Whatever irritation Justice ministers may have felt about the weekend
leaking of the risk report on their Transforming Rehabilitation changes , will
have given way to delight with today’s inspection findings about the failures
of offender management. Why? Because the findings can be used
to make the case for the radical changes that they want to introduce to the
prison and probation system.
Yes, the findings cast doubt about the Prison Service’s capacity to
implement their part of the new strategy designed to reduce reoffending rates,
especially for short-term prisoners. But concluding that the National Offender
Model is “more complex than many prisoners need and more costly to run than
most prisons can afford” will be music to ministers’ ears. It will strengthen
their resolve to cut costs and to roll back the frontiers of this little bit of
the state. They will feel vindicated in replacing a failed national model with an
assortment of arrangements paid for only if they succeed. It will be goodbye to
an approach based on research findings and a desire to raise standards
across the board. Welcome now to a black box approach in which government can
withdraw its interest in finding out and implementing effective practice and
leave that to the market instead.
The failings identified by the inspectors are real and need attention but the report does not make the case for throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Prison staff may be insufficiently trained to do the work; there are too few rehabilitation programmes, poor recording and a limited integration of offender assessments into the wider prison experience. But these are capable of fixing through proper resourcing and good management.
The Inspectors may even be right to conclude that the current arrangements should be subject to fundamental review. Where they are wrong is to say that this should be taken forward as part of the strategy of implementing Transforming Rehabilitation. The review is needed before the landscape of offender management is profoundly and irreversibly reconfigured, not when the bulldozers have moved in.
The failings identified by the inspectors are real and need attention but the report does not make the case for throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Prison staff may be insufficiently trained to do the work; there are too few rehabilitation programmes, poor recording and a limited integration of offender assessments into the wider prison experience. But these are capable of fixing through proper resourcing and good management.
The Inspectors may even be right to conclude that the current arrangements should be subject to fundamental review. Where they are wrong is to say that this should be taken forward as part of the strategy of implementing Transforming Rehabilitation. The review is needed before the landscape of offender management is profoundly and irreversibly reconfigured, not when the bulldozers have moved in.
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