The prisons inspectorate for Scotland said that the fact of imprisonment, and the nature of imprisonment, did real harm to people with severe and enduring mental health problems. The harm was exacerbated by overcrowding.
Source: Out of Sight: Severe and enduring mental health problems in Scotland's prisons, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland/Scottish Government, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Report | Summary | SG press release | BBC report
Date: 2008-Dec
A report examined trends in the prison service. It said that plans for the construction of so-called 'Titan' prisons were a 'massive, costly and hugely damaging mistake' that would destabilize the criminal justice system for years to come.
Source: Bromley Briefings: Prison Factfile, Prison Reform Trust (020 7251 5070)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Dec
The Prison Service published a report detailing progress made on race equality over the previous five years. 'Significant progress' had been made in putting the systems and processes in place to effectively manage race equality in prisons: nonetheless the experience of black and minority-ethnic prisoners and staff had not been transformed.
Source: Race Review 2008, HM Prison Service/Ministry of Justice (020 7217 6947)
Links: Report part 1 | Report part 2 | MOJ press release | Nacro press release | PRT press release | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Dec
The first report was published from a major longitudinal survey of prisoners that looked at issues such as: physical and mental health problems; accommodation and employment pre-custody; qualifications; and drug and alcohol use. Data were presented on a number of sub-groups of prisoners, including female offenders, those serving short sentences, and young offenders.
Source: Duncan Stewart, The Problems and Needs of Newly Sentenced Prisoners: Results from a national survey, Research Report 16/08, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Oct
A new book examined approaches to dealing with offending behaviour.
Source: Simon Green, Elizabeth Lancaster and Simon Feasey (eds.), Addressing Offending Behaviour: Context, practice and values, Willan Publishing (01884 840337)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Oct
A new book examined attempts to tackle the problem of prison overcrowding, in the wake of the Carter review. It said that the review had construed the problem too narrowly, in terms of efficiency and economy, and had failed to understand the wider issues of justice that needed addressing. The crisis of prison overcrowding was first and foremost a political problem – arising from penal populism – for which political solutions needed to be found.
Source: Mike Hough, Rob Allen and Enver Solomon (eds.), Tackling Prison Overcrowding Build more prisons? Sentence fewer offenders?, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Oct
A report by a committee of MPs said that schemes to improve prisoners' basic skills and qualifications in English prisons had 'failed in almost every respect'.
Source: Meeting Needs? The Offenders' Learning and Skills Service, Forty-seventh Report (Session 2007-08), HC 584, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Nacro press release | UCU press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Oct
A report said that a lack of training and inadequate resources for prison staff in Northern Ireland meant that prisoners with learning disabilities were unidentified, bullied, and effectively excluded from rehabilitation courses.
Source: Nancy Loucks with Jenny Talbot, No One Knows, Prison Reform Trust (020 7251 5070)
Links: Report | PRT press release
Date: 2008-Sep
By the end of June 2015 the demand for prison spaces was projected to increase to between 83,400 and 95,800 (depending on different assumptions), compared to 83,190 in June 2008.
Source: Prison Population Projections 2008-2015, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report | PRT press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Sep
A report examined what 'localism' might mean for the penal system, including whether prisons should be run by local authorities, and whether local government should be given a bigger role in identifying and supporting areas where crime was most problematic.
Source: Localism: A consultation paper, Commission on English Prisons Today c/o Howard League for Penal Reform (020 7249 7373)
Links: Report | Commission press release | NLGN press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Sep
An article examined the research finding that relationships between prisoners and staff appeared to be better in some private prisons than in the public sector, at least during the early years of privatization.
Source: Guy Shefer and Alison Liebling, 'Prison privatization: in search of a business-like atmosphere?', Criminology and Criminal Justice, Volume 8 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Aug
The prisons inspectorate said that local authorities in England and Wales were failing to meet their responsibilities towards older prisoners, including provision of equipment such as wheelchairs. Funding of social care in prison was a 'big problem', and many councils were 'reluctant' to provide help.
Source: Older Prisoners in England and Wales: A follow-up to the 2004 thematic review, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales (020 7035 2103)
Links: Report | Nacro press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Community Care report | BBC report
Date: 2008-Aug
A briefing paper examined the experiences and needs of older people in prison. Prisoners aged over 60 were the fastest growing age group in prison, largely due to sentences becoming harsher and longer.
Source: Doing Time: The experiences and needs of older people in prison, Prison Reform Trust (020 7251 5070)
Links: Briefing | PRT press release | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Jul
A government-commissioned report examined efforts to disrupt the supply of illicit drugs into prisons. The government responded by accepting all the recommendations made.
Source: David Blakey, Disrupting the Supply of Illicit Drugs into Prisons, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report | Government response | Liberal Democrats press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Jul
Researchers examined offending behaviour programmes within the prison and probation services of Northern Ireland.
Source: Ruth Hatcher, Evaluation of Offending Behaviour Programmes Within the Prison and Probation Services of Northern Ireland, Research Report 17, Northern Ireland Office (028 9052 0700)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Jul
The prison service in England and Wales published its annual report for 2007-08.
Source: Annual Report 2007-08, HC 860, HM Prison Service, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Jul
A briefing paper said that the government's analysis of factors driving up the prison population was 'inadequate' and 'highly misleading'. The increased use of imprisonment had not been driven by more offences being brought to justice: rather, courts were behaving more punitively. The public appetite for prison was more limited and more susceptible to reasoned argument than the government acknowledged. Expanding the prison estate would generate, not satiate, demand.
Source: Carol Hedderman, Building On Sand: Why expanding the prison estate is not the way to 'secure the future', Centre for Crime and Justice Studies/King's College London (020 7848 1688)
Links: Report | CCJS press release | Leicester University press release | Liberal Democrats press release
Date: 2008-Jul
The government published a framework document for the National Offender Management Service, setting out what it was responsible for delivering and how it should operate.
Source: National Offender Management Service: Agency Framework Document, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Framework
Date: 2008-Jul
The probation inspectorate in England and Wales published its annual report for 2007-08.
Source: Annual Report 2007-08, HM Chief Inspector of Probation (020 7035 2203)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Jul
A think-tank report said that prison mental healthcare was massively underfunded and understaffed.
Source: Charlie Brooker and Ben Ullmann, Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The state of mental healthcare in prison, Policy Exchange (020 7340 2650)
Links: Report | Nacro press release | SCMH press release | Liberal Democrats press release
Date: 2008-Jul
A report identified five core principles for the better management of indeterminate-sentence prisoners, including those serving indeterminate sentences for public protection.
Source: Service Review – Indeterminate Sentence Prisoners (ISPs), Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report | Hansard | MOJ press release
Date: 2008-Jul
The probation service in England and Wales published its annual report for 2007-08.
Source: Annual Report 2007-2008, National Probation Service for England and Wales/Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Jul
The report was published of an independent Commission's examination of the purpose and impact of imprisonment in Scotland. It said that Scotland's prisons held too many prisoners on short sentences where there was no real expectation of being able to punish, rehabilitate, or deter.
Source: Scotland's Choice, Scottish Prisons Commission/Scottish Government, TSO (0870 606 5566)
Links: Report | SG press release
Date: 2008-Jul
A think-tank report said that drugs were widely available in prisons, undermining any attempt to clean up prisoners from pre-existing addictions, greatly increasing the chances of recidivism, and corrupting staff. The government appeared to be more interested in managing the problem than in eradicating it: hence treatment was focused not on stopping addiction but on prescribing substitute drugs.
Source: Huseyin Djemil, Inside Out: How to get drugs out of prisons, Centre for Policy Studies (020 7222 4488)
Links: Report | CPS press release | Liberal Democrats press release
Date: 2008-Jun
The prisons inspectorate said that figures issued by the Prison Service on the time prisoners spend out of their cells 'significantly overestimated' the true picture. Surveys of 6,500 prisoners in public sector prisons had found that only 12 per cent said they were let out of their cells for the target of 10 or more hours per day.
Source: Time Out of Cell: A short thematic review, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales (020 7035 2103)
Links: Report | HCI Prisons press release | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jun
The government began consultation on the development of the Titan prison programme, and how the new prisons would fit with the overall prisons estate strategy. The prisons would be designed to hold up to 2,500 prisoners each, and would be 4-5 storeys high.
Source: Titan Prisons, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Consultation document | Hansard | MOJ press release | PRT briefing | Nacro press release | SCMH press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Jun
A report said that prisoners who had experienced abuse and trauma were not being offered essential psychiatric services. Mental ill-health among prisoners was not the exception, but the rule: in particular, women suffered high levels of distress after being separated from their children, and were more prone to self-harm.
Source: Graham Durcan, From the Inside: Experiences of prison mental health care, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (020 7827 8300)
Links: SCMH press release | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Jun
An article examined voting rights for sentenced prisoners. Following a European Court of Human Rights judgment in 2006, the United Kingdom was obliged to review its policy, which had been held to breach an individual's right to contribute to free elections. The options open were to retain prisoner disenfranchisement, or to enfranchise certain serving prisoners based on criteria such as sentence length and offence seriousness.
Source: Deborah Cheney, 'Prisoners as citizens in a democracy', Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 47 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-May
A report said that mental health teams in prisons in England were under-staffed and under-funded, and that the very high levels of need of prisoners were not being met.
Source: Charlie Brooker, Sean Duggan, Clare Fox, Alice Mills and Michael Parsonage, Short-changed: Spending on prison mental health care, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (020 7827 8300)
Links: Report | SCMH press release | Community Care report | BBC report
Date: 2008-May
A report said that the government's prison and probation policies were not working, and needed to be reformed if crime were to be lowered and public confidence in criminal justice restored.
Source: Getting Back on the Straight and Narrow: A better criminal justice system for all, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)
Links: Report | CBI press release
Date: 2008-May
An audit report urged the Scottish Government to produce 'clear plans' for coping with the growing prison population. Prisoner numbers had already risen by 20 per cent since 2000, and could rise by the same again by 2016. 11 of the country's 14 prisons were overcrowded.
Source: Managing Increasing Prisoner Numbers in Scotland, Audit Scotland for Accounts Commission and Auditor General (0131 477 1234)
Links: Report | Summary | Audit Scotland press release | SG press release | BBC report | Scotsman report
Date: 2008-May
An article called for an equal emphasis in probation supervision on both civil renewal/community engagement and offender rehabilitation.
Source: Anthony Bottoms, 'The community dimension of community penalties', Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 47 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-May
A new book examined the role of prison policies and practices in promoting and maintaining family relationships.
Source: Helen Codd, In the Shadow of Prison: Families, imprisonment and criminal justice, Willan Publishing (01884 840337)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Apr
A joint inspectorate report said that probation hostel staff in England were failing vulnerable residents at risk of suicide or self-harm. Suicide prevention procedures needed 'urgent improvement' in every hostel visited.
Source: Probation Hostels: Control, Help and Change?, HM Chief Inspector of Probation (020 7035 2203), HMI Prisons and HMI Constabulary
Links: Report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Apr
A report brought together resources and research about maintaining family ties for children of prisoners. It provided a review of literature as well as examples of what worked to support children and their families. The findings highlighted the negative impact that parental imprisonment could have on children.
Source: Sara Lewis, Salina Bates and Joseph Murray, Children of Prisoners: Maintaining family ties, Resource Guide 11, Social Care Institute for Excellence (020 7089 6840)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Apr
Campaigners said that incidents of self-injury in prison had risen from 16,393 in 2003 to 22,459 in 2007 – a rise of nearly 40 per cent.
Source: Registered Self Injury Incidents by Prison 2003-2007, Howard League for Penal Reform (020 7249 7373)
Links: Report | HLPR press release | Guardian report | BBC report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Apr
The government announced (following a court ruling in February 2008) that sponsorship of the Parole Board would be transferred from the National Offender Management Service to the Access to Justice Group within the Ministry of Justice. Although responsibility for sponsorship of the Parole Board would remain within the Ministry, there would be a clear separation between responsibility for the Board's sponsorship and responsibility for the management of offenders.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 1 April 2008, columns 42-43WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard
Date: 2008-Apr
A report said that the probation service faced a crisis of shrinking budgets and a shortage of qualified frontline staff, at a time when demands on its services had never been higher.
Source: Mark Oldfield and Roger Grimshaw, Probation Resources, Staffing and Workloads 2001-2008, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies/King's College London (020 7848 1688)
Links: Report | Summary | CCJS press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Apr
The government published a report which indicated a need for a more strategic and evidence-based approach to service delivery in prison-based drug services. In response it announced extra funding to raise the standard of clinical drug treatment in prisons, from £12.7 million in 2007-08 to £43 million by 2010-11. It also announced the creation of a national Prison Drug Treatment Review Group to oversee the development of prison drug treatment.
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Review of Prison-Based Drug Treatment Funding, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500) and Department of Health
Links: Report | Summary | Hansard | MOJ press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Mar
A report (by an official advisory body) highlighted serious concerns about the prison system's approach to drugs and the standard of rehabilitation services, which it said were often not meeting even minimum standards.
Source: Reducing Drug Use, Reducing Re-offending: Are programmes for problem drug-using offenders in the UK supported by the evidence?, UK Drug Policy Commission (020 7297 4750)
Links: Report | Summary | Literature review | DPC press release | BMA press release | Liberal Democrats press release | BBC report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Mar
The opposition Conservative Party published proposals for prison reform. It said that it would build 5,000 additional prison places, taking capacity to over 100,000; introduce minimum and maximum sentence periods, with no parole until the minimum term had been served; put an end to automatic release for all determinate sentences; decentralize public sector prisons; and make offenders compensate their victims through a victims' fund.
Source: Prisons with a Purpose: Our sentencing and rehabilitation revolution to break the cycle of crime, Conservative Party (020 7222 9000)
Links: Report | Conservative Party press release | BMA press release | UCU press release | Guardian report | BBC report | FT report
Date: 2008-Mar
An audit report said that standards of risk assessment by the Parole Board were being maintained.
Source: Protecting the Public: The work of the Parole Board, HC 239 (Session 2007-08), National Audit Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | NAO press release | Parole Board press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Mar
A report said that although the concept of 'dangerousness' had became widely used, it remained poorly understood, and was contributing to a 'moral impoverishment of society', undermining care and compassion in social policy. It identified a growing concern with risk and attempts to minimize and control threats, and examined the way in which these concerns affected public understanding of the prison system.
Source: Jamie Bennett, The Social Costs of Dangerousness: Prison and the dangerous classes, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies/King's College London (020 7848 1688)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Mar
The Court of Appeal upheld a High Court ruling that the parole board was not sufficiently independent of government, and that as a result the right to a fair hearing for prisoners seeking release was violated.
Source: Secretary of State for Justice v Walker, Court of Appeal 1 February 2008
Links: Text of judgement | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Feb
An article examined the poverty and disadvantage experienced by prisoners' families living at or below the level officially recognized as 'poor'. Existing social policy ignored the priority given to the care needs of children by predominantly female relatives and partners of prisoners. In conjunction with criminal justice and immigration legislation, social policies had combined to impoverish, disadvantage, and exclude prisoners' families. Reforms of the welfare system might improve the adequacy of state welfare benefits: but unless fundamentally reshaped, social policy could continue to penalize the 'care' offered by prisoners' families and so further entrench inequalities.
Source: Rose Smith, Roger Grimshaw, Renee Romeo and Martin Knapp, 'Prisoners' families: civic virtue and policies of impoverishment', Benefits, Volume 16 Number 1 Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Feb
The Court of Appeal ruled that the government had been guilty of a 'systemic failure' in its treatment of prisoners serving indeterminate sentences for public protection. Those prisoners could only become eligible for release if they completed courses designed to tackle offending behaviour: but prison overcrowding had meant the courses were not made available, effectively denying prisoners the chance to win their release.
Source: Brooke and Others, R (on the application of) v The Parole Board and Another, Court of Appeal 1 February 2008
Links: Text of judgement | Nacro press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Feb
An article examined the prospects for a more 'rational and principled' approach to probation and community justice policy under Gordon Brown's premiership. Such an approach would emphasize issues such as accountability, relationships, professional values and leadership, and the responsibilities of communities and citizens. It might also be more successful in increasing public confidence, in criminal justice, and in resolving the wider problems associated with crime and criminality.
Source: David Faulkner, 'The new shape of probation in England and Wales: values and opportunities in a changing context', Probation Journal, Volume 55 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Feb
The prisons inspectorate said that the prison system in England and Wales was struggling to cope with population pressures. It criticized plans to build large 'Titan' prisons, saying that a building programme should not supersede re-offending schemes, and reform of women's jails, probation, and mental health. It praised work being done in healthcare, education, and managing offenders, but said that the gains from this were at risk because of overcrowding.
Source: 06'07 Annual Report, HC 207, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Nacro press release | Inquest press release | Rainer press release | Liberal Democrats press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jan
An audit report said that the effective delivery of community order sentences could be improved by the probation service to secure the full benefits of the scheme. Not all components of community orders were used in all probation areas. In addition, there was incomplete information on the cost of orders and the number of offenders who had not completed all aspects of their orders. There were long waiting lists for some group rehabilitation programmes.
Source: The Supervision of Community Orders in England and Wales, HC 203 (Session 2007-08), National Audit Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | NAO press release | RAND literature review | Liberal Democrats press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Jan
The government announced a package of measures aimed at tackling re-offending by getting prisoners off drugs and into work.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 31 January 2008, columns 37-40WS, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Prison Policy Update, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Hansard | MOJ briefing paper | MOJ press release | Nacro press release | BMA press release | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Jan
There were 92 self-inflicted deaths in prisons in England and Wales in 2007, compared to 67 in 2006.
Source: Press release 1 January 2008, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: MOJ press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Jan
The government announced that the National Offender Management Service (created as a separate entity in 2004) would be merged with the Prison Service under a streamlined headquarters and regional structure.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 29 January 2008, columns 8-10WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | MOJ press release | Letter to staff | Nacro press release | Napo press release | CBI press release | Guardian report | Community Care report | FT report
Date: 2008-Jan