CURRENT PENAL SYSTEM IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Current Penal System in England and Wales



Current Penal System in England and Wales

Introduction

Rehabilitation elements of our prison system have long been a source of scepticism amongst prison experts and professionals. Since the late 1970s, researchers have pointed to the gradual de-prioritization of rehabilitation as a function of the system. By the early 1980's, Anthony Bottoms had identified the 'collapse of the rehabilitative ideal'. More recently, research by Michael Cavadino and James Dignan's for their 2003 book The Penal System, found a 'crisis of legitimacy' based in a loss of confidence in the whole rehabilitative project.

On balance, much of the research in recent years probably overstates the 'crisis' theme. Nevertheless, scepticism about the ability of the penal system to reform persists at policy and professional levels. Prisons are perceived as chronically overstretched. Prisoners are commonly discharged without any systematic support once the prison gate has closed behind them. And existing data shows little or no correlation between reoffending rates and interventions by the prison system.

Source: Ministry of Justice 2010

Current Penal System in England and Wales

The shift in emphasis towards rehabilitation and funding programmes which directly contribute to reducing reoffending rates must therefore be seen as quite a radical and bold move by the new coalition. At the centre of the ministry's plans there is an emerging role for social impact bonds (SIB) and growing SIB markets. Under this model, bonds are raised from investments by charitable or commercial organizations. Private or third sector providers then deliver rehabilitation programmes, with payments contingent on the achievement of pre-specified levels of reduction in reoffending rates. No reduction, no payments.

A pilot scheme is currently underway at Peterborough prison and further pilots are envisaged, although the Business Plan is still disappointingly sketchy about the details and expanse of coverage. It is still early days for SIBs and for evaluating their potential to reduce reoffending. Supporters point out that bond can provide a sustainable source of long-term funding for the voluntary sector to expand and deepen successful programmes of support for offenders. Sceptics, however, argue that there are likely to be difficulties in scaling up the level of investment in such bonds in order to fund large-scale transformation. A recent BBC Radio 4 programme 'Analysis' discusses the pros and cons of this new funding model.

A small and seemingly trivial innovation may be cause for more quick-win optimism at this stage. For the first time ever, and as part of the sharpening of focus on rehabilitation, government has published reoffending rates for individual prisons. While these data are buried in an Excel spreadsheet on the Ministry of Justice website, they are there for those willing to search. Figure 2 below summarizes some of this data for four different groups of prison. Boxplots differentiate between sentences less than 12 months (blue boxes) and sentences over 12 months (green boxes). The data confirms a well-established structural phenomenon in the prison system that the propensity to reoffend is around twice as high for sentences less ...