News Archive: 2
July
30, 2004: New Inspection on Probation and Domestic Violence
July 28,
2004: More Sex Offenders? MAPPA Reports Published
July 22, 2004: New Crime
Figures Published
July 20, 2004:
Probation's new Annual Report 2003/04
July 19, 2004: New
Five-Year Strategy for Crime
July
17, 2004: Awards for Criminal Justice System Practitioners
July 15,
2004: New
Prison Service Annual Report Out Today
July 3,
2004: New Figures on Race and Criminal Justice
July
2, 2004: Choosing Judges: An Opaque, Biased and
Outdated System?
June 7, 2004:
New National Offender Manager Appointed
June 1, 2004: National Offender Management Service: It's Official
July
30, 2004: New Inspection on Probation and Domestic Violence
A new report on
probation intervention aimed at
Reducing Domestic Violence has just been published. The thematic inspection
by HM
Inspectorate of Probation on National Probation Service (NPS) Work with
Domestic Violence Perpetrators was the second of the thematic inspections within
the new Effective Supervision Inspection programme. Chief Inspector of Probation
Andrew Bridges comments in the Inspection that the Council of Europe has stated
that domestic violence:
“is the major cause
of death and disability for women aged 16-44, and accounts for more death and
ill-health than cancer or traffic accidents. The National Probation Service
plays an important role in trying to make an impact on this offending”.
It therefore causes
concern that the inspection findings reveal that there is much need for
improvement, and no room for complacency. Just over a third of the cases
inspected paid sufficient concern to victim safety.As Andrew Bridges comments,
responding to the recommendations of this report will be a challenge against the
backdrop of the introduction of National Offender Management Service and the
implementation of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The overall aim of the
inspection was to:
“determine the extent
to which the NPS contributes to the reduction of harm to primary and secondary
victims of domestic violence”
More specifically, the
inspection aimed to determine the extent to which, in relation to domestice
violence, the NPS:
-
identifies all
relevant cases consistently
-
assesses accurately
the risks/criminogenic needs of offenders
-
delivers effectively
evidence-based interventions to address risk and criminogenic need
-
reduces the risk of
harm to victims and others
-
gives priority to
victims' concerns
-
addresses race,
gender and other aspects of diversity for both victims and perpetrators.
The inspection is well
worth a detailed reading. However, key findings included:
-
Some probation
practitioners were aware of the power and control issues underlying domestic
violence and the offender’s capacity to minimise their violence, and attribute
its cause to the victim’s behaviour. They demonstrated persistent efforts to
address these issues in their work with offenders. Other practitioners,
however, lacked this awareness and persistence, and were often inclined to
take perpetrator accounts at face value.
-
Management oversight
of cases was sufficient in less than half of cases.
-
There was a lack of
appropriate interventions for domestic violence offenders to address their
specific criminogenic needs.
-
Though judgements
about the acceptability of absences were mostly appropriate, breach action was
not always taken within national standards timescales. Only two-thirds of
cases were offered appointments in line with national standards. With domestic
violence cases home visits can be an essential part of the casework because
information can be gleaned and the case manager can get a more rounded picture
of the home life of the offender.
-
Information about
breach of civil court or restraining orders was not passed promptly to
relevant authorities.
-
There was a lack of
specialist resources available to assist case managers. Case managers often
did not motivate the offender to address their offending. Sometimes this
resulted from a failure to fully address domestic issues during
supervision.
-
The quality of
pre-release work was poor.
-
Insufficient was done
to respond to changes in the risk of harm status.
-
The quality of risk
management plans was poor.
-
The risk of harm to
children from domestic violence was not addressed sufficiently.
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July 28,
2004: More Sex Offenders? MAPPA Reports Published
42 local annual reports outlining the work
of Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) were published today.
Each individual area report can be downloaded
here.The
MAPPA provide the statutory framework for inter-agency co-operation in assessing
and managing violent and sex offenders in England and Wales, and ensure much
closer supervision of offenders. The
Criminal Justice and
Court Services Act (2000) established the MAPPA and placed them on a
statutory basis.
Under the arrangements, Police, Probation, Prisons and
other key agencies combine forces to manage the risk posed by dangerous
offenders. Those ‘critical few’ offenders that pose the highest risk are
referred to a Multi-Agency Public Protection Panel (MAPPP), where their cases
are regularly scrutinised by senior representatives of local agencies. In the
last year, 39,622 offenders were covered by MAPPA
arrangements, 2,152 of whom were referred to MAPPP.
The total number of MAPPA offenders has fallen from 52,809 in 2002/3 to 39,492
in 2003/4. This is because for 2003/4 the basis for counting Violent and Other
Sex Offenders was changed to a community based figure, rather than including
offenders in custody. This ensures that all categories now reflect the
supervision of offenders in the community.
The total number of registered sex offenders has risen from 21,413 in 2002/3 to
24, 572 in 2003/4, an increase of almost 15%. This was not unforeseen, as the
length of time offenders remain on the register is determined by the length of
their sentence. This registration requirement currently varies between 5 years
and life. As a result, the number of registered sex offenders is cumulative.
Paul
Goggins, Minister for the Correctional Services, commented:
"In the MAPPA we have a system of
managing and monitoring dangerous offenders that is world-leading, and
succeeds in protecting the public better than ever before. The arrangements
have enabled Police, Probation and Prisons, with the committed involvement of
partner agencies, to work at their very best in supervising dangerous cases
through active co-operation with each other… The small proportion of offenders
that pose the highest risk are more closely scrutinised than ever by the
Multi-Agency Public Protection Panels (MAPPPs). And only a very small
proportion – this year as low as 1 per cent – of offenders referred to MAPPPs
are charged with serious further offences."
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July 22, 2004: New Crime
Figures Published
Crime in England
and Wales 2003/2004 has just been issued by the
Home Office. This key
publication combines statistics from the
British Crime Survey (BCS)
and the figures from crimes recorded by police to provide a barometer of
contemporary patterns and trends in the main high volume crimes. There are
chapters on Levels and Trends of Crime, Reporting and Recording Crime, Property
crime, Violent Crime, Patterns of Crime and Detection of Crime
There will always be some
discrepancy between the number of crimes recorded by the police and the number
measured by the BCS. Political point scoring aside, however, these are arguably
complementary figures; police statistics offer a useful barometer of trends in
well-reported crimes, and provide a gauge of police workload (and can also be
used for local crime pattern analysis). The BCS arguably offers a more complete
estimate of crime in England and Wales (for the types of crime it covers, and
the victims within its scope) since it covers both unreported and unrecorded
crime and provides more reliable data on trends. The BCS is also not affected by
changes in levels of reporting to the police, and in police recording practices.
Key findings:
-
Overall crime has
fallen by 5% in the last year, according to the BCS. There has been a 1%
increase the number of crimes recorded by the police in 2003/04 compared with
2002/03.
-
Since the peak in 1995,
BCS crime has fallen by 39%, with vehicle crime and burglary falling by
roughly half and violent crime falling by over a third during this period.
-
The risk of becoming a
victim of crime has fallen from 40% in 1995 to 26% according to BCS interviews
in 2003/04, the lowest level recorded since the BCS began in 1981.
-
According to the BCS,
there has been a fall in the proportion of people believing that crime has
increased over the past two years, both in their local area and in the country
as a whole, compared with the previous year.
-
Levels of worry about
the main crime types have fallen compared with the previous year, as has the
level of perceived anti-social behaviour. The latter has fallen from 21% to
16%.
-
Levels of confidence in most aspects of the criminal justice
system have improved compared with the previous year.
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July 20, 2004:
Probation's new Annual Report 2003/04
The
National Probation Service
(NPS) for England and Wales has just published its
Annual
Report for 2003/04. Key points include:
A total of 13,136 offenders completed
accredited programmes in 2003/04 (double the number in 2002/03).
The number of Drug Treatment and Testing
Orders (DTTOs) increased from 6,000 to 9,000.
More than 50% fewer of those given a new
order or licence dropped out of programmes in 2003/04 than in 2001/02. Reasons
for dropout in 2003/04 were familiar; the most commonly stated reason was breach
of order or licence revoked.
The national standard for victim contact
work is that probation should offer face-to-face contact between the victim and
a member of the probation service (or their agent) within 8 weeks of the
offender being sentenced. The NPS target is to make initial contact within that
timescale in 85% of eligible cases. This was exceeded in 2003/04 when 91% was
achieved.
The year has seen greater use of electronic
monitoring for both adult and juvenile offenders. The use of the Home Detention
Curfew (HDC) to allow early release from custody has increased, with the maximum
period on HDC extended from three months to four and a half months.
The electronic monitoring of a curfew is
now part of the Intensive Control and Change Programme (ICCP), for 18 to 20 year
olds which was introduced in April 2003 and which will be expanded to more areas
of England and Wales.
Alongside ICCP, provision was made for a
combination of community punishment and electronically monitored curfews for
those with lower criminogenic needs than those in receipt of ICCP.
The year 2003/04 has seen major advances in
the use of Offender Assessment System
(OASys), the risk and needs assessment system for adult
offenders developed jointly by probation and prisons. A year ago, most probation
areas were using a paper version of OASys. All areas are now live on e-OASys.
Electronic OASys allows information to be shared across an area. With the
electronic system has come a greatly enhanced ability to evaluate data from all
42 probation areas. The electronic input of OASys information has permitted a
much more sophisticated and timely
analysis of probation work.
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July 19, 2004:
New Five-Year Strategy for Crime
Prime Minister Tony Blair has
today launched the government’s
new five-year strategy for crime. He noted that it marked the
effective end of the 1960s liberal approach on law and order.
Launching the strategy, entitled
Cutting Crime, Delivering Justice
A Strategic Plan for Criminal Justice 2004-08
,
he stated
that:
“Looking back, of all the public services in 1997, the one
that was most unfit for purpose was the criminal justice system. Police
numbers were falling. Though recorded crime had begun to fall, it was still
double what it had been in the 1970s. Detections and convictions were going
down. Trials often collapsed. Fines were often not paid. Probation training
had stalled. 1 in 6 CPS posts were vacant. There were literally no computers
for frontline prosecution staff. But above all, there was a resigned
tolerance of failure, a culture of fragmentation and an absence of any sense
of forward purpose, across the whole criminal justice system. And anti-social
behaviour was a menace, without restraint.”
The Prime
Minister stated that there are three key priorities at the centre of government
plans for fighting crime and reforming the criminal justice system. They are:
Firstly,
“to revive the idea of community policing, but for a modern world. That means a
big increase in uniformed patrol on our streets but linked to 21st century
technology – to make sure they have the biggest possible impact on crime and on
the public’s fear of crime.”
To achieve
this, the government have stated that they will more than quadruple the number
of Police Community Support Officers to 24,000 by 2008.
Secondly,
according to Tony Blair, the government plan to “target the offender and not
just the offence to deal with the criminal lifestyles of the most prolific
offenders who cause such damage.” This means more prison places for serious and
persistent offenders but also more drug treatment to help them break free from
the cycle of crime with the ambition of getting around 1,000 offenders a week
into treatment by 2008. Sentencing and probation will likewise focus on
the offender. The
government plan to extend drug testing from the point of charge to the time of
arrest and introduce compulsory assessment of all those who test positive. Bail
will be linked directly in many cases to willingness to undergo treatment.
Tony Blair
has also discussed a doubling of the capacity to use electronic tagging, and the
Introduction of satellite tracking for high risk offenders.
Thirdly,
Tony Blair’s government aims to “toughen up every aspect of the criminal justice
system to take on the criminal and support the victim".
All of this is part of what Tony Blair calls “the continued overhaul and
modernisation of the criminal justice system”.
The stated target for these policies
is a 15% reduction in crime by 2008.
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July
17, 2004: Awards for Criminal Justice System Practitioners
The new
‘Justice Awards
2004’ launched by the Home Office
aim to recognise outstanding achievements by those working within the Criminal
Justice System. The public and colleagues are invited to nominate any of
approximately 400,000 staff and volunteers in the Criminal Justice System. All
are eligible for the ‘Justice Awards’.A judging panel chaired by
Baroness Scotland, Minister of State for the Criminal Justice System and Law
Reform, will meet in the autumn.
There are five individual and five team awards. The categories include:
-
Outstanding achievement in
caring for victims
-
Outstanding contribution
to working with offender and
-
Outstanding commitment to
diversity
If you want to nominate
someone, you download a nomination form
here or email
cjsnow or call 020 7273 3615. The deadline for nominations is 24 September
2004.
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July 15,
2004: New
Prison Service Annual Report Out Today
The Prison Service Annual
Report has been published today. The report outlines performance in public
sector prisons over the past year, and
notes that HM Prison
Service met nine of its fourteen Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
-
There
were 15 escapes from prisons and prison escorts, and no Category A escapes
-
There
was only one escape from escort per 39,377 prisoners
-
Average
staff sickness rate was 13.3 days
-
The rate
for timely delivery of prisoners to court was 82%
-
Resettlement: 32,592 prisoners had a job, education or training within a month
of release
-
5.5% of
staff were from a minority ethnic group
-
Education targets were significantly exceeded in most areas, including Work
Skills awards and Basic Skills awards
-
9,169
offending behaviour programmes were completed (though the target of 1168 sex
offender treatment programme completions was not met)
The Service failed to meet five key performance targets:
-
The rate
of positive mandatory drug tests was 12.3% against the target of 10%
-
The rate
of self-inflicted deaths was 135.9 per 100,000 prisoners against a target of
112.8 (a small improvement on the 2002/3 rate)
-
The
provision of purposeful activity was an average 23.2 hours per week against a
target of 24 hours
-
The
average rate of doubling, or the no. of prisoners held two to a cell designed
for one, was 21.7% against a target of 18%
-
The rate of serious assaults was 1.54% against a target of 1.20%
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July 3, 2004:
New Figures on Race and Criminal Justice
The latest
edition of
Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System has just been published.
The
Home
Secretary compiles the
statistics
under
section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, which states that
information
which will help
criminal
justice staff avoid discrimination on the grounds of race, sex,
or any other improper ground
must be published.
The statistics are well worth reading in full. Amongst the main points
for
2002/03:
- Racist
incidents recorded by the police fell by 11% to 48,525. 31,034 racially
aggravated offences were recorded by police in 2002/03 (30,113 in 2001/02).
About half of these were offences of harassment, including Public Order
offences of threatening or disorderly behaviour.
- Just over
869,000 ‘stop and searches’ were recorded by police, of which, 14% were Black
people, 7% Asian and 1% of ‘Other’ ethnic origin. Police forces varied widely
in their rates for ‘stop and searches’.
- Relative
to population, in 2002/03 Black people were 6 times more likely to be stopped
and searched than White people, compared with 5 times in 2001/02.
- In
London’s Metropolitan Police
Service (MPS), compared with 2001/02, the number of ‘stop and searches’
rose by 30% for White people, 36% for Black people and 37% for Asian people.
In England & Wales as a whole, there was an average rise of about 17% for
White people, 38% for Black people and 36% for Asian people.
- An
estimated 1.3 million arrests for notifiable offences took place, of which, 9%
were of Black people, 5% Asian and 1% ‘Other’ ethnic origin. Compared with
2001/02 arrests of Black people rose by 7%, of Asian people by 8% and of White
people by 2%. Black people were 3 times more likely to be arrested than White
or those of ‘Other’ ethnic origin.
- In June
2002, Black and Minority Ethnic groups accounted for about 22% of the male
prison population (15% Black, 3% Asian and 4% ‘Other’) and about 29% of the
female prison population (24% Black, 1% Asian and 5% ‘Other’).
- 8% of
complaints made against the police in 2002/03 were from Black people, 5% from
Asian people and 2% from ‘Other’ minority ethnic groups.
- Black and
Minority Ethnic groups are still under-represented in all grades in both the
police and prison service, as well as in senior posts in all criminal justice
agencies.
Progress has been made since
Macpherson, but there is still a long way to go.
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July 2, 2004:
Choosing Judges: An Opaque, Biased and Outdated
System?
An
independent report which is
highly critical of the appointments process for the senior judiciary has just
been published. The Commission for
Judicial Appointments has examined every stage of
the judicial appointments process in
2003.
While the report argues that the “senior judiciary in
England and Wales has an unrivalled reputation for integrity and intellectual
ability”, it nevertheless acknowledges that “members of the High Court bench are
predominantly white, male and drawn from a narrow social and educational
background”. Given that
a Black or Asian high court judge has yet to be appointed in either England or
Wales, it is hardly surprising that
the report argues that the
mechanism by which judges are selected is considered to be "opaque, outdated and
not demonstrably based upon merit".
In the
current system, candidates for the judiciary may either formally apply for
appointment or be nominated (without their knowledge). Out of a total of 175
judicial candidates in 2003, 92 applied, while 83 were nominated.
There were only 25 female
candidates. Five out of the total of nine candidates offered high court
posts were nominees, while no less than three were
nominated by the lord chancellor.
The report argues that in future all
vacancies should be advertised and
all candidates should apply. It recommends
that an independent human resources expert should advise on drawing up a
new selection process, which should require applications and consideration of
candidates' abilities against specific criteria/competencies. There should be self-assessment, references, appraisals,
interviews and possibly testing to establish their suitability.
The report looks forward to a new process “with a
job and person specification”. Short-listed candidates should be invited for
interview by an appointments panel, comprising a combination of judicial and
high level human resources expertise, and lay members.
The impact of these recommendations remains to be seen.
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