Last week, The Institute of Government hosted a special one-day conference, focused on discussing the issues facing public services with speakers including Michael Gove and Lord Blunkett. One of the prominent events was one focused on the criminal justice system titled ‘The criminal justice system: is there a way to fix it?’. Chaired by Cassia Rowland, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Government, and with contributions from Dr Karen Schucan Bird, Associate Professor at the UCL social research institute, Penelope Gibbs, Director of Transform Justice and finally, Lord Timpson OBE, Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending. The criminal justice system faces difficulties, and the new government will have to face up to an extremely challenging inheritance. Following on from the SDS40 policy, capacity is starting to be relieved, however there are still challenges with conditions, corruption and capacity present. Resolve reiterates that it is key to reflect on this important event and analyse what the new government have in plan to address such challenges, increasing trust, improving charging rates, and delivering fairer, more equitable justice for all.
Prisons and reoffending, Lord Timpson OBE
Lord Timpson opened the conversation by remarking on just how fragile the prison system was upon their inheritance of government. Stating that ‘at one point, we had fewer than 100 prison places left in the men’s estate’, in this situation, it is clear it is hard even to manage the basics, let one rehabilitation, Timpson reiterated this sentiment, stating that ‘80% of offending in our country is re offending’. The crisis in capacity, and employment within prisons is linked to the reoffending rate present, this is clear with Timpson’s experience, reminiscing on when he employed offenders as CEO of Timpson Group that offenders were ‘desperate’ for a second chance, but could only have this if given the right help. The strain that is on prisons, therefore, means that prison staff do not have the bandwidth ‘to educate and train them to find jobs, and we know how important that is, because who get jobs, and we know how important that is, because offenders who get jobs within a year of release are much less likely to re-offend’.
Prison capacity, however, is just one issue that is facing the criminal justice system, while crucial, there are a range of issues touched on, that anyone working in social housing can attest too, namely probation, court backlogs and conviction rates.
Penelope Gibbs, Director of Transform Justice on Reform
Transform justice, a charity aimed at using research and evidence to reform the justice system, to make it more ‘fair, open and compassionate’, had a plethora of items to raise regarding criminal justice reform. One issue raised was again, capacity, however with a more nuanced answer. One potential solution was investigating the sentencing review, as, according to Penelope Gibbs, there has ‘been a reduction in the number of prisoners who are serving sentences under 10 years. The major, major change has been in those serving an over 1- year sentence’ therefore, the proposed conclusion is therefore, looking at higher sentences over 10 years, as opposed to those shorter sentences. It was stated that ‘there is no evidence that somebody doing 11 years rather than nine years is any more effective’ of course, as always with major reforms to the prison system, ‘the challenge will be about selling them into the media and the public’.
All those in the social housing sector will know of the issue of the court backlog, Transform Justice realise those issues and propose novel solutions. It was stated that the most common sentence in the Magistrates Court is the fine. This, as Penelope Gibbs states, is ‘not rehabilitative’, is does still have its place, however it was noted that there are ‘1000s of people between Magistrates Court who get fines who could be better dealt with by the police out of court’. Penelope raises, that the police, therefore, could use cautions and community resolutions, which have rehabilitative programs attached, so instead of going to court for shoplifting, you can use the police rather than the courts and just have them fined, which is argued as anti-rehabilitative, and just increases the magistrates court backlog. It was further raised on the issues of criminal records, that most people in the country who have criminal records did not go to prison. One in four of the population, according to Transform Justice, have a criminal record, taken from a Ministry of Justice press release. As criminal records are a huge barrier to employment, and social mobility, it was proposed to therefore tweak the system, to prevent people from being upwardly socially mobile.
Lastly, as seen before in conversations around anything involving reform in the UK, localisation and devolution are also present in this conversation. As ‘most of the drivers to crime are outside the criminal justice system’, to therefore resolve reoffending, it is imperative to join up with local services. Devolution is extremely topical, Angela Rayner’s proposed expansion of metro mayors, including both the areas they cover, and the powers they possess, highlights how the government recognises the centralisation that is central to UK policymaking.[1] Resolve recognises the importance of multi-agency joined up working, and how effective it can be for community safety if done right.[2] It is therefore welcomed that further conversations are being had on the importance of localism and partnership working.
Dr Karen Schucan Bird, Associate Professor at the UCL Social Research Institute: Domestic Abuse
Dr Karen Schucan Bird started her contribution by proposing to zoom out and focus on how we improve the criminal justice system, through the perspective of domestic abuse. The incumbent government has set ambitious targets; to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade, this is part of the issue for it to be national emergency as part of their broader ‘safer streets mission’.[3] The current initiative that has been advance are primarily, as articulated by Dr Bird ‘focused on quite a narrow focus on policing and the criminal justice system, the approach in having specialists in 999 control rooms is much needed, however it is argued, that there needs to be a ‘broader view of this issue of domestic abuse’. This manifests itself into a ‘holistic whole systems approach, that integrates public services with communities to maximize early intervention and improve responses. Again, we at Resolve know how important early intervention and partnership working is key in helping to maximise our response to community safety, and so it is therefore welcomed that these conversations are being circulated. Dr Bird however goes further, that we need to ‘embed collaboration with victim survivors, but also localized specialist agencies. The data shows a concerning attitude of trust in public services, the crime survey form 2023 reported that 53% of victims told a friend, 46% told a family member, but only 18% told the police. There is, therefore, an argument that early intervention is being missed, and public services are not integrated with communities to ‘harness this window of opportunity to respond and intervene at an earlier stage’.
Educational interventions are also raised as an important mechanism for tackling the root causes of violence against women and girls. We at Resolve have already reported on this, Sadiq Khan’s initiatives for education schemes in London (insert). However, Dr Bird argues that these interventions could ‘potentially be strengthened rolled out beyond simply the school sector into other community settings, potentially higher education’. Lastly, it was mentioned on how critical it is to ‘embed collaboration with those specialist services’ as we ‘centre victim survivors’ perspectives into this journey and in guiding policy’ this is so we can meet and generate these more long-term plans to reducing violence against women and girls in 10 years.
Concluding Thoughts
There was more to be gathered from this highly informative event from the Institute of Government, particularly in the following question and answers segment. However, withstanding opinion, that there are serious conversations being had on reform, not just for its own sake, but evidence-based, effective reform that maximises return. A focus on early intervention, combined with the pragmatic approach of the crisis that has been inherited, is welcomed by Resolve, and we as always, welcome an open dialogue as we seek to resolve these pressing issues to our ever precious criminal justice system.
The full event, and the wider conference, can be found for further viewing here: https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/public-services-conference
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/deputy-prime-minister-kickstarts-new-devolution-revolution-to-boost-local-power
[2] https://www.college.police.uk/support-forces/practices/local-focus-hub-multi-agency-hub-model
