A committee of the Council of Europe expressed concern over the continuing rise in the prison population in the United Kingdom and the resulting overcrowding. It advocated a 'more imaginative' approach towards reducing prison numbers and advised against the building of very large prisons.
Source: Report to the Government of the United Kingdom on the Visit to the United Kingdom Carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 18 November to 1 December 2008, Council of Europe
Links: Report | Council of Europe press release | MOJ press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2009-Dec
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe expressed 'serious concern' over the delay by the United Kingdom in implementing the 2005 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights that denying all convicted prisoners the right to vote breached the Convention.
Source: Press release 8 December 2009, Council of Europe
Links: Council of Europe press release | EHRC press release | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Dec
A compendium report presented research and analysis conducted over the period 2006-2009 on the Offender Assessment System (a national risk/need assessment tool used by the prison and probation services in England and Wales).
Source: Mia Debidin (ed.), A Compendium of Research and Analysis on the Offender Assessment System (OASys) 2006-2009, Research Report 16/09, Ministry of Justice
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Dec
An inspectorate report in Northern Ireland said that, despite recent progress, deficiencies remained in the regime provided in Northern Ireland for prisoners at risk.
Source: Vulnerable Prisoners: An inspection of the treatment of vulnerable prisoners by the Northern Ireland Prison Service, Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland
Links: Report | CJINI press release | NIPS press release | NIHRC press release
Date: 2009-Dec
A report by a committee of MPs said that prison officers had little or no time to build productive relationships with prisoners, due to overcrowding, staff shortages, and the high incidence of prisoners with unaddressed mental health, drug, or alcohol problems. Government policies on 1,500-place prisons, clustering, and workforce modernization were likely to further deskill the prison officer's role to that of a warder, and risked devaluing the sense of vocation that was a significant part of the motivation of many prison officers.
Source: Role of the Prison Officer, Twelfth Report (Session 2008-09), HC 361, House of Commons Justice Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | HLPR comment | PRT press release | PCS press release
Date: 2009-Nov
A report by a committee of MPs said that an information technology project for tracking offenders in England and Wales through the criminal justice system was a 'shambles'. Officials in charge of the scheme – abandoned after costs trebled – lacked even a 'minimum level of competence'.
Source: The National Offender Management Information System, Fortieth Report (Session 2008-09), HC 510, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | BBC report
Date: 2009-Nov
A think-tank report examined the government's attempts to reform the prison and probation systems. Despite the record increase in funding, the number of offenders who went on to reoffend remained stubbornly high. There was now compelling evidence that, for specific groups of offenders, community-based interventions would have a much greater impact at much lower cost. Budgetary and other decision-making powers needed to be devolved to local criminal justice boards: this would require them to consider the costs and benefits of different sentencing options.
Source: Enver Solomon, Rethinking Prison and Probation: how to cut both reoffending and costs, CentreForum (020 7340 1160)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Nov
The government published a framework for improving the local delivery of support for families of offenders.
Source: Reducing Re-Offending: Supporting Families, Creating Better Futures: A framework for improving the local delivery of support for the families of offenders, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500) and Department for Children, Schools and Families
Links: Framework
Date: 2009-Nov
A report by a committee of MPs said that the National Offender Management Service had obtained good value for money from its expenditure on the prison estate in 2007-08 – with prisons kept sufficiently well to maintain physical security, ensure prisoner and staff safety, and maintain prison capacity, despite a rising prisoner population. However, there was 'plenty of scope' for the Service to improve its performance and its longer-term management of the estate.
Source: National Offender Management Service: Maintenance of the Prison Estate in England and Wales, Fifty-first Report (Session 2008-09), HC 722, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Nov
A report called for reform of the parole system in England and Wales. It said that the Parole Board should be replaced by an independent Parole Tribunal, with full-time members and the ability to list its own cases, compel witnesses to appear before it, and order documents to be disclosed. The report also recommended the abolition of indeterminate sentences for public protection, and their replacement with a sentence with a definite final release date.
Source: A New Parole System for England and Wales, JUSTICE (020 7329 5100)
Links: Report | JUSTICE press release | Nuffield Foundation press release
Date: 2009-Oct
A paper examined the experiences of children whose father was held in prison. Children of prisoners faced multiple barriers to educational achievement and later employment.
Source: Jane Glover, Every Night You Cry: The realities of having a parent in prison, Barnardo's (01268 520224)
Links: Paper | Barnardo's press release | New Start report | Guardian report | Local Government Chronicle report
Date: 2009-Oct
A report called for a fundamental review of the role of the prison officer. The prison officer's role should entail making the time spent in custody as useful and constructive as possible for the individual involved and for society as a whole. In order to achieve this, prison officers needed to be educated rather than simply trained, and the role of prison officer should move to become a profession.
Source: Turnkeys or Professionals? A vision for the 21st century prison officer, Howard League for Penal Reform (020 7249 7373)
Links: Summary | HLPR press release
Date: 2009-Sep
The government published projections of the prison population in England and Wales from August 2009 to June 2015, based on assumptions about future criminal justice trends. By the end of June 2015 the demand for prison spaces was expected to be between 83,300 and 93,900, compared with around 84,000 in mid-2009.
Source: Prison Population Projections 2009-2015: England and Wales, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Aug
A report said that England and Wales had become a jurisdiction that punished excessively and harshly, and that paid little attention to the relationship between legislation and the impact on prison numbers. It advocated fundamental reforms, including: a significant reduction in the prison population and the closure of establishments; and the replacement of short prison sentences with community-based responses.
Source: Commission on English Prisons Today, Do Better Do Less, Howard League for Penal Reform (020 7249 7373)
Links: Summary | Sainsbury Centre press release | BBC report | Guardian report | New Start report
Date: 2009-Jul
An article said that quarterly reconviction reports produced by the National Offender Management Service for individual probation areas were not a reliable basis on which to draw conclusions about probation areas' performance.
Source: Carol Hedderman, 'How not to assess probation performance: constructing local reconviction rates', Probation Journal, Volume 56 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Jun
A report said that the government's failure to 'join up' the criminal justice system with health and social care services had fuelled the rise in the prison population since 1997. The lack of provision for prisoners with mental health illnesses, learning disabilities, and drug or alcohol addictions was in breach of disability and equalities legislation.
Source: Bromley Briefings: Prison Factfile June 2009, Prison Reform Trust (020 7251 5070)
Links: Report | PRT press release | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Jun
An article examined whether prisons were an effective means of reducing reoffending. A wide variety of alternative sentences for adult offenders were found to reduce reoffending when compared with prison, including: residential drug treatment, surveillance, surveillance with drug treatment, prison in combination with educational/vocational interventions, prison in combination with behavioural interventions, prison in combination with sex offender treatment, and prison in combination with drug treatment.
Source: Kevin Marsh, Chris Fox and Rashmi Sarmah, 'Is custody an effective sentencing option for the UK? Evidence from a meta-analysis of existing studies', Probation Journal, Volume 56 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Jun
A new book examined the development of penal strategy over the previous three decades, through a critical analysis of the relationship between penal policy and state power.
Source: Joe Sim, Punishment and Prisons: Power and the carceral state, SAGE Publications Ltd (020 7324 8500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-May
The government began consultation on the issue of voting rights for prisoners. The consultation formed part of the government's response to a European Court of Human Rights ruling that the existing blanket ban on all serving prisoners from voting was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The government said that it would not be appropriate for all serving prisoners to be able to vote: but that some degree of voting being extended to some serving prisoners was legally unavoidable.
Source: Voting Rights of Convicted Prisoners Detained within the United Kingdom: Second stage consultation, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Consultation document | MOJ press release | PRT press release | Conservative Party press release | Telegraph report | BBC report
Date: 2009-Apr
The government announced that plans for three 2,500-place 'Titan' prisons had been scrapped. Five 'modern, purpose-built' 1,500-capacity jails would be built instead.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Debate 27 April 2009, columns 569-580, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Capacity and Competition Policy for Prisons and Probation, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Hansard | Report | PRT press release | HLPR press release | PCS press release | CBI press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | BBC report
Date: 2009-Apr
An article examined the relationship between national legislation, prison service policy, and prison service practice in efforts to improve race relations in prisons.
Source: Jon Spencer, Ilona Haslewood-Pocsik and Emily Smith, '"Trying to get it right": what prison staff say about implementing race relations policy', Criminology and Criminal Justice, Volume 9 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Apr
A think-tank report put forward proposals designed to make rehabilitation of criminals the centrepiece of the prisons system. It said that the existing system was 'scarred' by high levels of reoffending, which were costing the taxpayer at least £12 billion a year. Up to three-quarters of young offenders – and two-thirds of other prisoners – were convicted of a new offence within two years of leaving jail. Part of the money saved from cutting reoffending would be used to reward prison and probation staff who succeeded in reducing reoffending rates; and part would be invested in new centres designed to get prisoners off drugs and alcohol and into jobs.
Source: Locked up Potential: A strategy for reforming prisons and rehabilitating prisoners, Centre for Social Justice (020 7620 1120)
Links: Report | Summary | CSJ press release | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Mar
The prisons inspectorate examined the care and support of prisoners with a disability. Prisoners with a disability were found to be less likely to feel that staff treated them with respect.
Source: Disabled Prisoners: A short thematic review on the care and support of prisoners with a disability, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales (020 7035 2103)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Mar
A report by a committee of MPs said that significant improvements had been made in procurement practices in the prison service, generating savings of £120 million over the five years to 2007-08.
Source: The Procurement of Goods and Services by HM Prison Service, Sixth Report (Session 2008-09), HC 71, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Mar
A report by a committee of MPs said that the prison and probation services were frequently unable to provide the information on offenders that was necessary for the efficient and effective running of the parole process.
Source: Protecting the Public: The work of the Parole Board, Ninth Report (Session 2008-09), HC 251, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Mar
An audit report criticized serious management failings in the introduction of the National Offender Management Information System project (C-NOMIS), designed to implement a single offender management information technology system across prison and probation services.
Source: The National Offender Management Information System, HC 292 (Session 2008-09), National Audit Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Summary | NAO press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2009-Mar
A joint inspectorate report examined the commissioning of healthcare services in prisons. It said that the commissioning of services by primary care trusts was variable, and did not always meet the health needs of individual prisoners.
Source: Commissioning Healthcare in Prisons: The results of joint work between the Healthcare Commission and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons in 2007/08, Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (020 7448 9200) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons
Links: Report | CHAI press release | Nacro press release | RCN press release | BBC report
Date: 2009-Feb
A report said that moving people with mental health problems out of prisons could save taxpayers more than £20,000 a year for each case if diversion schemes were improved. Existing schemes were 'piecemeal and haphazard', and many had insecure funding.
Source: Michael Parsonage, Diversion: A better way for criminal justice and mental health, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (020 7827 8300)
Links: Report | Summary | SCMH press release | Community Care report | FT report
Date: 2009-Feb
A report said that many prisons were struggling to cope with inmates with complex mental health needs, and failing to offer full psychiatric assessments.
Source: Kimmett Edgar and Dora Rickford, Too Little, Too Late: An independent review of unmet mental health need in prison, Prison Reform Trust (020 7251 5070)
Links: Report | Summary | PRT press release | SCMH press release | Nacro press release | Community Care report | BBC report
Date: 2009-Feb
A report examined which prison or prison population factors predicted prisons being assessed as performing 'well' by the prisons inspectorate against its four tests of a healthy prison – safety, respect, purposeful activity, and resettlement – as well as prisons' overall performance.
Source: Samantha Booth, The Prison Characteristics that Predict Prisons Being Assessed as Performing 'Well': A thematic review by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales (020 7035 2103)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Jan
The government said that there had been 61 apparent self-inflicted deaths among prisoners in England and Wales in 2008, compared with 92 in the previous year.
Source: Press release 1 January 2009, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: MOJ press release | Summary
Date: 2009-Jan
The inspectorate for education services published two reports examining learning programmes for prisoners serving sentences of less than one year, and greater than four years. Both reports highlighted the need for clear national strategies to support the different learning needs of long- and short-term offenders. In the prisons surveyed, there was a lack of clarity about what type of programmes were most appropriate for offenders serving different sentence lengths.
Source: Learning and Skills for Offenders Serving Short Custodial Sentences, HMI 070233, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (07002 637833) | Learning and Skills for the Longer-serving Offender, HMI 070249, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
Links: Report (1) | Report (2) | OFSTED press release | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Jan
The prisons inspectorate published its annual report for 2007-08. After a year in which prisons held a record number of prisoners, the prison system remained under pressure, and important lessons needed to be learnt if prisons were to be safe and effective.
Source: Annual Report 2007-08, HC 118, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | HCI Prisons press release | PRT press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report | Community Care report
Date: 2009-Jan