IPP prisoners over tariff have been effected by mental health and this is a direct result of there unjust incarceration therefore why cant we release them under medical grounds.

IPP Prisoners Families Campaign

Justice for IPP Prisoners

 

Tuesday, 27 June 2017

What if we Rethought Parole

I attended the event in London at the School of Economics on Thursday 22 June 2017. Where Academics and Criminal Justice Professionals challenged the current system and suggested an alternative way of release from Prison and look at risk.  The event was hosted by Department of Social Policy and Mannheim Centre for Criminology.

 

Speakers:

Professor Nick Hardwick, Dr Laura Janes, Nicola Padfield and Chair Dr Meredith Rossner

 



 

Frances Cook on the right.

Robert keane

 

The lecture discussed the present presumption that a Parolee has to demonstrate they are not at risk of repeated offending and suggest that it should be the State to demonstrates the Prisoner remains a risk.

 

Nick Hardwick is the current Chair of the Parole Board and Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London.  He was formerly Chief Inspector of Prisons and Chair of the IPCC.

Laura Janes (@LauraJanes_UK) is the Legal Director at Howard League of Penal Reform, has a professional Doctorate in Youth Justice and is particularly interested in representing Young People in Penal Detention.

Nicola Padfield is the Master at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge and interested in what goes on in Prison, with her main research interest in sentencing law, especially into the law and practice of release from (and recall to) Prison.

 

Meredith Rossner (@meredithrossner) is Assistant Professor of Criminology in the Law Department at LSE, whose research interests include Restorative Justice and Courtroom architecture.

 

Katherine Gleeson

Professor Nick Hardwick said that 75% of IPP Prisoners have been released and 50% recalled".  A recall of 50% not coping with the limited resources while in the Community.

 

Main Speakers were given 30 minutes each to speak, however this left limited time to challenge ideas from others prospective in more depth.

 

There was 2 Power Point Presentations that goes into more depth; I will post the presentations once I receive them from the relevant Speakers in due course.

 

I put forward to the Panel

l  IPP Prisoners over tariff have been effected by Mental Health and this is a direct result of there unjust incarceration therefore why can’t we release them under medical grounds?

 

l  Early intervention for those hidden Disability's beginning at the Police Station, so they are supported with communication in Court and Prison.

  

Katherine Gleeson, Mansoor on right.

 

 

The Howard League for Penal Reform launches 3 Rs Campaign.

 

Overcrowded Prisons are rivers of Crime.  We are throwing more and more individuals into these rivers raging rivers of Violence, Drugs, Frustration and Mental Distress, and somehow thinking that this will make them better people.  It does not, the river sweeps them away into deeper currents and further into crime.

 

The state of Prisons is now a National emergency and this is why Howard League has launched a campaign, advising Ministers to address the 3 Rs: Rules, Release and Recall.

 

RULES IN PRISON

 

Stead of solving problems, imposing additional days of imprisonment for the breaking of Prison Rules feeds a vicious cycle.  It increases pressure on the Prison population and worsens overcrowding, which in turn further enforces the conditions for Drugs Abuse and Violence.  At the same time, Prisons have made Rules to Incentives Prisoner’s behaviours more punitive, which is also contributing to the poisonous atmosphere behind bars.

 

Solution should include making the imposition of additional days an indicator of a poorly performing Prison, suspending the imposition of additional days conditional on good behaviours, or removing the option of additional days entirely.  The rules around Incentives and Earned Privileges must be revised.

 

RELEASE FROM PRISON

 

Prisoners need more opportunity to earn their return to the Community through Temporary Release and Parole.  Use of Temporary Release has fallen by a third since 2013.  This means that Prisoners cannot demonstrate that they are ready to be released, and it leads to longer sentences.  The Parole Board ought to be resourced adequately, and Ministers should adopt a recommendation made by its Chair, Professor Nick Hardwick that the test for release should change.

 

This would involve the Prison Services having to demonstrate a risk, rather than a Prisoner demonstrating that they do not.

 

RECALL TO PRISON

 

The number of people in Prison due to Recall has increased by 4,3000 per cent in the last 20 years.

 

Sending someone back to the Prison for a technical breach of their licence conditions is unjustified.  Breaches should be dealt with in the Community.  Recalled for technical breaches of their licence, often for failing to attend appointments.

 

An Inquiry those trying to step in and support Prisoners who were being let down by inadequate through the Gate Services as they were released from Prison.  Many homeless or in unstable Temporary Accommodation for a few nights and staff were ill equipped to resolve this.  A report calls on the Government to Act immediately and create a sustainable Model.

 

Solution

 

Frances Cook urged Ministers to save lives by taking steps to reduce the Prison Population.

 

• It is official that more people died in Prison in 2016 than in any other year on record, and more Prisoners by suicide than ever before.

 

• No one should be desperate while in the Care of the State that they take their own life, and yet every 3 days a family is told that a loved one has died behind bars.

 

• Cutting staff and Prison budgets while allowing the numbers of people behind bars to grow unchecked has created a toxic mix of violence, death and human misery.

 

• The problems are clear for all to see.  By taking bold but sensible action to reduce the number of people in Prison, we can save lives and prevent more people being swept away into deeper currents of crime and disrepair.

 

I’m hatching 6 duck eggs in my room at the moment

 

A man 43 from Liverpool Breakfast pack are tiny not enough to feed a child, let alone fully grown men who will do a full days labour for pennies.  I go back to work still hungry, listening to the all the lads talk of this morning’s violence, deaths, riots, cell smashes, and roof top demonstrations.  Same old but I try to keep positive and help as many lads I can.  I look around me see to see the sick, disabled, unwell the old, those who should be in hospital, not in Prison.  How is this getting me ready for release or protecting the public?

 

A man 36, Channings Wood

 

I walk some more around the football field for 3 quarters of an hour.  Sit down on a bench and look across the field.  Not long now when I hope to get released.  Shower and clean teeth and into bed to watch TV.  Asleep by 21:40ish and that is it for another groundhog day. How is this getting me ready for release or protecting the public? Waste of time and money. Tomorrow will be the same.

 

Aman,49 North sea Camp

 

The bed is solid, flat wooden board.  My body weight has slowly crushed it into a misshapen double dipped torture device…Was woken briefly by powerful LED torch in my face to make sure I wasn’t dead.  Sometimes I wish I was.

 

Aman 62, High Down

 

When will the Government get it right? It’s become a dumping ground, a human warehouse where no one hears the screams of those in misery shut off from the world.  Never knowing what’s happening day to day locked in a cell all day is a current event.  Before I escape this nightmare through my dreams, I will awake for a while until I can reconcile the madness of the place and somehow console myself for all the things that I didn’t get here today- like every night.

 

Katherine Gleeson

 

Recalled Prisoners are force to make choices between friendship or isolation.  You can find yourself in isolation on Release.  Left in a City or Town with poor Community Support / network away from friends and family.

 

Only to find you’re being recalled not for committing a crime but for not disclosing a relationship though disclosing a relationship could potentially end your relationship a decision no one should be forced to make, or forced to toile over  telling Probation or not.  Informing Probation they would want to know that Person’s Name and Address giving away your past.  The past one wants to move away from.

 

Recalled for "not being consistent at keeping to appointments.  A difficult task for those with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Asperger’s – other….Repetition task and Short term memory is just a snap shot.  Those with hidden disabilities need special measures, not recall.  Probation have little knowledge or understanding of complex impairments or Mental Health which can often disable or debilitate a person.  A snap shot of recalled without committing an offence.

 

The state of our Prison System

 

The Prison Reform Trust has just recently on the 19^th June 2017 published its most recent “Bromley Briefing” an up-to-date compendium of facts that give an accurate, if depressing account of the state of our Prison System.

 

1:    Our Prison Population risen by 82% in the last 32 years.  Even though crime rates are down and, according to the National Audit Office, there is no consistent correlation between Prison numbers and levels of crime.  International comparisons also show there is no consistent link between the two.

 

 

 

2:    6,554 are currently in Prison because they were Recalled.  The Recall Population has increased by nearly 1,000 people since the Offender Rehabilitation Act came into force on 1 February 2015.  Nearly 8,000 people serving a sentence of less than 12 months were recalled back to custody in the year to December 2016.

 

3:    Overcrowding remains as bad as ever.  At the end of May 2017, 76 of the 117 Prisons in England and Wales were overcrowded—holding 9,496 people more than they were designed to.  20,995 people were held in overcrowded accommodation on average in 2015–16—nearly a quarter of the Prison Population.  The majority were doubling up in cells designed for one.  This level of overcrowding has remained broadly unchanged for the last 12 years.

 

4:    Costs and staff numbers down.  The cost of a Prison place reduced by 20% between 2009–10 and 2015–16.  The average annual overall cost of a Prison place in England and Wales is now £35,182.24.  There are now fewer staff looking after more Prisoners. The number of frontline operational staff employed in the Public Prison estate has fallen by over a quarter (26%) in the last seven years—6,428 fewer staff looking after over 300 more people.

 

5:    BAME people over-represented in prison.  Over a quarter (26%) of the Prison Population 22,432 people, are from a minority Ethnic Group.  This compares to 14% of the general population.  11% of British Prisoners are black and 7% are Asian.  For Black Britons this is four times higher than the 3% of the general population they represent.

 

 

 

6:    One in seven Prisoners don’t know if or when they might be released Indeterminate Sentences account for 14% of the sentenced Prison population, up from 9% in 1993. England and Wales have more than twice as many people serving Indeterminate Sentences than France, Germany and Italy combined—the highest in Europe by a significant margin.  10,803 people are currently in Prison serving an Indeterminate Sentence.  7,275 people are currently in Prison serving a Life Sentence and a further 3,528 people are serving an Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP).

 

7:    Women make up only 5% of the total Prison Population but 10% of people sent to Prison each year.

 

 

 

8:    Big increase in the number of Children and Young Adults restrained in Prison.  Use of restraint on Children in Custody remains high, with an average of 360 restraint incidents a month.  In the year to March 2016, there were 28 incidents of restraint per 100 Children in custody, up from 18 in 2010.  87 incidents required medical treatment as a result of restraint in 2016—three of these required a Child to be sent to hospital.

 

9:    Mental health in Prison 26% of Women and 16% of Men said they had received treatment for a Mental Health problem in the year before custody.  25% of Women and 15% of Men in Prison reported symptoms indicative of psychosis.  The rate among the general public is about 4%.

 

10:  Suicide rates 10 times higher in prison.  In 2015 the rate of self-inflicted deaths amongst the Prison population was 120 per 100,000 people, amongst the general population it is 10.8 per 100,000 people.

 Jun 2017

Howard League calls on new government to act as recalls to prison spiral out of control

The number of people being recalled to prison has spiralled out of control following a major shake-up to probation in England and Wales, analysis by the Howard League for Penal Reform reveals today (Thursday 8 June 2017).

Figures collated by the charity show that an extra 13,000 people have been sent back to prison since the Ministry of Justice introduced its Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) programme in 2015.

The surge in recalls has contributed to an exorbitant rise in the number of people who are behind bars as a result of breaching their licence conditions. That number has grown from 150 in June 1995 to more than 6,500 in March 2017 – an increase of almost 4,300 per cent.

As recalls have soared, so pressure has grown on a prison system already failing to cope with overcrowding, a lack of resources and record levels of violence and self-injury – a crisis that has been largely ignored during the general election campaign.The Howard League is calling on the next government to stop the widespread use of recall.

The charity recommends that the Secretary of State for Justice should retain a residual power to recall a person to custody, to be used only in exceptional circumstances.The majority of people sent back to prison are recalled for technical reasons, such as failing to attend appointments with probation officers. These cases could be better dealt with in the community and are often linked to services failing to support people properly on release.Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “On the day when the nation decides, the Howard League is preparing to present a plan of action to the new government to help solve the prison crisis.

“At the top of the list will be an absolute necessity to deal with the out-of-control system of recalls.”Under the TR programme introduced by the former Secretary of State for Justice, Chris Grayling, the probation service was part-privatised and the supervision of people released from prison was extended.

The new legislation required that any person sentenced to a custodial term of more than one day must receive at least 12 months’ supervision in the community. This meant that, for the first time, people released from prison after serving sentences of less than 12 months were subject to supervision.Since the changes came into force in February 2015, there have been 12,806 recalls of people who had served prison sentences of less than 12 months.The total number of recalls for all types of sentences has grown sevenfold in 15 years.

 In the year 2000-01, there were 3,182 recalls to custody. By 2003-04, this number had risen to 11,268. It then rose steadily to 17,701 in 2014-15. In 2015-16 – the first full year after TR was introduced – overall recalls leapt to a record high of 22,412.Some of those recalled to custody are prisoners who were given Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPPs). Despite progress made by the Parole Board in releasing IPP prisoners, the number who were behind bars after being recalled rose by 26 per cent between March 2016 and March 2017.

Ministry of Justice figures show that most recalls to prison are for technical licence breaches, such as failing to keep in touch with probation officers, failing to reside at a specified address, and taking drugs or alcohol.

If the person were not on licence, these behaviours would not be serious enough to warrant attention from police or probation, let alone a custodial sentence.

 There were 22,412 recalls to custody in the year 2015-16

 Case studies
 

The Howard League Legal Team has worked on a large number of cases of children and young people who have been administratively recalled to custody for breaches of licence involving relatively minor infringements.

A 20-year-old man was recalled to prison for spending one night away from his approved premises after he received some difficult news about his late sister. He had returned of his own accord. He was re-released after a further seven months in custody.

A 21-year-old man was recalled to custody for getting into a taxi without the prior approval of his probation worker and having a second SIM card without prior approval. He was recalled to custody for seven months.

 

A 19-year-old man missed two appointments with his probation worker – on the first occasion he rang ahead after his bike broke down; on the second occasion, he was 10 minutes late. He spent one night away from his mother’s house, after she asked him to leave during tensions over his missing sister. He was recalled to custody for 11 months.

 

Recall is the most bureaucratic form of imprisonment. Many people are recalled for only 14 or 28 days before being released on licence again – barely time to complete their induction to the prison, but long enough to put homes and jobs at risk and disrupt relationships with their families and other agencies.

The total costs of recall are not known, but the bill is high. Paying for all the prison beds that are needed comes to at least £230million per year, and costs will also fall on the police, Community Rehabilitation Companies, the National Probation Service, charities and other agencies working with people following prison sentences, and employers (who lose staff with no notice). Public put at risk by Probation sell-off.  Rehabilitation concluded that the Government’s promised “rehabilitation revolution” was far from complete.

 

http://howardleague.org/news/publicputatrisk/

 Contact:-Rob Preece

Campaigns and Communications Manager
The Howard League for Penal Reform
Tel: +44 (0)20 7241 7880
Mobile: +44 (0)7714 604955
Email: robert.preece@howardleague.org

 

 

 

What’s in the 2017 Prisons and Courts Bill?

 http://www.russellwebster.com/whats-in-the-2017-prison-and-courts-bill

 

 

 

comments

Jez  Relevant section Some of those Recalled to custody are Prisoners who were given Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPPs).  Despite progress made by the Parole Board in releasing IPP Prisoners, the number who were behind bars after being Recalled rose by 26 per cent between March 2016 and March 2017.

Harrison My partner‘s Parole was supposed to be tomorrow but got deferred as not all paperwork in spoke to Solicitor last week who said all his paperwork is in just waiting for new date for my partner to be giving papers Monday saying Parole hearing is going ahead on the 28th the Solicitor knew nothing about and now he wants to cancel again as thinks no assessment for a pipe unit is done and some reports not done yet if they were not why did he put paperwork in if reports not done so now my partner doesn't know what to do he just wants out!

Murphy Solicitor told my son to defer until Oct but he didn't! Got Parole waiting on hostel place if it helps

Jez  So much is dependent on Probation doing all the reports.  The most common one they don't do is their PERCEIVED Risk Management Plan.  Its so frustrating

Corigan Has anyone partner or son know anything about kaizen course? Friend’s partner has just been refused it.  High but now told he is unsuitable for this one too.

Jez Yes it is a new course to replace old courses.  If you go to safari newsletter website, safari-uk.org. Page 2 of June 2017 newsletter it tells you all about it.  They are free to download.  It will most likely be down to perceived risk level.  If he is not deemed high in the category concerned then he will be unsuitable.  The Horizon course is for medium perceived risk.  He has the right to do a Subject Access Request so he can find out why if he wants too.  There are a fair few Categories of perceived risk. So it’s difficult to work out without a full copy of his latest Oasys Report.  Technically though if he has been classed unsuitable then the need to do the Course should be removed from his Sentence Plan.  It’s important that at his next Parole hearing he makes it clear that he had been willing to do the course but was refused.

Kingham It's the course that covers maintaining innocence but also address violence for those deemed high. 

CloverAnyone heard about this rule regarding IPP, that your licence can be 'suspended' after four years of being released??

O'Gorman I thought it was 5 but yes you can apply for it to be shortened as long as you stay out of trouble.

Nicholson Yeah 4 years I think .

Milton Info from MOJ is after 10 yrs you can apply to the Secretary of state to have the Licence removed- to date, this has never been granted what you can apply for after 4 trouble free yrs is to have the supervision dropped but the Licence is still very much in force.....getting out is still only half the battle for IPP's

 Carr It's 4 I'm up in November been out 4 as of November probation have got nothing to tell me who do the police inform if in 7years something goes wrong who do I get to help he side he don't no no one he knows do it yet I don't think it's good don't have to go to probation but on licence another 6years piss take

  Milton Whole thing was a piss take from its misconception to its abolishment.  In fact the abolishment was probably the biggest piss take be cos it wasn't done retrospectively leaving the 8000 men and women sentenced to IPP to live with a legacy of chaos and confusion.

West Yeah just like you can get Released on tariff, they can but they never do.














 

 

 

Howard League news

 

http://www.russellwebster.com/another-10-shocking-facts-about-our-prisons/

 

http://howardleague.org/news/recallsspiraloutofcontrol/

 

http://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2017/06/20170622t1900vWT/What-if-we-rethought-parole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 Howard League news

 

http://www.russellwebster.com/another-10-shocking-facts-about-our-prisons/

 

http://howardleague.org/news/recallsspiraloutofcontrol/

 

http://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2017/06/20170622t1900vWT/What-if-we-rethought-parole