Reoffending by thousands of criminals serving short prison terms in England and Wales costs the taxpayer up to £10bn a year, a report has said. Reported by the BBC.

The National Audit Office found many prisoners were spending all day in their cells rather than being engaged in training and rehabilitation.

It added there was also “little evidence” the risk of short-sentence prisoners reoffending had been reduced.

The government said it would take the report’s recommendations forward.

Of all those in jail, prisoners serving less than a year have the highest reoffending rates and the most convictions, an average of 16.

Around 60,000 prisoners are jailed for less than 12 months each year, costing taxpayers £300m.

They are mostly convicted of theft and minor violent crimes and at any one time make up nearly one in 10 of prisoners in England and Wales; the prison population is currently about 82,000.

Value for money
Most spend as few as 45 days inside, and are released automatically at the halfway point of their sentence.

But in that time they are not given “appropriate assistance” to help them turn around their lives, the report said.

The NAO found that activities for this group of offenders were “inadequate”. About half were not involved in work or courses and spent almost all day in their cells.

The report concludes that short jail terms do not offer value for money. A six-week spell in prison costs £4,500 – £300 more than a highly intensive two-year community order involving unpaid work and rehabilitation schemes.

And overall, with 60% of short-sentenced prisoners committing another crime within a year of getting out, the social and economic cost to the country was between £7bn and £10bn a year.

But John Thornhill, chairman of the Magistrates Association, argued that alternatives to custodial sentences were often simply not available.

He told BBC Radio 5 live: “In my area of Merseyside we have a programme called Intensive Alternative To Custody. Magistrates like using that particular order… but [it] is not available across the country.

“It’s only available in six areas and we’re told that once the pilot scheme’s finished that alternative will not be there.”

The president of the Prison Governors Association, Paul Tidball, says magistrates had been criticised for being “so free” with the use of short-term sentences, which did not work.

‘Too short’
He told Radio 5 live: “I’ve heard the Magistrates Association in the past… saying prisons should do more with them [prisoners] while they have them.

“But if you’ve only got someone for six weeks, there’s a limit to what can be done.”

He added resources should be concentrated on those at greatest risk of reoffending, and said there should be better investment in communities in the first place to prevent crime.

Former inmate Craig Morrison called for earlier intervention by therapists and more robust community sentences to tackle problems such as drugs.

He said he spent his short stints in jail scrubbing floors and in the gym.

“It was too short a time to do anything rehabilitative with me. You know, I’d just get out and carry on from where I left off, playing catch-up, go out, committing crime straight away,” he told Radio 5 live.

“It sounds messed up but I was quite comfortable where I was. I was brought up in care since 12 and I accepted that was my lot in life.

“I had a moment of clarity – unfortunately it was years down the line. I had to go through years of therapy to realise how messed up my life was.”

Overcrowding
The auditors praised the efforts of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), which runs prisons and probation, in keeping inmates safe – despite overcrowding.

Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said it was important prisoners who breached bail or committed offences on bail knew they would be sent back inside.

He supported putting more minor offenders to work in the community on “not very pleasant” tasks that had “an element” of rehabilitation, to free more space in jails.

“It certainly doesn’t need to be a chain gang, it can be just a high-glow jacket that shows that this is community punishment taking place,” he said.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said achieving NOMS’ goal of reducing reoffending by short-sentenced prisoners was “challenging” because so many prisoners spent so few weeks inside.

“However, it is reasonable to expect progress towards that goal. More coherent plans for prisoners, tailored to reducing their risk of reoffending, would be a good first step,” he said.

Phil Wheatley, director general of the NOMS, said he welcomed the report and would take the recommendations forwards.

‘Damning indictment’
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “The revolving door of prison and crime costs the taxpayer billions and does little or nothing to reduce offending.

“The evidence is clear that community penalties, treatment for addicts, mental healthcare and sorting out housing and employment all work better than a short prison sentence.”

Jon Collins, of the Criminal Justice Alliance, said rather than spending money on a “futile attempt” to make short sentences work, the government should focus on keeping people out of jail to free up space and resources to better rehabilitate those who needed to be inside.

The Tories said the report was a “damning indictment of Labour’s prison failure” and pledged to introduce a “rehabilitation revolution”.

janchavarie Economic Issues, Re-offending, United Kingdom

Thirty Facebook pages have been taken down because prisoners were using them to taunt their victims, Justice Secretary Jack Straw has said. Report from the BBC.

Mr Straw was speaking after a meeting with victim campaigners to discuss prisoners using social networking sites to taunt families. They will look at ways to stop inmates using smuggled mobile phones to access webpages and abuse their victims.

Mr Straw said the 30 offending pages had been removed within 48 hours. He also said he was “reassured by the co-operation which we’re receiving from Facebook” and said it was agreed a better system for policing websites was needed.

‘Devious, manipulative people’
“This is horrible, profoundly disturbing… and it’s deeply offensive to public morality,” he said.

Mr Straw met with Margaret and Barry Mizen, the parents of teenager Jimmy Mizen who was murdered at a bakery in south-east London in May 2008, and Richard Taylor, the father of 10-year-old schoolboy Damilola Taylor, who was killed in a north Peckham estate in November 2001.

Mr Mizen said the talks were “encouraging” but he wanted Facebook to be “more responsible”.

He said: “I’m sure Facebook is a massive organisation and there’s lots of money floating around. If you have to spend a bit more on monitoring, then you have just got to do it.”

The Justice Secretary also met representatives from Facebook and Ofcom. He said it might be possible to change the rules under which prisoners are freed on parole and temporary licence, to make it “explicit” that they cannot make use of sites in this way.

“We are getting much tougher about people smuggling telephones into prison and using them.

“I’m afraid we’re dealing with crooks. Devious, manipulative people who actually have no respect for their own bodies so they push these mobile telephones into their body orifices.

Prisoner taunts
To combat this, visitors are made to sit on special chairs that scan people internally, he said. Mr Straw also said there is evidence that the families of some prisoners have been involved in updating sites.

In one case, Nottingham gangster Colin Gunn said he could not wait to see fear in people’s eyes when he got home.

Gunn, who ordered the revenge killings of John and Joan Stirland at their bungalow in Lincolnshire, used Facebook to let his friends know what was on his mind.

Jade Braithwaite, 20, the killer of 16-year-old Ben Kinsella, used the same website to boast he was “down but not out”. He also said he wanted a remote control so he could “mute or delete people when I need to”. Facebook later took down the offending page.

And prolific burglar Roy Boodle, 28, taunted detectives for 18 months saying he could not be caught, but was eventually jailed for three-and-a-half years. All the major social networking sites have policies to remove material considered to cause harassment or distress.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said earlier: “We recognise it is deeply distressing for victims and their families and friends and we have made it clear to Facebook that we do not think it acceptable or appropriate for such profiles to remain active, something Facebook agrees with.

“If material is considered to be causing harassment or distress, or constitutes illegal activity, Facebook’s policy is to remove the offending account.”

janchavarie Cell Phones, Technology, United Kingdom

The number of inmates in England and Wales’ jails should be cut by a third, and the money saved put into community penalties, a report by MPs has said. Report from The BBC.

The cross-party Justice Committee said evidence showed community punishments would have a better chance of cutting re-offending. The committee said a £4.2bn prison building plan was a “costly mistake”. But the Ministry of Justice said its current strategy was working and reoffending rates had been falling.

There are more than 82,000 people in prison in England and Wales, down from a record high of nearly 84,000 in summer 2009. With a major building programme under way, there are likely to be 96,000 prison places by 2014.

But in a detailed and lengthy report, the justice committee says prison should be a last resort, with thousands of criminals dealt with entirely in the community.

It said millions of pounds could be diverted from the prison system into improving local public services that had a more direct affect on cutting offending, including education and drug addiction programmes.

The MPs said: ”We are worried that the government seems to accept the inevitability of a high and rising prison population and remains committed to building larger prisons. We are convinced that prison building on this scale will prove a costly mistake.

”The prison population could be safely capped at current levels and then reduced over a specified period to a safe and manageable level likely to be about two-thirds of the current population.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said prisons were investing in drug treatment, training and education. “We have bolstered community punishments to ensure they are tough, innovative and offer locally based alternatives to custody,” he said. “People who commit serious offences are going to prison for longer and are being rehabilitated – and the rate of re-offending continues to fall.”

The committee said it acknowledged that its proposals to shift funding from prisons to communities were complex – but added reoffending could only be significantly cut if money was put into local authorities best placed to turn around an offender’s life.

Chairman, Sir Alan Beith, said: “Whoever forms the next government, they face a choice between unsustainable ‘business-as-usual’ in the criminal justice system, and making some radical decisions.

“It is the responsibility of governments and Parliament to protect citizens from crime by using the taxes they pay as effectively as possible. And that is not what is happening.

“A demand-led policy of building ever more prison places is being fuelled by political and media pressure for more and longer custodial sentences, diverting resources away from measures which are more likely to prevent future crime.”

janchavarie Overcrowding, United Kingdom

Additional funding to help reduce the number of women in prison is to be handed over by the Scottish government. Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said each of Scotland’s eight Criminal Justice Authorities (CJA) would receive an additional £100,000. News reported by the BBC.

He said the number of women offenders in prison had increased “sharply and disproportionately” in recent years.

A recent report by Holyrood’s Equal Opportunities Committee said too many women were being locked up. There has been about a 90% rise in the number of women being sent to Cornton Vale, Scotland’s only female prison, over the past 10 years, compared with a 16% rise for the male prisoner population.

The Equal Opportunities Committee report, which was published in November, found that 80% of female inmates have mental health problems, almost all have problems with drug or alcohol addiction and many have children on the outside.

Mr MacAskill said the extra funding demonstrated how seriously the government viewed the issue of female offenders.

He added: “The number of women offenders in the criminal justice system – especially the number in jail – has risen very sharply and disproportionately over recent years.

“Although women remain a very small proportion of the total prisoner population, the number of women prisoners has almost doubled over the 10 year period to 2007-08 – to a daily average of around 420.

“In general, and as the committee report recognises, the health and other needs of women offenders are more complex and wide-ranging than those of male offenders. So that is a range of needs that need to be addressed, be it in prison or in the community.

“I will be expecting to see positive results – that means more support for women to get their lives back on track.”

Each individual CJA will be allowed to decide how best to use the additional money.

But it could be used to introduce projects similar to the pilot support service with Barnardos for women from the south west of Scotland released from prison, and the Think Again project aimed at developing skills and confidence for women offenders in the Lothian and Borders.

janchavarie Female Inmates, Scotland

The number of inmates in England and Wales’ jails should be cut by a third, and the money saved put into community penalties, a report by MPs has said. The cross-party Justice Committee said evidence showed community punishments would have a better chance of cutting re-offending. News provided by The BBC.

The committee said a £4.2bn prison building plan was a “costly mistake”. But the Ministry of Justice said its current strategy was working and reoffending rates had been falling.

There are more than 82,000 people in prison in England and Wales, down from a record high of nearly 84,000 in summer 2009. With a major building programme under way, there are likely to be 96,000 prison places by 2014.

But in a detailed and lengthy report, the justice committee says prison should be a last resort, with thousands of criminals dealt with entirely in the community.

It said millions of pounds could be diverted from the prison system into improving local public services that had a more direct affect on cutting offending, including education and drug addiction programmes.

The MPs said: ”We are worried that the government seems to accept the inevitability of a high and rising prison population and remains committed to building larger prisons. We are convinced that prison building on this scale will prove a costly mistake. The prison population could be safely capped at current levels and then reduced over a specified period to a safe and manageable level likely to be about two-thirds of the current population.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said prisons were investing in drug treatment, training and education.

“We have bolstered community punishments to ensure they are tough, innovative and offer locally based alternatives to custody,” he said.

“People who commit serious offences are going to prison for longer and are being rehabilitated – and the rate of re-offending continues to fall.”

The committee said it acknowledged that its proposals to shift funding from prisons to communities were complex – but added reoffending could only be significantly cut if money was put into local authorities best placed to turn around an offender’s life.

Chairman, Sir Alan Beith, said: “Whoever forms the next government, they face a choice between unsustainable ‘business-as-usual’ in the criminal justice system, and making some radical decisions.

“It is the responsibility of governments and Parliament to protect citizens from crime by using the taxes they pay as effectively as possible. And that is not what is happening.

“A demand-led policy of building ever more prison places is being fuelled by political and media pressure for more and longer custodial sentences, diverting resources away from measures which are more likely to prevent future crime.”

janchavarie Corrections Reform, United Kingdom

CONS are being ordered to clear snow and ice off Scotland’s roads and pavements instead of being sent to jail. News reported in the Daily Record.

The move was revealed as Scotland struggled back to work through the big freeze yesterday.

Desperate councils, who are under intense pressure because of the weather, have drafted in gangs of criminals as part of their efforts.

Last night, the Scottish government said offenders on council-run community service schemes had been involved in the clear-up since the festive period.

A spokesman said: “Here offenders are doing something necessary, rather than sitting in prison, giving nothing back to the peo ple they have harmed.”

Harriet Dempster, president of the Association of Directors of Social Work, said: “It’s a time for all hands to the pump and it’s a time where community service squads can, under supervision, make a positive payback: reducing risks of older people falling and enabling people to get out and about and back to normal .”

The government were unable to say how many offenders were involved or where t hey were at work. But justice secretary Kenny MacAskill confirmed he would be visiting one of the schemes in Dunfermline tomorrow.

Confirmation of the move came after a call from former Scots Tory leader David McLetchie earlier yesterday. He said: “It would make sense for those criminals who have been sentenced to repay their debt to society through community service to be put to work in clearing the snow and ice.”

A Scottish g overnment spokesman said: “People on communit y service orders have been out clearing the streets for the past few weeks.

“This type of work demonstrates clearly the potential for work by offenders in the community to make Scotland safer.”

janchavarie Inmate Programs, Scotland, Work Release

A brand new prison is taking credit for the plummeting crime rate in the Isle of Man. News from the Daily Mail.

But it is not the fear of being locked up that is making criminals think twice before stealing, fighting or trading in drugs. The prospect of being forced to give up smoking is apparently far more frightening.

The £42million jail, which opened last year, is Europe’s only non-smoking prison. Inmates and guards are not allowed to smoke either in or outside the buildings.

With just under 100 prisoners, there is plenty of room for more, with at least 40 cells empty. The Isle of Man, already one of the safest places in Britain, has seen a 14 per cent drop in crime since the jail opened, or rather closed, its doors in August 2008.

Prisoners arriving at the jail are told they have no choice but to give up smoking and are offered nicotine patches and counselling to help them cope. An Isle of Man police source said: ‘There are 200 officers on this island and anything which makes our lives easier is welcome news.

‘It has become a standing joke that when we nick someone we remind them that if they get sent down they’ll have to come off the cigarettes – their faces are a picture.’

In the last 12 months, the number of burglaries has plunged by more than 35 per cent, there has been a 25 per cent drop in the number of assaults, and the number of people caught stealing cars has fallen by seven per cent.

Domestic assaults fell 11 per cent and criminal damage offences dropped eight per cent.

The crime rate on the Isle of Man was already low, with experts saying it is down to ‘low unemployment and high community spirit’, but also that the criminal justice system takes a hard line on crimes, with even small crimes often resulting in imprisonment.

One former prisoner, who spent six months there, said the smoking ban had cons ‘crawling up the walls’ in desperation for a nicotine fix. The inmate, who didn’t want to be named, said today: ‘As soon as you get to the prison they take your fags and lighter off you.

‘It came as a big surprise to a lot of us – smoking is something that helps people doing time stay sane – it’s something to do with all that time you have on your hands.’ He added: ‘As soon as word got round that it wasn’t a joke and that all smoking was banned, even in the exercise yard, a lot of people I know started having second thoughts about committing crimes.

‘It was something they genuinely feared. Not prison itself, but the idea of being forced to give up smoking. Some of my mates have simply given up crime, whether it be stealing cars, shoplifting to order or burglary, as a direct result of the smoking ban.’

A spokeswoman for the prison said that the huge drop in recorded crime could not be ‘wholly attributed’ to the non-smoking prison, but said the non-smoking status of the prison was now a well known fact on the island.

She said: ‘The No-Smoking Premises Regulations 2007 are well known throughout the Island. All smoking prisoners are offered every assistance through our professionally qualified medical team and prescribed nicotine replacement therapy in accordance with clinical guidance.’

Home Affairs Minister Martyn Quayle, said at the opening of the prison: ‘It’s been a very difficult issue to reflect the fact that we are not going to please everybody. Certainly the prison officers have a right to enjoy a no-smoking environment as much as their counterparts in the civil service working outside the prison.

The Department considered a total ban was the right policy to adopt. Chief Inspector Simon Lowe, of the Isle of Man Constabulary, said today: ‘Anything that helps reduce crime is welcomed by the police.’

A Facebook group has even been set up to fight for the right to smoke in the prison and already has 218 members. The group called ‘Allow smokers to smoke in the Isle of Man prison’ states: ‘This group is really more of a petition against the banning of prisoners smoking in the new prison on the Isle of Man.

‘Smoking being banned in the entire prison is an absolute joke and an infringement against human rights by do-gooders.

‘At least let the people who are in (prison) smoke outside. It’s the only prison in Europe that has this rule.’

janchavarie Smoking, United Kingdom

Scotland’s prison population has continued to rise, according to new

Scotland's prison population increased by 6%

national statistics. Reported by the BBC.

The figures showed the average daily prison population in the year to March was 7,835, up by 6% on the previous year and 31% over the past 10 years.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said prison would always be the right punishment for those involved in serious crime. But he said simply building more prisons was not the answer.

Scotland’s chief statistician revealed that the majority of the prison population were sentenced prisoners. The most recent average daily figure for prisoners held on remand was 1,678 for the year from April 2008 to the end of March.

This was an increase of 8% over the previous year’s figure of 1,560, indicating an on-going rising trend in the remand population. On 30 June 2008, the crime category with the largest population of sentenced prisoners was non-sexual violent crime (37%), followed by drugs-related crimes (14%).

The 2008-09 average daily female prison population was 413, an 11% increase from 371 in 2007-08. The female prison population has shown a disproportionate increase of 97% over the past 10 years.

The number of prisoners serving sentences of six months or less has decreased, the statistics said.

Speaking during a visit to HMP Inverness, Mr MacAskill said: “Prison, if necessary for a long time, will always be the right punishment for those involved in serious crime and those who are a danger to our communities.

“That is why we are investing £120m each year in our prison estate, including the building of three new prisons.

“But we cannot and will not build even more prisons to fill them with those for whom prison is not the right answer.”

‘Revolving door’

He said short sentences of six months or less did nothing to stop offending behaviour.

“Reconviction statistics published earlier this year show just how many offenders are going inside for a short period of time, coming out to reoffend, and then going back inside,” he added. “We need to close that revolving door of reoffending. And to do that we need to tackle the underlying causes of crime – drink, drugs and deprivation.”

In response to the increase in the prison population, John Lamont, the Conservative spokesman on community safety said:

“Prison numbers will only be properly cut when crime is cut. Prison serves four important functions: to deter criminals, to protect the public, to punish and to rehabilitate. All four matter and we have to have the political will to make prison work.

‘Soft touch’

He said that in the SNP’s Scotland, people have to be very unlucky to end up in jail.

He added: “The prime duty of government is to protect the public. The SNP is guilty of a dereliction of that duty.”

Scottish Labour’s justice spokesman Richard Baker said: “Kenny MacAskill’s soft touch approach is not deterring criminals and his management of the prison estate has been woeful.

“Why was the build of Low Moss prison delayed? Why is he closing Craiginches prison in Aberdeen? Mr MacAskill is looking to weaken the criminal justice system and that is not the right approach for dealing with any category of offender. ”

He added: “We do want to see effective community sentences, and in many instances this will be appropriate for female offenders, but this requires appropriate investment in community sentences in which the public can have confidence.”

janchavarie Corrections Reform, Scotland, Statistics

Scotland’s chief prisons inspector has hit out at the policy of having just one female-only prison.  Reported by the BBC.

Dr Andrew McLellan told [Members of the Scottish Parliament] it was a major factor in overcrowding at Cornton Vale Prison and meant many women were too far away from their families.  The Scottish Prison Service admitted the regime at the prison, near Stirling, had slipped amid population increases and pressure on staff time …

Dr McLellan told its inquiry on female offenders in the justice system it did not seem to be “fair or honest” to make the argument that all women prisoners should be at one site to help them benefit from rehabilitation programmes.  “I do not agree with the policy of the Scottish Prison Service which is to concentrate all women prisoners in one site,” he said.   “That by itself is a significant factor of overcrowding in Cornton Vale.”

Pointing out that women prisoners were, until recently, held in Aberdeen, Inverness and Dumfries, Dr McLellan added “Almost all of the women who were in these local units were there for a very short time and largely were there on remand, for five days or seven days or at the most three weeks, so none of these people in Cornton Vale were ever going to take advantage of the critical mass.  “But the closing of these units increases significantly the overcrowding in Cornton Vale and severely impairs the family contact and family support which women in Aberdeen or Inverness or Dumfries might have had.”

Sue Brookes, head of offender strategy and partnership development with the prison service, agreed more female prisoners should be closer to home.  But she dismissed re-opening the Aberdeen and Inverness female prison facilities, saying many of the women in Cornton Vale had acute physical and mental problems. “The reasons for closing them were not just about access to programmes,” said Ms Brookes – a former governor of Cornton Vale.  “They were because, certainly in my view, some of the medical care that was available was not appropriate and was putting women at risk.”

jakking Europe, Female Inmates, INTERNATIONAL, Scotland, United Kingdom

UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw has ditched plans for three giant ‘Titan’ prisons costing £1.2 billion as the Government spending squeeze begins to bite.

Advanced proposals to build three, four-storey, 2,500 place jails will be dropped next week in a major U-turn.   Mr Straw will tell Parliament he has opted instead to build five smaller prisons, each holding 1,500 inmates – as many as the largest existing prisons in England and Wales.

Ministry of Justice sources said the decision was made in response to local opposition and criticism from penal reform groups and were not linked to funding. But the Tories said Mr Straw was responding to a £400 million “black hole” in prison finances.

A consultation paper on prison expansion published in June last year said each Titan would be housed on a giant 50-acre site and hold a cluster of smaller units holding around 500 inmates.   Planned locations were near the country’s major population centres in London, the West Midlands and the North West. New prison places are needed to fill a predicted 13,600 shortfall by 2014. The prison population crisis has meant that since June 2007, 52,117 criminals have been let out up to 18 days early.

jakking Economic Issues, England & Wales, Europe, INTERNATIONAL, Jail and Prison Construction, United Kingdom

In Wales, the union Napo fears that more than 200 jobs will be lost over the next two years, leaving already hard-pressed probation officers with far too heavy a case load to monitor offenders properly.  Report from WalesOnline.

Budget plans agreed by the Ministry of Justice and its agency Noms (National Offender Management Service), which is responsible for both the prison and probation services, will see cash cuts in all four regions.  In Gwent, for example, the overall budget is due to reduce from £22.8m in the financial year that began last week to £20m in two years’ time.

Mike Dunne, co-chair of the Gwent and Glamorgan branch of Napo, said: “We are extremely concerned about the potential impact of these cuts on our members’ ability to do their jobs properly. There is evidence that increasing workloads for probation officers results in an increase in crime. Coupled with the recession, which in itself is likely to result in more crime, there could be very serious consequences. The public will undoubtedly be at greater risk …

Mr Dunne said that Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, had stated that the public sector, like the private sector, should expect job losses in the recession.  “That’s all very well,” said Mr Dunne. “But whereas when car sales go down and demand decreases, there isn’t the need to employ so many workers in car factories, the same does not apply in the probation service. We still have the same number of clients to deal with, probably more” …

Justice Minister David Hanson, the MP for Delyn, said: “There is absolutely no evidence in the figures cited by Napo relating to the number of new crimes that would be committed and suggestions that there will be a 25% reduction in supervision are totally unsubstantiated.  “There has been a 70% increase in probation funding in real terms over the last 10 years and an increase of more than a third in staff.   “Re-offending rates are down, successful drug treatments and offending behaviour programmes are up, and the target for Community Payback is being exceeded.   “The Government will not do anything to endanger these successes in the future.  “Public protection is the main priority for the probation service and it will not be put at risk.”

jakking Community Corrections, Economic Issues, England & Wales, Europe, INTERNATIONAL, United Kingdom

Drugs are seized in Scottish jails almost five times a day on average, according to official figures.  This report from the BBC.

There were 2,122 cases of drugs being discovered in prisons from January 2008 to March 2009.   Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie said the problem had doubled in five years, with jails now “awash” with drugs.  The Scottish Government said it had a “zero tolerance” attitude to drug use and was working to limit supply …

Ms Goldie said: “It is nothing short of incredible that the number of drug finds in our prisons has more than doubled in less than five years.  In 2003 there was an average of 2.3 drug finds per day. For the past few years that figure has more than doubled. It is unacceptable and it appears that Scotland’s prisons are now awash with drugs.”  The Conservatives have called for every prison to have a drug-free wing where inmates can go to when they want to come off drugs.  “We should be helping prisoners get off drugs, rather than providing an environment for drugs to flourish,” Miss Goldie said.

jakking Europe, INTERNATIONAL, Juvenile Justice, Scotland, United Kingdom

Probation staff will struggle to stop criminals committing more crimes because of £3m worth of cuts, an English Member of Parliament warned last night.  Report from the Witney Gazette.

Thames Valley Probation Service is having to make the cuts over the next three years following a reduction in its budget from the Government. Four offices, including two in Oxford, may be shut under a review.   It is also feared up to 140 staff may lose their jobs and Banbury MP Tony Baldry said it would mean the probation service would struggle to monitor the 8,000 people a year it currently deals with …

Mr Baldry said he understood staff from closed offices might be relocated to a central base in Botley Road, Oxford, meaning they would have less time to monitor criminals outside the city. Mr Baldry said: “It will not be an improved service. “The whole point of local offender management is to have knowledge of the offender, local circumstances and their family.  Removing offices and staff is a retrograde step. It’s going to mean probation officers will spend all their time driving round the county. It will clearly damage offender management” …

Justice Minister David Hanson MP said: “Public protection is the main priority of the probation service and it will not be put at risk – offenders who pose the highest risk receive more intensive contact, with other resources being directed accordingly.”

jakking Community Corrections, Economic Issues, England & Wales, Europe, INTERNATIONAL, United Kingdom

The credibility of community sentences in the UK is at stake because offenders who breach the orders are not dealt with firmly enough, a study says.

Experts from King’s College London examined Community Orders and Suspended Sentence Orders, which were introduced in England and Wales four years ago.  They require offenders to do unpaid work or undergo rehabilitation.  But a probation officer interviewed for the study said those under the orders left court “laughing their heads off”.   Offenders who were interviewed said they felt “relieved” when they were given an order instead of a jail sentence …

One probation officer said breaches were not dealt with seriously enough and “that gives completely the wrong message.  “You go to court for a breach and you don’t get sent to prison, you go back on the van next week and all your mates tell everybody else about it. It doesn’t have the deterrent effect that it’s meant to have.”   The most commonly suggested improvement to SSOs was that offenders who breached them should be sent to prison.  One officer said: “I know prisons are full, but they’re full with the wrong people. We need to send out the message that if you’ve got a suspended sentence and you breach it, you go to prison.”

The BBC report has a lot more detailed information.

jakking Community Corrections, England & Wales, Europe, INTERNATIONAL, Sentencing, United Kingdom

Electronic tagging of offenders will be introduced to Northern Ireland within weeks.

The measure will be available to Northern Irish courts from the start of April, several years after being introduced in England and Wales.  Criminal Justice Minister Paul Goggins said it would play a significant role in improving public protection and in managing and rehabilitating offenders.   Curfews enforced by an electronic tag will be used in a variety of ways – as a condition of bail, as a condition of release from prison under licence, or as a requirement of a community sentence or a youth conference plan … He said it was a significant step in the delivery of public protection and would support the rehabilitation and resettlement of offenders and assist in the enforcement of bail curfews.

International security company G4S has been appointed to deliver the monitoring service in Northern Ireland … Field monitoring officers based in Northern Ireland will conduct installations and follow-up visits, and violations will be recorded as G4S`s control centre in Manchester.

More detail available from 96FM.

jakking Electronic Monitoring, INTERNATIONAL, Northern Ireland

Scotland’s head of prisons has told ministers the country’s overcrowded prisons are in a state of “emergency” and has called for a cap on the number of people behind bars and Scandinavian-style alternatives to imprisonment for minor offenders.

Mike Ewart, the chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, spoke out after the nation’s prison population last week hit a record high of 8,137. Scotland’s eight prisons are designed to hold a maximum of 6,625 people.  Ewart said the service had reached a point where the prison population has exceeded design capacity and the level at which it is safe to operate.  He said: “The risk has become unacceptable. I would be derelict in my duties if I had not let ministers know, but I could not divulge what ministerial advice has been given.  It is an emergency. We are legally required to take every prisoner we are sent but we are over design capacity and over the safe legal limits. What we are doing is putting Scotland at risk.”

Ewart is understood to have sought legal advice on his two conflicting duties, to look after every prisoner in his care and to lock up everybody given a custodial sentence. There is some concern in the prison service that jails are now so overcrowded they could be subjected to a legal challenge on health and safety grounds. The exact legal threshold for prison numbers has never been tested in court.

Ewart said: “We need a cap on the prisoner numbers in the longer term. The evidence from other European jurisdictions shows that this is what they have done to move away from excessively high prison populations. We need to be able to say, when we are full, we are full. We are not safer locking these people up. It is a pernicious lie to say this is about community respite. Putting more people in prison actually makes us less safe. Having reached this level, which is unsafe operationally and legally, I have to speak out.”

More details from The Scotsman.

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After the Scottish Justice Committee threw out plans to increase home detention, the Minister responsible declared that the system is just “one troubled football match” away from a complete meltdown.

[The Minister Kenneth MacAskill] insists the move is vital to stop the prison population reaching crisis levels. It is now more than 8000, including 330 on curfews. MacAskill has called on MSPs to back the plan when it comes before the full parliament this week. He said: “Last month, prison population records were broken 25 times. “The Governor [warden] of Barlinnie is clear that within months he will simply be unable to take any further prisoners.”

However, the senior opposition politician notes:

“MacAskill had the opportunity to come to the justice committee with details of increased risk assessments but came with nothing.  He failed to give either MSPs or the general public the reassurances they expect over home detention curfews.  He appears to have lost control of the prison system and his stop-gap methods are not fooling anyone.”

Read more about this developing situation at The Sunday Mail.

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