Rush to Judgement

 “In order for courts to make greater use of probation, they must know about what non- custodial sentences entail and have confidence that it will provide an adequate level of supervision”.  That’s one of my conclusions in a review of a newly formed Probation system in Eastern Europe from earlier this year. Little did I think that it’s something that may now need saying about England and Wales.

Last week a London magistrate told an event on community sentences that she and her colleagues knew virtually nothing about what such sentences entail. This week the Deputy Chair of the Magistrates Association admitted that the demands of speedy justice increasingly mean that JPs have inadequate information about the people they sentence. A senior CRC manager put it more bluntly to inspectors in a report published today: “The push towards same-day sentencing has been devastating. It’s all about getting a report and offender ‘done on the day’, not about getting the right outcome.”

The West Mercia inspection report paints a highly dysfunctional picture. Only half of eligible and suitable offenders get sentenced to programmes most likely to reduce their re-offending. Some of those the courts do require to participate are ineligible or unsuitable. While the courts seem to rush to judgment when sentencing, cases returned to court because of a breach, face waits of up to six weeks at magistrates’ courts and three months at the Crown Court.

In years gone by courts would happily adjourn a case for three weeks to obtain a comprehensive social inquiry report to assist their decision-making. Admittedly, some of the contents may have been surplus to requirements - one research study I remember found a report on a 50 year old man opening “Brian was a fat and placid baby”. But there’s now simply not enough in the way of core information. Justice Secretary David Lidington has been struck by the fact that less than one per cent of all requirements started under a community or suspended sentence order are Mental Health requirements. Someone needs to tell him that even where such interventions may be available, the time needed to make the arrangements often isn’t. In West Mercia inspectors found that “the proportion of court reports produced on the day of sentence in magistrates’ courts had increased from 47% to 75% over the past 18 months. This was still short of the national target, which required a further 15% to be produced either on the day or in a short written format.”

The pressure on reports predates privatisation but the fact that courts do not have direct contact with the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC’s) hasn’t helped raise their knowledge about alternatives to prison.  All of the liaison goes through the National Probation Service. There’s a reason for that. Now that sentences are supervised by private companies, sentencing decisions have taken on a commercial dimension. The Guide to Judicial Conduct makes it clear that the requirements of a Justice’s office and terms of service place severe restraints upon the permissible scope of his or her involvement with any commercial enterprise.

It’s just one example of the corrosive effect of privatisation. Another may be the way CRC’s charge organisations who benefit from offenders’ unpaid work. In West Mercia “unpaid work staff complained that they were not told where the money went, and so they could not answer when the beneficiaries of the work quite reasonably asked what happened to the charge they paid”. It is not surprising that “this had caused some local public relations difficulties”.

Lidington said this week that “we are now looking at probation with an eye to improving performance and maintaining the confidence of courts and the public alike”.  He should look at the courts too. They need to have the time to do their job properly.  In a forthcoming report for Transform Justice, I’ll be arguing that there’s plenty of scope for increasing diversion and out of court disposals in minor matters.  Among many benefits, it would allow courts to spend the time they need devising the right outcome in more serious cases.

Youth Custody Update- Nothing for Young Adults , Fantasy for Children

Like many discussions on young adults in the criminal justice, today’s Justice Committee hearing turned out mostly to be about children under 18 instead. Indeed Justice Minister Dr Philip Lee did not seem all that convinced that young adults should be treated any differently from anyone over the age of 18.  Yes, the Prison service is piloting a maturity assessment tool for use with young adults although it wasn’t at all clear what practical measures will result from it.  One of the key questions- is it better for young adults to be accommodated in specific institutions or mixed with adults remains unanswered. There are only three young adult YOI’s left- Aylesbury, Deerbolt and Feltham B and there seemed little appetite from Lee or Prisons Chief Michael Spurr to develop the kind of age appropriate model which works well in other countries.

For under 18’s by contrast there seems an ambitious, if not precipitate, long term vision of replacing the current portfolio of closed establishments with the new secure schools proposed by Charlie Taylor in his review of youth justice.  The first two- one of which will be in the North West, will not be up and running for four or five years but Dr Lee seemed confident that when they prove successful they will be rolled out nationally by one of his successors. When pressed for detail about what they’ll be like, Lee told the committee the young people will spend more time outside and engage much more in sport.  More than once he quoted a Saracens Rugby initiative in Feltham which had a re-offending rate of 8%.

Lee is a keen sportsman. According to Wikipedia he has played competitive rugby union for Marlow RFC and seems to have followed the England football team at various tournaments which shows commendable resilience at least.  There’s a lot to be said for encouraging much more in the way of physical activity and team sports for young people behind bars. But surely a custodial strategy for this age group as a whole-including girls- needs to be based on very much stronger philosophical and policy foundations.     

In the meantime, Lee mentioned almost in passing, that controversial outsourcing giant G4S are no longer seeking to sell Oakhill STC and want to make a go of running the contract which lasts until 2029. In 2016, the company announced it would be selling its UK children’s business. Whether it cannot find a buyer or have had second thoughts is not clear.  Ofsted found earlier this year that Oakhill “requires improvement” so the results of the next inspection will be awaited with interest.  Spurr told the committee that another STC- Medway - had got a lot better since HMPPS had taken it over from G4S. In fact Ofsted found Medway “inadequate” back in March, eight months after the July 2016 takeover. YJB chair Charlie Taylor – who wasn’t at the hearing – has apparently found it much improved since then.

Given the latest G4S debacle at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre, currently being investigated by the Home Affairs Committee, one might have expected Dr Lee and his colleagues to have informed Parliament and the public before today about the G4S change of plan. There must remain serious doubts about the company's fitness to look after some of the country's most vulnerable, damaged and challenging children.