Reoffending rates under the government's release scheme are unchanged according to initial analysis, prisons minister Lord Timpson has told the House of Lords.
Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers (Nicholas Phillips), inaugural president of the Supreme Court and a former lord chief justice, asked how the reoffending rate of those released early compares with those released after full term.
Timpson said: ‘The early release scheme that we inherited from the previous government had a high reoffending rate. The controlled SDS40 [standard determinate sentence 40%], whilst we are still analysing the figures, the themes that I am seeing show that the reoffending rates were no more than we normally see but my overall plan is to reduce reoffending rates generally.’
The probation service is 'really struggling' because of workload and lack of integrated technology, Timpson said.
In an oral question last week, Lord Lemos (Gerard Lemos) asked if Timpson would agree ‘that the real route to public confidence in the prison system is to firstly not to have overflowing prisons and lengthy court delays before trial bequeathed by the last government to this government, and secondly not just to lock people up for longer and longer but to ensure the probation service is effective at reducing risk and protecting the public as well as rehabilitation.’
Timpson said: ‘My noble friend is right that probation is where the heavy lifting of the justice system needs to be done.’ He added: ‘At the moment the probation service is really struggling. It is struggling because of the workload of staff [and] the lack of integrated technology, so they spend far too much time doing admin rather than face-to-face with offenders.’
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Timpson said the ‘amount of money we have been able to secure for probation of £700m is a really important amount. It is a nearly 45% increase and that I think, along with the other reforms that I am planning to do on probation will go a long way.’
He said the prison system was dealing with ‘people who are both very ill and very complex’, adding that ‘it is often the best way to reduce reoffending of these people and deal with their offending behaviour is to punish them in the community and to support them in the community’.
On short sentences, Timpson said it was ‘important that the judiciary still have power in exceptional circumstances to send people to prison for short sentences.
‘Victims must come first,’ he added. ‘And the worst things for victims would be us allowing to run out of prison places. We cannot run out of prison places and the action we have taken and the action we are taking will ensure we have a sustainable prison system.’
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