Government considering exporting prisoners to 'partner countries'

One line in Justice Secretary Alex Chalk’s speech to the Conservative party conference yesterday caused concern and confusion amongst many penal commentators: “We’re expanding and refurbishing existing prisons and hiring thousands more prison officers…And I can tell you today, conference, that we also intend to look at the Norwegian example… The government will now also enter exploratory discussions with potential partner countries in Europe to rent prison space abroad....

Court backlogs hit highest ever levels

Last week’s (28 September, 2023) Criminal Court statistics covering the state of play to the 30th June this year make from grim reading. The Government has made little progress in reducing the court backlogs since the end of the pandemic but Crown Court backlogs had been reducing very slowly since… The criminal justice system is in reverse according to the latest criminal court statistics ...

MoJ steps up recruitment campaign for prison & probation staff

The Ministry of Justice has launched a major new advertising campaign to tackle recruitment and retention, by showing the reality of life as prison and probation officers. It’s the first time the MoJ has ever invested in a national campaign which includes both TV and radio – a sure sign… The MoJ admits there is a level of cynicism over the ‘sugar-coating’ and aspirational language of recruitment into prison and probation jobs amongst existing staff....

The latest (2023) stop and search and arrest statistics

Yesterday (26 September 2023), the Home Office published the annual statistics on police powers and procedures: Stop and search and arrests for England and Wales for the financial year 2022/23. The statistics contain information from the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, and the British Transport Police (BTP),… The number of searches have increased for offensive weapons, stolen property, going equipped, criminal damage, firearms and “other”...

Ethnicity, care experience and involvement in the justice system

Earlier this month Katie Hunter, Brian Francis and Claire Fitzpatrick, published a briefing based on their research into care experience, ethnicity and youth justice involvement. The research is based on an exciting new government initiative known as Data First which makes available large anonymised datasets from a number of different… The research is based on Data First which makes available large anonymised datasets from a number of different departments....

Chief Probation Inspector makes plea for localism

The outgoing Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell, is calling for an independent review of whether the Probation Service should return to local control, two years on from unification into a national service. The announcement comes as the Inspectorate publishes its annual report today (19 September). This will be Mr… A farewell message from Justin Russell, HM Chief Inspector of Probation services ...

Prisons and Probation Ombudsman raises frustration at rising deaths in custody

The PPO investigates deaths of prisoners, young people in detention, offenders under probation supervision and individuals detained under immigration powers. The work of the PPO In 2022/23 the Ombudsman received 4,472 complaints, an increase of 1% compared to the previous year. The vast majority of these were about prisons (4,211… The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has today published their Annual Report for 2022-23, a year which saw an increase in prison and self-inflicted deaths. ...

Probation race equality remains 'a work in progress'

HM Inspectorate of Probation has today (7 September 2023) published a report re-inspecting the work undertaken and progress made, by the Probation Service, to promote race equality for people on probation and staff. The Inspectorate last looked at this area of practice in 2021. The findings from that report were… Inspectors found no evidence of any disproportionality in the use of enforcement or breach of probation conditions, and most people on probation inspectors interviewed did not feel discriminated against....

History of probation exhibition

Probation is a service that is rarely in the public consciousness apart from when things go wrong. So it is heartening to see a new exhibition on the history of the service just launched. ‘Root & Branch – How five shillings, faith and belief inspired the beginning of the Probation… The exhibition traces the origins of the service from the early work of police court missionaries ...

Prison holding serious offenders issued with urgent notification

Charlie Taylor, the Chief Inspector of Prisons wrote to the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor on Wednesday 30 August to issue an Urgent Notification for improvement at HMP Woodhill after an unannounced inspection found the prison was fundamentally unsafe. Mr Taylor published that Urgent Notification today. The… There were high levels of violence and drug use at the jail, which holds category A prisoners in addition to its role as a category B trainer. ...