The crisis in our criminal justice system has received a lot of media coverage in recent weeks, and is one of the most urgent issues facing the new administration.
Our prisons are days away from being full, and the criminal court case backlog is nearing 70,000. Of the 39 inspections of Probation Delivery Units (PDUs) since the service was reunified, 19 were rated ‘inadequate’, 19 as ‘requiring improvement’ and just one as ‘good’.
The challenges faced by the system were not created overnight and, in most cases, are the results of decades of mismanagement and short-sighted policymaking by multiple administrations desperate to appear ‘tough on crime’.
But with every crisis comes opportunity. The solutions aren’t all quick, but with a longer-term, evidence-based approach, we can re-design our criminal justice system to be more effective, economical, equitable and transparent, reducing reoffending whilst increasing public confidence.
Here is a summary of what Social Interest Group would propose:
- Make Community Sentences more robust and more person-centred:
- Greater, more flexible use of Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) including dual orders that address both mental health and substance use. Enhanced Combination Orders delivered in Northern Ireland offer a promising model for a multidisciplinary response to prolific offending.
- More focus should be placed on accommodation and tenancy sustainment support to prevent people from becoming homeless and offer a foundation for addressing other support needs. Pilot intensive, accommodation-based services as alternatives to custody for people committing high volumes of offences.
- National roll-out of Intensive Supervision and Problem Solving Courts, training magistrates/sentencers on how to use them. Establish specialist domestic and sexual violence courts to fast-track the backlog and ensure cases are heard in a trauma-informed setting
- Increase the proportion of Category D (open) prisons, which are cheaper to operate and better prepare people for release
- Wider use of Liaison & Diversion initiatives
- Adapt and expand successful diversion initiatives with young people to include women and people with mental health and/or addiction issues
- Increase resource for L&D services, particularly the provision of support with mental health, addiction and homelessness
- Reduce the burden on courts by expanding out of court disposal and deferred sentence options for some lower-level crimes
- Ensure the Young Futures Programme is available to the 18-25 cohort
- Improve Staff capability, wellbeing and retention
- Actively promote and encourage lived experience in CJS roles, including reforming the archaic prison vetting process
- Improve partnership working and collaboration across the sector by developing a shared training platform and a formal secondments pathway spanning statutory and VCSE providers
- Safely embed AI and automation to reduce the heavy administrative burden on prison and probation staff
- Inflationary uplifts are to be applied consistently across all HMPPS contracts
- Longer-term, joined-up strategies to tackle root causes
- Cross-departmental task force, directed by the Cabinet Office, focused on diverting people committing low-level, non-violent offences away from criminal justice pathways and into appropriate support
- Meaningful lived experience involvement in policymaking and representation at MoJ and HMPPS Board level
- Longer-term contracts give service providers the certainty and stability to deliver the best possible outcomes.
- An independent commission into drug policy and sentencing that reviews international best practices in terms of both criminalising addiction and public health responses.
- Political courage from the very top to champion an evidence-based approach and push back against lazy ‘soft on crime’ media narratives
The Voluntary Sector is overflowing with the creativity, experience, and evidence to deliver tailored, local solutions that treat people with dignity and believe in their capacity for change. We welcome this opportunity to radically reform how we view and deliver criminal justice services in this country and look forward to working with our statutory and VCSE partners over the next parliament and beyond.
Learn more about How the Government Can Fix the Criminal Justice System.
Adam Moll, Director of External Affairs and Impact
