A rising tide of violence inside prisons across England and Wales has been revealed by official figures showing serious assaults soaring by 30%, three murders in the past 12 months and a 69% rise in suicides to the highest level for nine years.

According to Ministry of Justice figures, the number of self-inflicted deaths in prisons rose by 36 to 88 in the 12 months to the end of March – the highest level since 2005.

Prison governors have repeatedly warned that jails have been struggling to cope with a record population of more than 85,000 in increasingly crowded conditions while implementing budget cuts of up to 24% over the past three years.

The latest performance tables show that conditions inside 28 jails are now rated as being of official concern, with one – Brinsford youth jail at Featherstone in Staffordshire – rated as being of “serious concern”. This compares with only 12 jails being rated as being of concern last year, and a further three with the worst “serious concern” rating.

The prison ratings contrast sharply with those for the performance of the 35 probation trusts across England and Wales, which were all rated “good or exceptional” in their last year of operation. They were abolished last month and 70% of their workload is to transfer to community rehabilitation companies.

The detailed figures show that serious assaults inside jails have risen by 30% from 1,277 to 1,661, and all assaults on staff rose 15%, from 2,787 to 3,201. There were three homicides behind bars in the 12 months to March compared with two the year before.

The increasingly violent atmosphere has been accompanied by a reduction in the number of prisoners completing programmes to tackle their criminality. The number of sex offender treatment programmes were down from 2,757 to 2,576 despite a sharp rise of more than 700 in the number of sex offenders imprisoned. Similarly, the number of prisoners completing drug rehabilitation courses was also slightly down.

Political parties have said the increase in deaths in custody is being taken very seriously. The T2A recently submitted evidence to the Harris Review into deaths of young adults in NOMS custody. You can read the T2A response here.

(This news item was originally posted on the Guardian on 31/07/14. The article is available here)

The Howard League for Penal Reform welcomes the opportunity to engage in Lord Harris’ review. The review is a unique opportunity for expert scrutiny of systemic failings in the penal system that have culminated in the tragic deaths of so many young adults in custody.

This inquiry is the only opportunity to examine the wider context surrounding young adults in prison. Inquests and inquiries have hitherto only considered their treatment in prison that immediately led to death but no one has asked the critical question about whether they should have been in prison in the first place. From the inquest and inquiry into the murder of Zahid Mubarek to the death of Greg Revell a couple of weeks ago, the question about the remand and sentencing decisions and practices of the courts need to be questioned as a contributory factor that led directly murder and suicide. Far too many young men are remanded and sentenced to prison unnecessarily and unless an independent inquiry looks at the route into custody as well as the treatment whilst inside, the problem will not be solved and lives will continue to be lost.

The Howard League for Penal Reform believes that there are too many young adults in prison who should not be there at all. The crime rate continues to fall. While the child custody population has fallen by two-thirds since 2008, there has only been a minimal fall in the number of young adults in prison. It is critical that we build on the successes for children across the system by ensuring that a different approach is taken for young adults from the first point of contact with the police to sentencing.

Summary of submission

Many young adults face avoidable problems in prison that may increase the likelihood of suicide. Despite claims from the Ministry of Justice as to the need for prisoners to make use of their time, most young adults are cooped up for excessive periods of time each day with nothing to do. The inadequate provision of meaningful or, indeed, any activity at all for this group is exacerbated by the hopelessness caused by the new incentives and privileges regime. The scheme, introduced in November 2013, makes it impossible for most prisoners to be rewarded for good behaviour or motivation. Others are paralysed by violence, racism, homophobia and insufficient interventions to meet their needs or allow them to progress in prison.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has identified a number of warning signs that we believe should trigger anxious scrutiny of a young person’s well being. When young people with mental health problems, learning difficulties, histories of abuse and victimization are sent to prison the authorities should not use segregation but should make sure that young people benefit from monitoring and support for their own safety. The caseload of our legal team shows that too many vulnerable teenagers are subjected to adjudications and physical interventions in prison. When the state takes a young person into its care, it must adhere to the highest standards to protect and safeguard them and to enable them to flourish.

Finally, we believe that even where young people’s needs and concerns are known, the current system is inadequate. Disciplinary processes are used inappropriately to deal with issues of profound concern. Measures to monitor risk of self-harm are not sensitive or tailored to the needs of individuals and are not meaningful. Safeguarding procedures for young adults are virtually non-existent.

You can read the full submission here

The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) is an independent UK charity working to create a just, humane and
effective prison system. We do this by inquiring into the workings of the system; informing
prisoners, staff and the wider public; and by influencing Parliament, government and officials
towards reform.

The Prison Reform Trust’s main objectives are:

• Reducing unnecessary imprisonment and promoting community solutions to crime
• Improving treatment and conditions for prisoners and their families

PRT welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence to this review and have chosen to respond only to those questions on which we have some expertise but also submit our response to the Ministry of Justice consultation Transforming management of young adults of custody as supplementary evidence to the Review team. As a member of the Transition to Adulthood Alliance (T2A) convened by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, the Prison Reform Trust is pleased to support T2As submission to this Review.

Overarching comments

Whilst PRT appreciate that the remit of this Review has been set externally, PRT wish to
reiterate that the exclusion of children from its parameters presents a missed opportunity,
not least because many of the young people aged 18-24 who have died in prison will spend
time in custody as children. PRT urge the Review team to ensure that the impact of transition
from youth to adult custodial estate is considered as part of it work.

PRT strongly recommend that the ambit of the Review is sufficiently wide to consider the
journey into custody taken by children and young people who have died. A focus on prison
alone will result in only a partial understanding of what happened to them and what needs to
change. As Fatally flawed’s analysis of the deaths of 98 children and young people who died
between 2003 and 2010 showed, they were some of the most disadvantaged in society and
had had significant interaction with public services and community agencies before their entry
to prison.

It is in everyone’s interests to learn the lessons from the deaths of children and young people in prison and prevent such tragedies wherever possible in the future

You can read the full PRT response here

A requirement for local funding authorities to support young people living with their foster carer until the age of 21 requires adequate funding to make it a success. Amanda Cumberland, from TACT, wrote about the new Staying Put duty in the Guardian. The Staying Put duty is a requirement for local authorities to support arrangements where young people continue to live with their foster carer up to the age of 21 and has been lauded as the most significant reform for children in care for a generation.

The scheme offers young people a more natural transition to adulthood and independence. It provides the kind of support that any reasonable parent would provide for their children. When the state makes a conscious decision to intervene in the life of a child it has an obligation to do everything possible to help them into successful adulthood.

For too long, young people leaving care faced an abrupt transition to independence that has been described as instant adulthood. The consequences are clear in the outcomes for care leavers. There is a lot of evidence that young people leaving care are more likely to be Neet (not in education, employment or training), to become young parents, to experience homelessness and mental health problems, and to have contact with the criminal justice system.

The age at which children leave care, the speed of transition and maintaining secure attachments all help to give young people a better chance of good adult outcomes. Staying Put helps to ensure that young people experience a transition to adulthood similar to their peers, within a supportive family environment.

However, there are a number of significant challenges to implementing these reforms. It is unclear whether £40m funding, spread over three years and to every local authority in England, will be enough to ensure that authorities can properly support every arrangement.

The costs to local authorities will depend on the number of young people who choose to stay put, how long they stay for and the level of financial support offered to the carer. Local authorities must pay carers an allowance to cover the costs of the young person continuing to live with them. But unlike foster care, there are no national standards about the minimum allowance that carers should receive, and they are unlikely to receive any fee element in recognition of the expertise they bring to supporting the young adult in moving to independence.

The good practice guidance launched on Tuesday notes that this loss of income is one of the biggest obstacles to foster carers being able to offer Staying Put, and encourages local authorities to ensure no young person misses out just because their carer cannot afford it.

As Staying Put rolls out across England, there is a need to gather robust evidence about the real costs, barriers and obstacles. Without adequate funding based on a comprehensive understanding of the costs there are disincentives to encouraging more young people to take advantage of the scheme.

The nature and extent of independent fostering agencies’ obligations in relation to Staying Put is also unclear. Local authority commissioning increasingly requires agencies to commit to offering the scheme. This is a positive step, and some local authorities plan to work in partnership with independent agencies throughout the arrangement.

However, many local authorities say they plan to make Staying Put arrangements directly with the carer and young person, without involving the agency that has supported them throughout the fostering placement. Foster carers and young people therefore face losing consistency in the support they have previously received unless independent agencies fund this through their surplus or charitable income – an issue many are grappling with.

Amid so much uncertainty, one thing is clear: local authorities and independent agencies must work constructively together to ensure that every young person who wants to stay put gets the chance, and that carers get the support they need.

Amanda Cumberland is policy and parliamentary adviser at TACT. See more at www.tact.org.uk

Source- Cumberland, A (2014) ‘Will every young person get the chance to Stay Put?’, The Guardian, 16 July [Online]. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2014/jul/16/young-people-care-staying-put 

T2A has today submitted its response to Lord Harris’ independent review of deaths of young adults aged 18-24 in NOMS custody. The Harris Review was commissioned by the Ministry of Justice at the start of 2014, led by the Independent Advisory Panel (IAP) on Deaths in Custody. The review will inform the government’s future plans for the management of young adults across the prison estate, including possible reforms to Young Offender Institutions (YOIs).

From 2012 to July 2014, there have been 46 self-inflicted deaths of young adults aged 18-24. There have been nine so far this year (another is awaiting classification). In the past 10 years, more than 160 children and young people under the age of 24 have died in prison.

Summary of the T2A response

The transition process

• The transition to adulthood is a process, not an event, and does not begin and end on a person’s 18^th birthday.
• Conversely, around the 18^th birthday, at a time of maximum risk and vulnerability, legislative frameworks and statutory expectations change in a binary fashion that does not reflect an individual’s preparedness.
• Transitions between child and adult statutory services are particularly poor, and routinely fail to take account of the distinct needs of young adults.
• 19 is the peak age of offending behaviour (for males), but is also the age at which youth-focussed services end.
• In the adult system, the consequences of offending and breach become more punitive, while at the same time access to supportive services such as mental health, supported living, youth work, education and drug treatment change in nature or cease.
• Yet with the right intervention, one that takes account of young adults’ distinct needs, this is the most likely age group to desist from crime.

Taking account of maturity

• Developmental maturity is a better guide to someone’s stage in reaching adulthood than their chronological age.
• Neuroscience has identified that the functions linked to ‘temperance’ (impulse control, rational thinking, empathy) are not normally fully developed in the adult male brain until the mid-20s.
• Maturity should be taken into account at all stages of decision-making, and some progress has been made to date by some criminal justice agencies.

Vulnerabilities

• There are particular vulnerabilities that affect a young person’s maturity, including drugs, alcohol and mental health problems.
• The uncertainty and shortage of safe, stable and suitable accommodation is also a significant challenge for young adults.
• Support for these issues normally involves youth to adult transitions between services beyond any criminal justice interventions, and these transitions are often turbulent and poorly planned (e.g. child and adolescent mental health services to adult mental health services).
• Many young adults involved in crime have acquired brain injuries, and in these cases they are even less likely to reach full neurological development by their mid-20s.
• There are particular vulnerabilities arising from a young person’s gender and ethnicity, and these require specific attention within and beyond the context of young adulthood.

What works for young adults?

• Very few current criminal justice responses take a distinct approach to young adults.
• Outcomes for criminal justice responses for young adults are very poor (both in the community and following custody) and young adults have the highest reoffending and breach rates of all sentenced adults.
• Outcomes from interventions for young adults are best when services are based on providing a consistent, trusting relationship and an approach that is strength-based and solution focussed.
• Young adults respond least well to services that are overly regimented, punitive and punishment-focussed.
• A distinct approach for young adults is effective in reducing offending behaviour and breach of requirements, and contributes to positive social outcomes such as higher rates of employment and better health.
• Services for young adult women are most effective when they take account of both age and gender specific needs.

Criminal justice interventions for young adults

• Young adults represent 10% of the general population but account for 30-40% of the criminal justice caseload (policing time, probation work, prison entries).
• They have the highest reoffending rates of any group (75% reoffend within two years of release from prison), and the highest breach rates of those serving community sentences.
• Distinct and effective interventions for young adults can be implemented at all stages of the criminal justice process, from point of arrest through to release from prison.
• The CPS and sentencers now take maturity into account in decision-making for adults.
• There are very limited options available to sentencers for a distinct young adult sentence.
• The changes to probation services are likely to result in a huge variation and inconsistency in the provision of a distinct approach for young adults.

Young adults in custody

• Although notionally there is distinct provision for 18-20-year-old young adults in custody, this is woefully under-resourced.
• Any distinct provision that remains continues to be eroded by cuts and a lack of leadership from central government.
• Many prison governors and staff want to provide an effective regime, but are being hampered by policy confusion, continual estate reorganisation and untenable resource pressures.
• Levels of violence and self-harm among young adults in many designated Young Offender Institutions make meaningful engagement in purposeful activities almost impossible.
• HM Inspectorate reports of adult prisons holding young adults on remand (the setting where the majority of deaths of young adults in recent years have occurred) have consistently found a lack of strategic approach to young adults.
• Specific provision for young adult women in prison is very poor in most establishments.
• Legal aid cuts mean that it is almost impossible for young adults to receive free representation while in prison for anything other than release date appeals.

Young adults in custody: The way forward

• Other jurisdictions respond differently to offending by young adults, such as in Germany where the courts choose either juvenile or adult law for young adults on the basis of the maturity of the individual and their distinct needs.
• There is great social and economic gain to be made by implementing a distinct approach for young adults, and this can be realised within existing budgets and legislation.
• However, legislative and system change would make this more efficient, and there is worth in considering extending the youth justice system to an older age group.

Response by the Transition to Adulthood Alliance to IAP FINAL

The Conservative MP for Braintree, Brooks Newmark, is the newly appointed Minister for Civil Society following Tuesday’s government reshuffle, stating that he is “absolutely delighted to have been made minister for civil society working with our country’s great charities and voluntary sector”.  Newmark takes over from Nick Hurd MP who has been a committed champion of the third sector in his time in the role.

Newmark, a former member of the Treasury Select Committee, spoke last year at the Transition to Adulthood Alliance fringe event at Conservative Party Conference, which focused on the criminal justice implications of youth unemployment.

As the Guardian reported at the time, Newmark set out his view that businesses should receive tax breaks for providing jobs for unemployed young people. He told delegates that youth unemployment costs the government up to £10bn, and he estimated that even if the scheme resulted in the employment of all 1 million young unemployed people, it would cost the government only £237m. Newmark said this would “encourage businesses to reach out a little bit more” and described the scheme a “win-win for all parties”.

OPPORTUNITY: Help develop guidance on young adults

Clinks is developing guidance for probation practitioners on working with young adults, on behalf of the Transitions to Adulthood Alliance. We are looking for projects to visit that exemplify good practice and creative, effective approaches to working with young adults on probation licence.

Visits will take place between September and November 2014 and will involve meeting frontline workers and service users, to find out what makes the service effective.

We are inviting statutory, voluntary or private sector services to submit an expression of interest form by Friday 15^th August 2014, and we will then select a small number of projects to visit.

For more information download the form here.

“There aren’t many good news stories around in criminal justice at the moment. Prisons are in crisis, probation is in meltdown, there’s been a spate of absconds by serious and violent criminals and the legal aid system has been decimated. With less money to spend than in the past, whoever wins power in 2015 will face huge challenges.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Our youth justice system offers a glimmer of hope – and a pointer to reforms elsewhere. Although not perfect, over the past decade or so fewer under 18s have committed crimes and fewer are behind bars – a double success that has eluded the adult justice system.

This success has its roots in the radical changes that began under Labour in 1998. The key reform was the creation of local Youth Offending Teams – bringing together councils, police, probation, education, health and social services. Their task was to identify those at risk of drifting into a life of crime and to work together to stop them from committing further crimes.

The idea at the heart of this is simple: our justice system works best when, rather than treating everyone the same, services collaborate to get a grip on these people, dealing with the root causes of their offending behaviour.

Although not perfect, these bold reforms have seen dramatic reductions in first time offending – they are a third of what there were ten years ago. The numbers of young people sent to jail have been halved. Testimony to this is that prisons for young people have been closing.

So communities are safer and the taxpayer is better off to the tune of some £80 million.

At a time when we know budgets are going to remain under considerable pressure, these statistics are impossible to ignore.

Let’s be clear. The sanction of prison will always be needed for those who commit serious crimes. But the success of the youth justice system shows we can continue to drive down crime but also cut the numbers locked up. I want the next Labour government to build on these successes.

This week, the IPPR published a report recommending that the youth justice system is extended to young adults, up to the age of 21. This is a sensible idea and one that we will look at very seriously.

It won’t be easy. It will involve culture change in many agencies. It will need to be affordable. But much of the infrastructure is in place, and if we give local authorities the right incentives and support they’ll have powerful reasons to make this work, cut crime and save money.

For many young people, moving from adolescence to the cusp of adulthood sees support through the youth justice system stop, with young adults receiving no specific focus in the criminal justice system. Focusing attention on 18-20 year olds should help address what the House of Commons Justice Select Committee identified as a “period of high risk”.

The key to Labour’s past reforms and future policy is to follow the evidence of what works. The prize is to make our communities safer and to save precious resources. The contrast with how this Tory-led government operated could hardly be starker. They’ve declared war on evidence.

They’ve cancelled pilots which could have produced evidence of what works and what doesn’t work. Instead we have a Justice Secretary who prefers to follow his own ideological instincts. Trusting the instincts of a man who brought us the disastrous Work Programme is a big ask. He failed then and he’s failing now.

The grotesque manifestation of this triumph of ideology over evidence is the half-baked and reckless privatisation of probation. It goes against the grain of everything we know about what helps to reduce re-offending. It’s ripping apart multi-agency working, commissioning services direct from a desk in Whitehall, and handing over supervision of dangerous and violent offenders to private companies with little or no track record in this area.

The government is presiding over a giant experiment. Early reports are that probation privatisation is causing chaos, just as many including Ministry of Justice officials warned it would. At stake, if things go wrong, is the safety of communities up and down the country. I’m not prepared to be so casual with public safety.

The choice is clear. On one side a Tory-led government – driven by ideology – dismantling working relationships that reduce re-offending. And, on the other hand, a Labour Party promising to build on what works to reduce crime and prison numbers, and to do more with less. I am convinced the marriage of evidence-based policy and Labour’s principles will cut crime, reduce re-offending and cut the massive cost of crime to our society.”

Sadiq Khan is Labour MP for Tooting and shadow justice secretary

Welcoming Sadiq Khan’s announcement that the Labour Party is committed to looking at extending the remit of the Youth Justice Board and Youth Offending Teams to cover 18-20 year olds, Joyce Moseley OBE, Chair of the Transition to Adulthood Alliance, said:

“T2A’s evidence shows that the transition to adulthood is a process not an event. Blowing out the candles on our 18th birthday cake doesn’t make us fully formed adults, or mean that we have reached full maturity. Nor does it mean that the interventions and services received as children are no longer needed or irrelevant.

While many government departments have started to recognise the distinct needs of young adults, the criminal justice system still bases its response on chronological age rather than the on a young person’s variable maturity and abilities.

18-24 year olds account for 10% of the population but they make up about a third of those dealt with by criminal justice services like the police, courts and probation.
They are the most likely group to be involved in crime, but with the right intervention, one that takes account of their maturity and their distinct needs, young adults are the most likely age group to turn their lives around and lead crime free lives.

T2A welcomes proposals that apply the lessons and successes of the youth justice system for young adults. We believe that extending the remit of the YJB and Youth Offending Teams would be one way to bring about a more effective approach for those who have turned 18 but are still in their transition to adulthood. With the right allocation of resource this would mean fewer victims of crime in the future, better outcomes for young people, and big savings to the tax payer.”

The focus of IPPR’s  newly-launched Condition of Britain report is how people can work together to build a good society in tough times. It sets out an ambitious agenda for social renewal across Britain covering social exclusion, housing and criminal justice.

One of the report’s chapters looks at enabling young people to have a secure transitions into adulthood, including a section on preventing young people from getting involved in a life of crime.  The main recommendation of this section reflect  T2A (Transition to Adulthood Alliance) thinking that: “The remit of youth offending teams should be extended to those aged up to 20, in order to provide locally-led, integrated support to help keep young adult offenders out of prison, cut reoffending and prevent them from entering a life of crime”.

The report states that the responsibility for tackling youth offending lies locally, with youth offending teams (YOTs), which are organised at the level of top-tier local authorities. YOTs were established in 1998, and have since performed well against their three core objectives. The number of young people entering the criminal justice system for the first time fell by 67 per cent between 2002/03 and 2012/13.  IPPR argue that instead of dealing with young adult offenders through the ‘transforming rehabilitation’ contracts, the next government should extend the successful YOT model to offenders aged 18–20. They suggest that managing this more effectively by reducing offending and reoffending, and ultimately bringing down the size of the prison population, would save money and free up capacity in the adult justice system.

Under the plans outlined in the report, the responsibilities of the YJB would be extended to 18–20-year-olds to ensure that local areas are focused on tackling criminality and anti-social behaviour among young people and young adults, and new community sentences should also be put in place as an alternative to short prison sentences for young adults. In order to boost the financial incentives for local areas to reduce reoffending and keep young adults out of custody over time, the budget for youth custody could be devolved to local areas. IPPR say this would give local areas resources to invest in alternatives to custody.

The plans set out in this report would mean local areas would be held responsible for accounting for their progress in reducing first-time contact with the criminal justice system, keeping all but the most serious young adult offenders out of prison, and attempting to bring down reoffending rates.