The Guardian  said,  I would not hold out any great hopes for the recycled and tired initiatives announced by Liz Truss. Leroy Smith quoted I spent years in a prison believe me more prison officers  will not solve  the crises .further hiring £9 hour prison officers want produce safe, humane prisons. GP I've seen the crises in jails and half the inmates should not be there.

"Start asking question,s."

Just after Liz Truss speech on her recycled reform along and tired initiatives  I  noticed prison  after  prison  rioting   why?  Inmates retaliating enough is  enough there  tied of the old record in the reform . Inmates  are frustrated  with the  humane conditions  the poor justice system, no legal aid. The disability act  ignored and poor medical health, being a snap shot."

 

"We need prisons to be safe......" 

The Prison project says the prison and probation services in England and Wales are failing to protect the  public because they do not rehabilitate offenders, and that they should be radically restructured. They are failing to protect the prisoners.

 

 

 

Inspectors reported crowded conditions and rising levels of self-harm and that not going to change over night so what's the   answer? The   answer is to to let those out that should not be there. The public don't want there tax money wasted on prisoners  that should  not be there at  no  fault of there own. The public want a safer and educated environment.

 

Tired initiatives

The Report in  May 2016  states we will take urgent  steps to improve the security in our estate and the safety of staff and prisoners. But since this reporting  early 2016 we have had nothing but riots and more deaths."

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmjust/647/64702.htm

However  it still ignores the central issue of population.

In January, 2016 the RSA and Transition Spaces embarked on the Future Prison project, which sets out how prisons in England and Wales could better support rehabilitation. Stresses that this needs to form the foundation of wider and deeper system change.  

 Work was grounded by a number of principles

• Recognition that loss of liberty is punishment and that what follows should be driven by the aim of returning people to their community in a state and to conditions most likely to reduce risk and increase community safety.
• Courageous and strategic political leadership informed by evidence and articulated through a consistent and compelling narrative.
• Safety and security to be managed effectively by using not just the best technical tools and intelligence available but also through culture change that reduces risk through enabling rehabilitation.
• Policy and practice that drives deeper and wider integration of justice and resettlement services;
• Approaches to rehabilitation that create the conditions for positive relationships that support progress in custody and beyond.
• That prison leaders, staff and service users have access to the resources, opportunities and capabilities needed to fulfil their potential and strengthen rehabilitative cultures.

There reform agenda we set out is focused on creating community-based rehabilitative prisons that are part of, and that contribute to, their local communities. Governors will be able to use their budgets to purchase goods and services locally and will be empowered to work with employers to match training to the skills that are needed in that area.

Returning officer grade old levels alongside a 2020 skills strategy, would provide the opportunity to create a new, rehabilitative prison workforce able to do the difficult job that prison officers undertake on our behalf. This should be supported by creating a Centre of Prisons Excellence that will train existing staff, alongside their new colleagues, and make this vital job more appealing to potential employees and more rewarding for those that work in the system.

In the longer term, placing the budgets in the hands of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) will incentivise a local discussion about the purpose of prisons and their relationship with probation, with their local economies and communities. PCCs will not only be responsible for dealing with crime once it has happened, the onus will also be on them to prevent crime and, if they wish to save money, to think harder about who we are sending to prison and what happens while in custody and on release.

In supporting this change we propose that prisons and probation be subject to a new legal duty to rehabilitate and a clear central strategy driven by the Ministry of Justice ?but supported by other departments including the Treasury.

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) should become a smaller arms-length body that sets minimum national standards and focuses on population management and the high security estate. An enhanced and integrated inspection regime would enable autonomy to be managed safely.

As shown in the below diagram, prison governors, guided by local boards, will be given new freedoms to commission services such as food, education, and energy. The diagram attempts to convey the opportunity for prisons to work together, and form clusters (when they feel this is appropriate), but this will be their choice and, ultimately, they will be held accountable for the outcomes, alongside local prison boards

The Report Recommendations

 

The Ministry of Justice should publish a 2017–2020 National Rehabilitation Strategy.

This should focus on reducing risk and strengthening rehabilitation, prioritise integration between prisons and probation and have the explicit support of other departments, including the Treasury, the Department of Health, the Home Office, the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Work and Pensions. The strategy should seek to drive long-term system change and prioritise the following 10 key changes:

 

Create a Rehabilitation Requirement — The government’s white paper should include a rehabilitation requirement for prisons and probation. This should be a legal duty and require prisons and probation to track individual and institutional progress in relation to rehabilitation

 

Return frontline staffing to 2010 levels — As a foundation of reform, additional investment is urgently needed to reduce security and safety risks and to protect prisoners and frontline workers.

 

A 2020 Rehabilitative Workforce Plan — Linked to new recruitment, this should develop a new training offer, skills strategy and career paths for prison officers and focus on developing a rehabilitative workforce with transferable skills across prisons and probation.

 

A Centre of Prisons Excellence — Delivered through an ambitious model for the current training centre, Newbold Revel, this should learn from the College of Policing and consideration should be given to a centre working across prisons and probation.

 

An arms-length, more independent NOMS — NOMS should become a smaller arms-length function with greater independence from the Ministry of Justice. This would focus on resilience issues such as population management, the high-security estate and particular security issues.

 

An enhanced and more Integrated Prison and Probation Inspection Regime — This should include making the prisons inspectorate compliant with the obligations from OPCAT (Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture), which should be put on a statutory footing. The inspectorates should develop consistency on assessing rehabilitative outcomes such as education, employment and family relationships and introduce outcomes on leadership and management. A review of Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) should be undertaken to explore the potential of developing their role to track inspection recommendations.

 

Creation of Local Prison Boards — In developing greater autonomy, stability and ensuring safety and risk are managed, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) should hand over prison funding to local boards and prison governors with some key obligations that ensure that the national resilience work and population flow is mandated. Local prison boards would oversee long-term strategy and should aim to increase governors’ tenure as appropriate. Such a move would retain the national prison service but enable greater local control, including the development of special purpose vehicles to drive innovation and integration, and secure additional funding from private/corporate/charitable partnerships. The local prison board could include representation from a major employer in the area, health providers and commissioners, prisoners’ families, the local authority economic development lead, a housing provider, NGO consortia, Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), the local FE and university, the National Probation Service (NPS), the area criminal justice board lead and a member of the prison’s rehabilitative council.

 

New devolved powers for governors and PCCs — In giving governors greater freedoms and introducing more local autonomy, the government should adopt a staged process of devolution with a focus on expanding the remit of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and ensuring that scrutiny arrangements are in place to take on wider responsibilities and risk. In the interim, Regional Rehabilitation Boards would be responsible for developing Regional Rehabilitation Strategies 2017–2020 in line with the national strategy and vision of the new Rehabilitation Requirement.

 

Integration of Health Services — In addition to involving Public Health England and the NHS in developing more devolved arrangements, the government should ensure that Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNA) provide clear statutory guidance on people on licence in the community, and those in custody, and that Health and Wellbeing Boards be instructed to include prisoner populations explicitly in their priorities.

 

Designing in Rehabilitation — The government’s prison building programme should be informed by first principles and by evidence of what supports rehabilitation, including size, locality, available networks and employment.

A Matter of Conviction argues that this model will ultimately serve to create a self-improving, more cost effective and innovative system.


Download the report - A Matter of Conviction (PDF, 5MB)

Read the blog - Rehabilitation is key to reducing risk in the prison system




 

 

 

 COMMENTS

 

Brackenbury What about a Protest outside liz trusses office, let's say April time, in school holidays so children can come too, who's in??? We need at least a few thousand, which is highly achievable if every ipps family brought at least 3-4 people with them, I totally understand some struggle with getting there due to cost or distance, but we are at a point now where we've tried pretty much everything and got nowhere, it's time this lady saw the amount of people it affects, the children, partners, mums, dad's, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and their friends too,
I feel we have to give this a go, I'm sure there are people who can share the journey on here with others, if we all help each other, could organise coaches if there's alot of people from certain areas, it may cost us money, but it's a one off for those we are fighting for, surely they are worth every effort, these men are taking their lives now with still no end in sight, we are all they have and so many of us are doing nothing, so please, grab your family/friends and we can do this, but we need to make alot of noise now! Can people who will deffo come We are going to contact the inside times and ask for a post on their site to spread it to a wider audience, maybe contact a few organisations and the media, if anyone has any contacts or can help with anything that will be great! Also suggestions for an exact date would be good, will have to be a week day as we've all seen she doesn't give up her weekends!!
 If we all write our personal letters explaining our pain and misery and that of our ipps to of course!... We can drop it In her little post box while we are there.As much as Michael Gove  has rattled my cage in recent years, even he has taken the time to give extensive thought to the state of prisons and the rights and wrongs, so for that I applaud him, he's hit every point in this statement....

 

dullman I am  going to send a letter to probation he needs to be near us me and kids if release is granted and give them a list of hostels to look at that ain't to far from us. Last thing we need is him  far away  emough 10 yrs and missed out on bringing our kids up they were babies when he went in and toddlers.10 year with a 10 month tariff!

 

Horton And as I've said before, at least  Michael Gove  actually DID something while he was Justice Secretary. He didn't just mouth cliches. As a teacher who saw the mess Gove made of the education system, I was expecting more of the same when he became Justice Secretary. But he surprised me - and he has consistently said all the things in this article, right from the start, and he tried to sbegin putting them into practice. Then he self destructed and we got Liz Truss....

 

Wheeler 

Hello everyone, I have not been keeping up to date for a while, things all got a bit too much and I needed to step back a bit. I can't say too much but this is a bit of a ray of hope for all of us. Someone who was on an IPP from about 10 years ago was up before the Parole Board recently and to his complete shock without warning was released a couple of days after. I can't reveal any more but it renwed my hope that people are albeit slowly getting released and I thought I would share.

EdmeadCant believe a good friend of mine has his parole date..

Reland At least more inside staff are speaking out.

Foster I was planning a protest as my partner wasn't being moved to make the progress he needed to so they obviously didn't want a protest because of riots .

 

Brackenbury

Protest outside liz trusses office, let's say April time, in school holidays so children can come too, who's in??? We need at least a few thousand, which is highly achievable if every ipps family brought at least 3-4 people with them, I totally understand some struggle with getting there due to cost or distance, but we are at a point now where we've tried pretty much everything and got nowhere, it's time this lady saw the amount of people it affects, the children, partners, mums, dad's, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and their friends too,
I feel we have to give this a go, I'm sure there are people who can share the journey on here with others, if we all help each other, could organise coaches if there's alot of people from certain areas, it may cost us money, but it's a one off for those we are fighting for, surely they are worth every effort, these men are taking their lives now with still no end in sight, we are all they have and so many of us are doing nothing, so please, grab your family/friends and we can do this, but we need to make alot of noise now! Can people who will deffo come please comment, and any questions please comment below or ask me or natasha,
We are going to contact the inside times and ask for a post on their site to spread it to a wider audience, maybe contact a few organisations and the media, if anyone has any contacts or can help with anything that will be great! Also suggestions for an exact date would be good, will have to be a week day as we've all seen she doesn't give up her weekends!!
  If we all write our personal letters explaining our pain and misery and that of our ipps to of course!... We can drop it In her little post box while we are there.As much as Michael Gove  has rattled my cage in recent years, even he has taken the time to give extensive thought to the state of prisons and the rights and wrongs, so for that I applaud him, he's hit every point in this statement....

 

 

dullman I am  going to send a letter to probation he needs to be near us me and kids if release is granted and give them a list of hostels to look at that ain't to far from us. Last thing we need is him  far away  emough 10 yrs and missed out on bringing our kids up they were babies when he went in and toddlers.10 year with a 10 month tariff!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/reports/a-matter-of-conviction-a-blueprint-for-community-based-prisons

https://medium.com/rsa-reports/a-matter-of-conviction-a-blueprint-for-community-based-rehabilitative-prisons-e56676c96083#.lzclvmxhn

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/03/i-spent-20-years-in-jail-hiring-officers-wont-solve-crisis

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/06/prison-failings-let-down-bleeding-hearts-and-the-bang-em-up-brigade

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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