3.3 Flashcards
repeat offending - recidivism rates
- In 2017, offenders given warnings, fines, community or suspended sentences, and released prisoners committed over half a million new offences, reflecting a 30% overall recidivism rate.
- Re-offenders, on average, commit four additional offences each, with the average number of re-offences per offender rising since 2009.
- The recidivism rate for offenders released from prison in 2017 was 37.5%, increasing to 64.1% for those with sentences less than 12 months.
- Around 40% of juvenile offenders re-offend within a year, with 68% of those released from custody and 74% of those with very short sentences (six months or less) re-convicted within a year
Repeat offending - rising population
- The prison population has nearly doubled since 1993, partly due to repeat offending.
- Offenders released on licence are recalled to serve the remainder of their sentence if they re-offend during the licence period.
- Longer sentences are a more significant factor in the rising prison population than repeat offending.
- Average sentences for serious offences increased by over 26 months from 2008 to 2018, and the average minimum sentence for murder rose from 12.5 years in 2003 to 21.3 years in 2016.
Who re-offends?
- The more previous convictions someone already has, the more likely they are to re-offend.
For example, in 2017 almost half (49.3%) of offenders who already had more than 10 convictions offended again.
• Offenders who served a prison sentence are more likely to re-offend than those who received a warning, fine or community sentence.
• Males are more likely to re-offend than females.
• Offenders with drug or alcohol addictions, those who are homeless, those with few qualifications and those who are unemployed are more likely to re-offend. - The dark figure of re-offending We should bear in mind that the above figures only refer to proven re-offending, in other words where the offender has been tried and found guilty.
- There is likely to be a dark figure of further offending for which they have not been caught and punished.
Repeat offending theory
- Right realists argue that ‘prison works’. Offenders are rational actors and so the fear of being jailed acts as a deterrent to offending. However, the high rate of re-offending shows that this is not so - a fact that right realists fail to explain.
- Marxists argue that it is not surprising that unemployed offenders are more likely to re-offend, since they have little chance of meeting their needs if they have to survive solely on benefits.
Civil liberties and legal barriers: human right abuses
- in some authoritarian states (sometimes called ‘police states’), social control agencies such as the police have few restrictions on their power to force citizens to behave as the state wishes them to.
- In such states, critics of the government may find they are not free to express their opinions and that they risk being locked up indefinitely - or worse.
What are civil liberties?
Civil liberties are basic rights and freedoms guaranteed to every individual by law. They include:
• freedom of speech - the right to say what you like, including freedom of the press and the media
• freedom of assembly and freedom to associate with others, including the right to gather together to protest peacefully
• freedom of movement - the right to go where you want, within the law
• freedom from arbitrary arrest
• freedom from detention without trial
• freedom of religion and conscience
• the right to privacy, especially from the state.
Access to resources and support: resources and support inside prison
- One aim of imprisonment is rehabilitation but in many cases prisons fail to rehabilitate offenders, for several reasons:
- Short sentences do not give enough time to do the intensive work needed to address deep-seated problems, such as drug dependency, illiteracy and anger management. The problem is made worse by the limited number of places on appropriate courses.
- Inadequate resources for education and training The 2018 report of the chief inspector of prisons said that half the prisons inspected had too few programmes of useful activity and only two-fifths were delivering ‘good’ or ‘reasonably good’ activities (down from over two-thirds in 2010).
- A 15% cut in the number of prison officers means there are fewer officers to supervise prisoners undertaking activities that would help their rehabilitation. Staff shortages mean that prisoners are often locked up by 6 pm, denying them access to recreational and educational facilities such as use of the prison library.
- Release on temporary licence (ROTL) is intended to allow trusted prisoners out to attend training, employment and job interviews, yet very few are able to take advantage of this scheme due to shortages of staff to supervise it.
Access to resources and support: resources and support in the community
Once released on licence, prisoners serve the remainder of their sentence in the community under the supervision of the probation service. However, newly released prisoners may face difficult circumstances, including the following:
• lack of money Prisoners earn very little from working in prison and receive only a £46
discharge grant on their release.
• lack of a job Only a quarter of prisoners have a job to go to on their release.
• homelessness According to Nacro, one in nine prisoners has no settled accommodation to go to upon release. Prisoners lose entitlement to housing benefit if they are expected to spend more than 13 weeks in prison. This means they will usually lose any tenancy they had.
The ‘end Friday releases’ campaign
- Over a third of all releases from prison happen on a Friday, and charities and pressure groups such as Nacro and the Howard League have supported a campaign to end Friday releases from prison
- Being discharged on a Friday can mean a race against the clock to access services such as accommodation, drug medication and benefits before the weekend shutdown.
- This can result in people having to sleep rough and survive on their discharge grant until services re-open on Monday. This leaves them vulnerable to re-offending - in some cases, simply to get a roof over their heads for the night
- Unsurprisingly, some ex-prisoners quickly breach the conditions of their release licence and are recalled to prison as a result.
Access to resources and support: community sentences
- Some offenders serve their whole sentence in the community under the supervision of the probation service. Community sentences are more successful than prison in reducing recidivism.
For example, only 34% re-offend within 12 months of starting their sentence, compared with 64% among those serving sentences of less than 12 months. - However, a significant minority do re-offend. There are several reasons for this:
• Inadequate support for complex needs such as drug addiction, mental health problems and homelessness. There are often too few places on specialist programmes to address such needs.
• Inadequate supervision by probation services There have been criticisms that the service is too lax in allowing offenders to miss supervision appointments.
• Failures by the privatised community rehabilitation companies, which have been criticised for failing to meet their targets and for poor supervision of offenders - in some cases even supervising their clients remotely, by telephone.
Finance: the police
- Between 2010 and 2018, the overall police budget was cut by 19%, with central government funds reduced by around 30%, partially offset by local council tax.
- Police numbers fell by 20,000 during this period, and there is a national shortage of detectives.
- Police forces are increasingly dropping investigations into serious crimes, including sexual offences, violent attacks, and arson, to manage budget constraints.
- The Metropolitan Police dropped 2.6 times more cases on the day they were reported in 2017 compared to 2016, with serious cases like rape taking much longer to investigate (129 days on average) than theft or criminal damage (2 days).
Finance: crown prosecution service
- Between 2010 and 2018, the CPS’s budget was cut by 25% and it lost one-third of its staff.
- In 2018, the head of the CPS stated that the CPS and police were inefficiently investigating thousands of cases, including rape, fraud, and modern slavery, due to critical shortages of skills and resources.
- The CPS has been accused of downgrading charges to prosecute cases in magistrates’ courts, which is quicker and cheaper than Crown Court.
- This practice may result in lighter sentences for offenders because magistrates’ sentencing powers are more limited.
Finance: prisons
- Between 2010 and 2018, the prisons budget fell by 16% and staff levels decreased by 15%, with many experienced officers leaving.
- Critics describe prisons as being in crisis, citing rising levels of assaults, self-harm, and suicides.
- Overcrowding and staff cuts limit prisoners’ access to rehabilitation activities, contributing to a 60% recidivism rate within a year for short sentences.
- Privatisation issues were highlighted by the 2016 HMP Birmingham riot, leading to the prison being taken back into public control in 2019 due to chronic staffing shortages and inadequate management.
Finance; probation service
In her annual report in 2019, the chief inspector of probation Glenys Stacey highlighted a range of problems, including:
• a national staff shortage and over-reliance on agency staff
• the sub-standard performance of the private CRCs
• shortcomings in keeping victims safe.
Stacey argued that the part-privatisation of the service was fundamentally flawed and that judges, victims, the public and offenders lacked confidence in it.
National government policies
- At a national level, central government introduces laws and policies affecting the work of agencies such as the police, the CPS and others.
- For example, in April 2019, the Home Secretary announced that he was making it easier for police officers to stop and search anyone for an offensive weapon without first having reasonable suspicion that they are carrying one. This power is available to police throughout the country under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
