Breaking the Cycle: The Government Response

Abstract

Breaking the Cycle: The Government Response As discussed in a number of articles in this edition, the government published the Green Paper 'Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders' in December 2010. The consultation period ran until March 2011 and the Government published its response on 21 June 2011. The Response considers a number of themes and begins with punishment. It states that punishments must be robust and demanding. Prisons must become places of hard work with prisoners working for 40 hours per week. Prison work must be self-financing and prison education focussed on the acquisition of work-related skills. Changes are planned for community sentences too. The intention is to make them more likely to punish, reform and control offenders. The Response speaks of bans on foreign travel and longer periods of curfew. The second theme is payback. A proportion of the money earned by prisoners, including some of those working on licence in the community prior to release, will be taken and used to fund projects for victims of crime. For offenders on community orders, plans include: * Longer working days and weeks for those undertaking unpaid work; * Courts to consider compensation in all cases where a victim has suffered loss or harm; * A greater use of fines and improvements to fine enforcement; * A possible extension of the victim surcharge to a wider variety of offence types. The third theme is progression. This section of the Response deals with improving resettlement and reducing re-offending. For prisoners, dealing with drug and alcohol problems and improving employability are seen as priorities. For offenders in the community, intensive drug and alcohol treatment-based accommodation provision is identified as an option. The current pilot projects for Payment by Results in the area of drug and alcohol recovery will continue. Mental health problems will be addressed in joint projects with the Department of Health and Home Office. Payment by Results remains a key idea in the government's proposals and the Response states that it will 'underpin all our work on re-offending'. Pilots are underway and the commitment to a speedy roll-out of further projects is stated. The Response gives the example of the four-year Payment by Results pilot at HMP Doncaster where the money paid to the private contractor, Serco, depends in part to the re-offending rates of released prisoners. The final theme is transparency. Included here are ideas intended to provide members of the public with more information about the criminal justice system, including opportunities to offer views and become involved as volunteers. The system by which victims make Personal Statements to sentencing courts is to be made more consistent and a greater use of high quality restorative justice projects is proposed. Specifically, proposals for restorative justice include: * Improvements in the use of community resolution in responses to less serious crime and anti-social behaviour; * Encouraging its use alongside out-of-court disposals; * Making closer and more formal links with victims; * Providing more information to sentencers about the pre-sentence use of restorative approaches through Victim Personal Statements and probation reports; * Developing guidance for youth offending and probation teams and for prisons; * Making changes to the Referral Order to strengthen it as a restorative option for young offenders. The response outlines a number of changes to the process of criminal justice intended to make the system more effective. A national framework for the use of out-of-court disposals (e.g. cautions and penalty notices) will be created. Changes will be made to the remand system to reduce the number of people sent to custody as a means of accessing health services and to make local authorities financially responsible for young offenders remanded to secure accommodation. …

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