provide “decent care”

What are separation centres? The Separation Centre model was introduced in 2017 as one part of the government’s response to a review into the management of extremism within the prison estate. The aim was to prevent prisoners with extreme views from radicalising their fellow inmates, presenting a risk to national… The Prison Inspectorate has today published its first ever inspection into two separation centres – which hold very small numbers of prisoners with extreme views to prevent them radicalising their fellow inmates....