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Managing offenders?
Managing seems to be a very popular word at the moment, especially where offenders are concerned. A clear example is the latest Transforming Rehabilitation: A revolution in the way we manage offenders, a consultation paper detailing the Government’s proposals for reforming the delivery of offender services. This paper is available to download at: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-rehabilitation. The period of consultation runs from 9th Jan to 22nd Feb 2013.
Page 13 is very apt:
“Successful bidders will be responsible for delivering requirements of community orders or licence conditions. They will also be incentivised through payment by results to tackle offenders’ life management problems and reduce reoffending. For offenders leaving prison, providers should work with them ‘through the prison gate’, engaging them before their release into the community and maintaining continuous support. This should be linked with the important role that prisons play in the rehabilitation of offenders and in reducing their risk of harm, including efforts to increase the number of prisoners working while in custody.”
To achieve this successfully will involve an incredible amount of resources not just in terms of money but would need an army of volunteers. In a period of cut backs voluntary organisations are already stretched whilst private companies are focused on making money!
According to the East Anglian Daily Times up to 20% of prisoners in HMP Highpoint are underemployed. This amounts to around 260 prisoners. However, Andrew Neilson, Howard League for Penal Reform, stated “It is important that prisoners are engaged in purposeful activity, but too many at Highpoint are underemployed, meaning they are unlikely to develop skills that will be useful after their release”. And the cycle continues!
http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/suffolk_fears_raised_over_hmp_highpoint_inspection_1_1793976
Steady on!
According to the Guardian, the justice secretary, Chris Grayling, has admitted his plans for the wholesale outsourcing of the probation service will not lead to an overnight reduction in stubbornly high reoffending rates but said he hoped it would lead to a “steady year-by-year decline”. Is he implying that the problem lies with the Probation Service, or is he throwing out the baby with the bath water? If private companies and voluntary sector organisations are invited to bid for these services then would it be a free for all, or would it be a post code lottery? http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/09/chris-grayling-probation-privatisation-reoffending
Why should we concentrate on making the prison system cheaper not smaller, Mr Grayling?
A theme that is close to my heart is the reduction of the prison population, unfortunately the Government has other ideas. Chris Grayling MP in his speech to the Centre for Social Justice on 20th November stated the five priorities that he has given to the Ministry of Justice for the remainder of this Parliament, priority three included
“We have to focus on making the prison system cheaper not smaller”.
In addition Jeremy Wright MP at the AGM for the Howard League for Penal Reform on Wednesday 21st November 2012 said that the Government has no plans to reduce the prison population and it is the sentencers not the Government who are responsible for the prison population as it stands today.
Maybe we should look at simplifying the Criminal Justice System by reviewing historical scholars. In On Crimes and Punishment and Other Writings (1764), Cesare Beccaria critically challenges the current thinking of the 18th Century by putting forward his theory of Criminal Justice from an enlightened perspective as he himself searched for truth (Bellamy, 1995). He concluded that:
“In order that punishment should not be an act of violence perpetrated by one or many upon a private citizen, it is essential that it should be public, speedy, necessary, the minimum possible in the given circumstances, proportionate to the crime, and determined by the law”
What is clear is that the objectives of sentencing have changed over time, with different priorities being given by different policy makers. The criminal justice system has been reduced to a managerial system rather than improving on a punitive system. In other words, policy makers are more interested in assuring that the system works than assuring that the punishment works, which totally misses the point of crime and punishment as Beccaria saw it.
References
Bellamy, R. (ed.) (1995) Beccaria: On Crimes and Punishments and Other Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Related Links
‘Prisons: cheaper not smaller’ by Richard Garside. UK Justice Policy Review. 20 Nov 2012. click here
‘An open letter to Chris Grayling from an ‘old lag’ ‘Downsizing Criminal Justice. 28 Nov 2012. click here
The Criminal Justice Blog 