News Archive: 3

September 30, 2004: Record Number of Police Officers

September 29 2004: New Funding for Probation and Prisons

September 29, 2004: Intermittent Custody - Here to Stay

September 25, 2004: Police Performance Improving, say Home Office

September 23, 2004: Research on prisoner-on-prisoner homicide

September 23, 2004: Abolish ASBOs for children, say Howard League

September 11, 2004: New Draft Mental Health Bill Published

September 8, 2004: Lord Carlile  heads inquiry into children in custody

September 6, 2004: Thousands of women needlessly imprisoned, say PRT

September 4, 2004: Prison Suicides Reach Record High

September 2, 2004: Satellite Tracking for Offenders Arrives

August 10 2004: Howard League warning on children in prison

August 6, 2004: 'Land of the Free' has 6.9m people in prison, on probation, on parole

August 1, 2004: Government Climbdown a "Victory for Common Sense" says Napo

September 30, 2004: Record Number of Police Officers

The Home Office has just published new figures on the overall total of police officers in England and Wales.  They indicate that there were 140,563 full-time equivalent police officers  on 31 March 2004. This is an increase of 6,114 (that is, 5 per cent) compared to a year earlier.

All forty-three forces increased their total officer strength in the 12 months to 31 March 2004. The largest increases in percentage terms were in Greater Manchester (up 10 per cent or 720 officers), Avon and Somerset (up 8 per cent or 257 officers) and Cumbria (up 8 per cent or 87 officers). The largest numerical increase was in the London's Metropolitan Police (up 1,804 officers or 6 per cent). In all, 14 forces increased their officer strength by 100 or more compared with 31 March 2003.

The overall total includes 2,095 officers seconded to the National Crime Squad, National Criminal Intelligence Service and central services.

There were 4,629 minority ethnic officers (that is, 3.3 per cent) of the total police strength, compared with 2.9 per cent on 31 March 2003.

The adjusted police officer strength figure for 31 March 2004, for comparison with figures prior to March 2003, was 139,200 - the highest level on record.

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September 29, 2004: New Funding for Probation and Prisons

Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced new funding for prisons and probation in England and Wales. The new funding is part of an 8.4% increase - around £320 million - in spending on the Prison and Probation Services next year.

This sum adds to the significant funds already committed to prison and probation. It includes the recruitment of 1650 frontline staff and 150 support staff - to be recruited across all 42 probation areas over the next two years. It will bring the total number of probation staff to 21,000, and continues the year-on-year increases in new probation staff.

According to the Home Office, the aim is to ensure that “both custody and community punishments are modern and can address the needs of society and offenders by reducing re-offending and cutting crime”.

The Home Secretary outlined the policy thus:

"Providing modern and effective prisons is central to this Government's objective of reducing re-offending, protecting the public and sending the right signal to those for whom punishment in the community has failed to redeem their behaviour. I am committed to increasing places in prisons and probation to ensure that there is a prison place for all those serious and persistent offenders who need it and an effective community alternative for less serious offenders."

Although England and Wales already have proportionally the greatest number of prisoners per head of population in Western Europe, the current plan is to further increase prison capacity, taking the number of new prison places to over three-and-a-half thousand. Mr Blunkett stated that around £100 million of money in 2005-06 will pay for the start of a programme creating 1,300 new prison places. This is in addition to 2,400 new places due to be added to capacity over the next 18 months from the existing expansion programme.

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September 29, 2004: Intermittent Custody - Here to Stay

Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced the expansion of the use of intermittent custody, which entails prisoners spending either weekends or weekdays in prison and the rest of the week in the community.

The new sentence aims to reduce re-offending by reducing the negative impact of short custodial sentences. It is aimed at offenders whose offences are sufficiently serious to warrant a prison sentence, but who do not present such a risk as to require immediate full-time custody. Under the terms of the sentence - introduced following the Criminal Justice Act 2003 - custody is served intermittently, for a number of days each week. Offenders will spend the remainder of the week under Probation Service supervision in the community, working, looking for employment or undertaking activities such as community work. The new sentence has been piloted since January 2004 in two purpose-built prison units in Lancashire and Lincolnshire.

Commenting on intermittent custody, Mr Blunkett states that it gave more prisoners the chance to stay in their community and their jobs while serving their sentence. He added:

"Already our early pilots show that offenders have been able to keep jobs and small businesses that would have been lost if a sentence of full-time custody had been imposed. It is also helping women offenders with young children by avoiding the break-up of families. At the same time intermittent custody can play a key role by punishing offenders whilst ensuring they undertake programmes to address their behaviour and make reparation to the community - thereby increasing the chance of avoiding a return to crime afterwards."

Those watching the progress of the new National Offender Management Service will be interested in the analysis of Home Office Minister for Correctional Services Paul Goggins:

"Intermittent Custody demonstrates the closer working of the Prison and Probation Services that will be increasingly in evidence over the coming months following the introduction of the National Offender Management Service."

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September 25, 2004: Police Performance Improving, say Home Office

Home Office figures has just published figures suggest that police performance in England and Wales in the fields of crime investigation and crime reduction is improving. Statistics indicate that the police succeeded in reducing burglary by eight per cent, robbery by nine per cent and vehicle crime by more than six per cent in 2003/4. The total number of offences brought to justice has increased. They also indicate that almost two thirds of police time is spent on frontline policing.

The performance reports were constructed using Home Office published data supplied by individual police forces, including recorded crime statistics and British Crime Survey findings, as well as some unpublished data on sickness absence in the police service and offences brought to justice. In addition, they report the Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary  Baseline Assessment gradings published in June 2004. They also include previously unpublished data on the amount of time which police officers spend on frontline policing.

"The overall picture of policing performance that emerges is encouraging. Crime and the fear of crime are both down and the number of offences brought to justice has gone up. The reports also identify areas for improvement, most notably in the levels of detections. We are developing a number of strategies to that end including improving forensic techniques such as the use of DNA and fingerprint and footprint images to improve detections."

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September 23, 2004: Research on prisoner-on-prisoner homicide

The Home Office Research Development and Statistics (RDS) website has just published a report by Ghazala Sattar on Prisoner-on-prisoner homicide in England and Wales. The Report is downloadable here. While research in western countries suggests that prisoner homicide is increasing, up to now little had been known about the situation in England and Wales. Sattar has undertaken a descriptive study of the nature and extent of prisoner-on-prisoner homicides in England and Wales between 1990 and 2001. The main findings:

• There was an average of two homicides per year from 1990 to 2001 (26 in total).
• Two-thirds of the 26 murders were in high security and local prisons.
• Twelve victims were in shared cells and 11 had been killed by their cellmate.
• Victims were likely to be young, white, male, repeat offenders who were serving a sentence for violence, robbery or drugs offences. They were also more likely to be housed in shared cells. (This profile is similar to that of assailants and the general prison population.)
• The most common motive was an altercation between prisoners, though there were also drug- and debt-related motives. In one case the attack was recorded as being racially motivated

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September 23, 2004: Abolish ASBOs for children, say Howard League

The Howard League for Penal Reform has called for the abolition of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) for children.  The charity said that when ASBOs were introduced it was intended would rarely be used against young people – but children have become the focus of the orders.  

In its submission to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into anti social behaviour the Howard League suggested that to tackle anti-social behaviour resources should be put into activities for children that engage them in positive and constructive ways rather than using ASBOs that isolate, exclude and stigmatise them.

According to the Howard League, ASBOs may exacerbate social exclusion, compound problems; and increase social tension. Furthermore, some local authorities are putting children at risk by publishing leaflets with the names and photographs of children alleged to be involved in anti-social behaviour.  

Excessive and inappropriate use of ASBOs has resulted in significant numbers of children being imprisoned; and it is argued that ASBOs may contravenes the government’s commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.  Nuisance behaviour by children has been criminalised, for if a child breaches an ASBO they may end up in prison for behaviour such as littering or spitting in the street.

According to Howard League Director Frances Crook:

“The Howard League for Penal Reform believes that the government is obsessed with low level anti-social behaviour by children.  This legislation damages children and their communities, but it also distorts the efforts that can be put into dealing with and preventing more serious crimes that have a greater social cost. Using anti-social behaviour legislation on children is a nasty political trick.  The government is seen to be doing something – but the real challenges are left unmet.  So much more could be achieved if the resources were used in a positive way to engage with children and provide services for those who feel they have nowhere to go and that nobody wants them.”

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September 11, 2004: New Draft Mental Health Bill Published

The Government has published a revised draft Mental Health Bill. This Bill will have a significant impact on work with mentally disordered offenders. It represents the biggest reform of mental health legislation since the 1950s, and will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by a parliamentary committee, which will present its report by March 2005. (A draft Bill was published in 2002, and comments received on that draft have been taken into consideration).

The government argues that it will provide improved safeguards for patients and better procedures for treatment to the small minority of people with mental health problems who need to be treated against their will to prevent them from harming themselves. The government also states that it will provide a diversion from prison for non-dangerous offenders with mental health problems and provides better protection to the public from those who are deemed a risk to others, by ensuring they receive the treatment they need.

The new draft Bill has:

• changed the definition of mental disorder to emphasise that it is the effect rather than the underlying cause which is important;
• defined the conditions for compulsion differently, to raise the threshold for the health and safety of patients and to make clear that appropriate treatment must be available for the individual patient;
• meant that a period of hospital assessment will normally be a prerequisite to treatment subject to sanction in the community;
• extended the proposed functions of the Healthcare Commission;
• allowed people to refuse Electro Convulsive Therapy if they retain mental capacity
• increased the maximum sentence for people convicted of ill treatment or neglect of patients

According to Home Office Prisons and Probation Minister Minister Paul Goggins:

"The provisions that enable dangerous and serious offenders to be detained in hospital for mental health treatment will stay in place. The vast majority of people with mental disorders are not a risk to others, but a minority are - and the law obviously needs to recognise this.We will not compromise public safety. If we are to protect the public we must ensure that those with a mental disorder who are a risk to others receive the high quality mental health treatment they need. The Bill will help to achieve this."
"It also enables non-dangerous offenders who do not pose a risk to others to receive mental health treatment under sanction in the community. This means that the offender will receive the mental health treatment he or she needs to reduce the risk of re-offending."

National Director for Mental Health, Louis Appleby, said:

"The criteria for compulsory treatment under the Bill are carefully drafted - to make sure that only people who need compulsory treatment receive it. Mental health services will have a duty to respond to requests for assessment and patients who are treated under the Bill will have to have an individual care plan focussed on their individual needs."

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September 8, 2004: Lord Carlile heads inquiry into children in custody

The Howard League for Penal Reform announced yesterday that Lord Carlile of Berriew QC will lead an independent inquiry into the use of strip-searching, physical restraint and segregation for children in penal custody. The inquiry’s terms of reference are:

"To investigate the use of physical restraint, solitary confinement and forcible strip searching of children in prisons, secure training centres and local authority secure children’s homes and to make recommendations."

The inquiry will build on Howard League research which indicates that physical restraint in the commercially managed secure training centres has been used on no less than 11,593 occasions despite the fact that they only hold 190 children who are predominately aged 14 and 15. The Howard League is also concerned at the high level of self-injury by juveniles in prison service establishments, particularly when children are held in virtual solitary confinement as a punishment. There were 117 incidents of attempted suicide or self-injury recorded involving juveniles in segregation in prisons in 2003. In April 2004, 15 year old Gareth Myatt died in Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre whilst being restrained by three staff.

The inquiry will investigate the routine practice of stripping children on reception to prison.

According to Lord Carlile:

 “My inquiry will consider the various ways that children are treated in penal custody that in any other circumstance would trigger a child protection investigation and could even result in criminal charges. We recognise that many of the children held in custody exhibit challenging behaviour and have complex health and social needs, but we are concerned about the forcible stripping of young people, long periods of isolation as punishment and the physical restraint of children.”

The Howard League notes that on 20 August 2004, there were 2,573 boys aged 15 to 18 held in fourteen prison service young offender institutions (YOIs). 18 year olds are sometimes kept in YOIs to finish sentences begun when they were juveniles. 108 girls aged 16 to 18 were held in four prisons. This adds up to a total of 3,135 children in penal custody, a significant increase since 1997 when it stood at 2,590. 12 young people aged 15 to 17 have taken their own lives in prisons since 1997. 1,659 incidents of self-injury or attempted suicide by juveniles in prisons were recorded from 1998 to 2002.

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September 6, 2004: Thousands of Women Needlessly Imprisoned

Six out of ten women imprisoned while awaiting trial are subsequently acquitted or given a non-custodial sentence according to a Prison Reform Trust report by Dr Kimmett Edgar. The report states that the number of women being remanded into custody has more than trebled in a decade, despite the fact that more than three quarters are charged with non-violent or minor offences.
'Lacking Conviction: The rise of the women's remand population' says that very few women are charged with sufficiently serious crimes to require custody and too little is known of the problems they face to prove that the deprivation of liberty is necessary. Whilst in prison their lives are damaged by loss of homes, job prospects and contact with their families.
The report says that women on remand constitute one of the fastest growing groups among the prison population. It notes:

• There was a 196% increase in the number of women remanded into custody between 1992 and 2002 compared to a 52% increase for men.
• Of the 12,000 women sent to prison in 2002 two-thirds were on remand.
• More women are remanded into custody for theft and handling stolen goods than any other crime.
• Following trial 59 per cent do not receive a custodial sentence and one in five is acquitted.
• Four out of ten remanded women have received help or treatment for mental health in the year before being sent to prison and a quarter say they have injected drugs in the month before custody.

The report highlights the fact that once in prison women receive inadequate support. They do not get the drug treatment or mental health care they require, are confined to their cells for long hours and have limited opportunities to stay in touch with family. The provision of bail information has broken down in many prisons. It concludes that custodial remand is used too frequently by the courts due to unacceptable failures to gather, present and transfer information about the needs and experiences of vulnerable women. There are also breakdowns in bail support in the community, a scarcity of court liaison and diversion schemes and gaps in healthcare and housing provision geared to the needs of women.

The report recommends:

• Custodial remand must be reserved for those charged with serious or violent offences.
• The Government must conduct a wide-ranging review of the use of remand and bail in England and Wales.
•  A national network of small, local women-only supervisions centres must be established to work with women who come into contact with the criminal justice system. These centres should provide women with multi-agency support and should replace prison custody for all women except those whose offences demonstrate a serious danger to society.
•  An increase in the provision and an improvement in the quality of court based diversion schemes for women with serious mental health problems.
•  An improvement in the provision of information to the courts, particularly adequate social, psychiatric and probation reports, prior to taking a decision to deny bail.

Prison Reform Trust Director Juliet Lyon, stated:
"There is clear evidence that, instead of getting the support they need, vulnerable women are being jailed due to breakdowns at every point in the criminal justice system. Sorting out the needless use of remand would reduce the women's prison population at a stroke".

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September 4, 2004: Prison Suicides Reach Record High

With prison overcrowding at its highest recorded level, the BBC has reported that in August 2004, more prisoners killed themselves in prisons in England and Wales than in any other single month since records began. There have now been 70 suicides in prison since the start of 2004. According to evidence given to the House of Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights for their interim report on deaths in custody, 2004, almost two-thirds of prisoners who commit suicide have a history of drug misuse. About a third of suicides occur within the first week of a prisoner being imprisoned and no less than one in seven within two days of admission.

MIND evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights stated that:

“Incidences of suicide and self-harm often arise either due to inadequate care and support available to people whilst in a detained setting, or when conditions a person has been detained in are not conducive to minimising anxiety and ensuring they feel safe. This may result in suicide or self-harm, or alternatively in increased agitation or aggressive behaviour which may lead to physical restraint or increased medication being used which has in the past led to deaths.”

Prison Reform Trust evidence to the same committee stated that there was a clear link between the high prevalence of mental illness among prisoners and the level of suicides.

“Many prisoners have significant mental health problems. Research… has found that 40% of male and 63% of female sentenced prisoners show symptoms of at least one neurotic disorder, such as depression, anxiety and phobias. Nearly two thirds of male sentenced prisoners and half of female prisoners suffer from a personality disorder. These levels of mental illness are three times higher than among the general population… A high proportion of prisoners have been treated in psychiatric hospitals… one in five male sentenced prisoners and 15% of female prisoners have previously been admitted to a psychiatric hospital.”

From 1 April 2004, all deaths in prisons, probation hostels and immigration detention accommodation have been investigated by Stephen Shaw, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.

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September 2, 2004: Satellite Tracking for Offenders Arrives in the UK

Home Secretary David Blunkett announced today that satellite tracking will be used to monitor offenders in three pilot areas in England: Greater Manchester, Hampshire and the West Midlands. All three areas will test the technology with prolific offenders and domestic violence offenders. Greater Manchester will also test the technology with sexual offenders, and Hampshire with young prolific offenders. This is the first time this technology has been used in offender management in Europe.

The technology utilises a satellite Global Positioning System to monitor offenders. The offender’s movements can be tracked in real time - appearing as a location on an ordinance survey map to within two metres. Offenders will be tracked following release from custody or as part of their compliance with a new community penalty (the ‘exclusion order’) which the Courts can impose to prevent an offender going to specific locations.

The pilots will run for 12 months, after which the government will decide whether to extend satellite tracking to the whole of England and Wales. The pilots will be evaluated by Home Office appointed researchers.

According to the Home Office, the new technology will help deter offenders from breaking the law, while providing extra intelligence to public protection agencies about the movements of ex-offenders to ensure they can intervene swiftly if necessary. The cost of tracking offenders will depend on how intensive the tracking is and on how many offenders are made subject to tracking. The government has budgeted £3million to cover start up costs, evaluation and project management. The estimated average cost per day for each offender tracked is £68. The pilots are taking place under the current electronic monitoring contracts. The current suppliers are Securicor, Reliance and Premier.

Probation Service Director General Steve Murphy stated that the National Probation Service is already effectively managing offenders subject to electronic tagging:

"Introducing satellite tracking represents the next step in monitoring offender movements whilst they serve the community element of any sentence. This testing of satellite tracking will enable probation staff and police forces to work even more closely in protecting the public."

According to the Home Secretary:

"This technology will allow us to be equally tough with offenders released from prison using the latest technology to ensure they are sticking to the conditions of their licence and staying away from crime… This technology will allow us to develop and promote the tough community sentences which are vital if we are to prevent re-offending and give non-violent offenders a chance to serve an effective sentence in the community. The public have to be confident that this ‘prison without bars’ works and that it gives the police and probation services the tools they need to protect them. This will build on the success of electronic tagging in monitoring offenders.

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August 6, 2004: 'Land of the Free' has 6.9 million people in prison, on probation, on parole

The USA’s combined federal, state and local adult correctional population reached a new record of almost 6.9 million men and women in 2003, according to figures just released by the US Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).  The bulletin, "Probation and Parole in the United States, 2003" was written by BJS statisticians Lauren E. Glaze and Seri Palla. This represents an increase of 130,700 people since December 31, 2002 .

In the ‘land of the free’, about 3.2% of the nation's adult population – about 1 in every 32 adults, were imprisoned, on probation or on parole in 2003.

The correctional population of 6,889,800 includes people incarcerated in prisons and jails as well as those on probation and parole. On June 30, 2003, 1,387,269 adults were incarcerated in federal and state prisons and 691,301 inmates in local jails.

As of December 31, 2003, 4,073,987 adults were on probation - a period of supervision in the community following a conviction - and 774,588 on parole - a period of conditional supervised release following a prison term.

At the end of last year, the number of adults on probation or parole reached a record high of more than 4.8 million, which was 70 percent of all persons under federal, state or local correctional supervision. More than 1 million of the nation's probationers and parolees were in Texas (534,260) and California (485,039).

More than half of the probationers were white, 30% were black, 12% were Hispanic and 25 were of other races. Women comprised 23% of all adults on probation.

Of the almost 2.2 million probationers discharged from supervision during 2003, about 3 in 5 had successfully met the conditions of their supervision. About 16 percent were incarcerated because of a rule violation or a new offense, and 4 percent had absconded.

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August 1, 2004: Government Climbdown a "Victory for Common Sense" says Napo

The government has pulled back from an imminent move to a regionally based probation service, following wide resistance to from probation union Napo and many probation boards. They consistently opposed the moves to radically restructure the Probation Service by splitting it into two parts, offender management and interventions, in order to create an artificial purchaser/provider split. These proposals involved dismantling the current Service based on 42 Probation Areas, and transferring the management of the offender management part of the Service to ten Regional Boards and moving the interventions work to a new national employer.

Judy McKnight, Napo General Secretary, welcomed a “victory for common sense” which showed that the Government had learned from the near unanimous opposition to the original restructuring plans for the Probation. She commented:

"Napo has consistently supported the need for strategies that reduce prison numbers and reduce reoffending. The wholesale reorganisation of the Probation Service in order to expose it to the threat of privatisation, was never the way to achieve that vision."

“Napo believes that the continuation of an integrated Probation Service, working in partnership with local communities, properly resourced, and free from the threat of privatisation, should be the lynch pin for the future delivery of an effective community focused justice system."

Martin Narey, Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service said:

“I concluded, and Ministers agreed, that designing a new organisation at this pace could severely impact on performance in the Probation Service.” 

He  also noted that the current interim model did not signal a change of direction and that he plans to push ahead with ‘contestability’ – seen be some to effectively mean a degree of privatization of probation. In Narey’s own words, “we can consider giving the private and not-for-profit sector an opportunity, working for the Probation Board, to take over all the functions of a probation area”.

However, his statement did not rule out the threat of further restructuring in future.

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The following Crimlinks news archives are available:

Crimlinks News Archive 15: January-February 2006

Crimlinks News Archive 14: December 2005

Crimlinks News Archive 13: October-November 2005

Crimlinks News Archive 12: August-September 2005

Crimlinks News Archive 11: June-July 2005

Crimlinks News Archive 10: April-May 2005

Crimlinks News Archive 9: March 2005

Crimlinks News Archive 8: February 2005

Crimlinks News Archive 7: January 2005

Crimlinks News Archive 6: December 2004

Crimlinks News Archive 5: November  2004

Crimlinks News Archive 4: October 2004

Crimlinks News Archive 3: August-September  2004

Crimlinks News Archive 2: June-July  2004

Crimlinks News Archive 1: April-May 2004

Crimlinks Complete News Archive

News Archives Index

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