Some progress made on probation and prison staffing levels

Yesterday's publication of the latest HMPPS workforce statistics which cover the period up to the end of September are the first grain of good news for the prison and probation services for a considerable period of time. The headline figures comparing this June – to September with the previous quarter… Some better news but the number of probation officers in post still represents a shortfall of 2,129 FTE against the required staffing level of 6,780 FTE...

Magistrates are remanding more people in custody

A significant part of our prison capacity crisis is the growing remand population. The September 2023 remand population figure of 16,196 is 12% higher than in September 2022 and is the highest September figure in at least the last fifty years. The untried prison population rose by 8% (to 10,521)… The researchers ask why custodial remand is so often ordered when conditional bail might be appropriate....

Even tougher on crime

The last 20 years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of people serving long prison sentences. There is no official definition of how long a person needs to spend in prison to be classed as a ‘longterm’ prisoner, but the general understanding is that this term applies to… Today’s King’s Speech contained a long list of hardline criminal justice measures committing the Government to introduce tougher sentences for rapists and murderers...

Assaults self harm and deaths in prison custody have risen

Regular readers will be more familiar than most with the chronic overcrowding in our prison system and the recent emergency measures that the government has had to institute to tackle them. The early release provision and other measures have succeeded in reducing the number of people inside by 424 people… There have been more than 23,000 assaults in the prison system in the 12 months to June last year ...

MAPPA population keeps rising

Last week the Ministry of Justice and the Office for National Statistics published the annual report on Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements for 2022/23. Although MAPPA has only been in existence since 2003 and despite the surge in the prison population in the last year, there remain more people supervised under… There are more offenders being managed under MAPPA arrangements than there are in prison ...

Big changes to criminal records finally take effect

Last Saturday was an important day for anyone with a criminal record looking for work or to change their job. Eighteen months after the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act was passed, changes to spending periods finally came into effect on 28 October 2023. In a change, much more profound… For the first time, many prison sentences of four or more years will be able to become spent....

Fewer on probation as prison numbers keep rising

Today’s edition of the MoJ Offender Management Statistics cover the prison population up to the end of September and other prison and probation data until the end of June. They confirm the inexorable rise of the prison population and the fall in the probation caseload. Prison adjudications and licence recalls… On 30 June 2023, there were 238,264 offenders supervised by the Probation Service in England and Wales...

Public debate on sentencing 'dysfunctional' say MPs

In its report  ‘Public opinion and understanding of sentencing’, the House of Commons Justice Committee concluded the persistence of the view among the public that the system is not severe enough, represents a “significant long-term public policy challenge that needs to be addressed”. The Committee’s report recommended that the Government… Only 22% of respondents to a poll identified that Parliament was responsible for setting the maximum sentence in law for a criminal offence....

Cost of living crisis has higher impact on prisoners' families

With the prison population now at an all time-high, new research published last Friday (13 October 2023) shows how prisoners’ families and loved-ones are facing their own hidden sentence of financial hardship and emotional strain. Survey results published by the Prison Advice and Care Trust (Pact) show that many families,… ‘Serving a Hidden Sentence’ finds that prisoners’ families are often hit by a ‘double whammy’ of costs ...

Emergency actions taken by Justice Secretary to tackle prison crisis

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk was forced to make an emergency announcement yesterday (16 October 2023) introducing new measures to tackle the ever-growing prison population. Mr Chalk addressed the House of Commons and set out two main initiatives to try to tackle the crisis. These focused on: Releasing some “lower level… The average custodial sentence length was 24.3 months last year compared to 17 months a decade earlier...