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Swift justice for prolific offenders would restore credibility to weak community punishments and cut reoffending, argues new report

• US approach has reduced reoffending by up to 50 per cent and could transform justice system in England and Wales

• Almost 28,000 offenders given community punishments have at least 15 previous convictions or cautions

• Offenders waiting for more than five months in certain areas before some community sentence programmes start, new CSJ data shows

• Some addicts ‘gaming’ the drug testing system

  Serial offenders who breach community punishments could be instantly sent to jail for a day in a move that mirrors a highly successful US approach to reoffending, a new report said last week (Friday May 16, 2014).

  The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found that many offenders who breach sentences being served in the community consider the punishments a ‘laughing stock’.

  The number of people given a sentence in the community who had at least 15 previous convictions or cautions has increased by 76 per cent from 15,709 in 2003/4 to 27,632 in 2013, the study highlights.

  Around a third of people given a sentence in the community are caught reoffending within a year and in 2012/13 some 17,066 offenders had their sentence scrapped because they did not comply with it.

  The CSJ offers a host of recommendations for restoring credibility to sentences in the community, including a move that would see serial offenders who breach them sent to jail for a short period of time before continuing with the original order.

This would be similar to the ‘Swift and Certain’ (SAC) Programmes that are being used in around 20 States across America and which are dramatically reducing breach rates and reoffending.

“Many prolific offenders are refusing to take their punishment and rehabilitation seriously and are getting away with it,” said Edward Boyd, editor of the Sentences in the Community report.

“What we have found in the United States is that the consequence of a day or two in prison shows offenders that they have to comply and means they take more responsibility.

“This approach is slashing reoffending rates as offenders realise they can’t get away with breaking the rules. This new idea offers the Government an opportunity to restore faith in community punishments.”

The CSJ says sentences in the community have been undermined because authorities have a “lackadaisical approach” towards punishing breaches. The average breach hearing is usually not heard for several weeks.

Figures obtained by the CSJ also reveal there are unacceptable delays in some community sentences starting. The average wait between being sentenced and starting an accredited programme was as long as five months in some parts of the country, and two months on average.

The intervention designed to tackle drug use – the drug rehabilitation requirement (DRR) – has the highest rate of reoffending, with 56 per cent of offenders caught committing crime within a year.

The requirement, the CSJ found, does little to encourage recovery from drug addiction and is regularly ‘gamed’ by offenders. Many treatment providers use ‘scheduled’ rather than ‘randomised’ drug testing which offenders can manipulate simply by managing the timing of their drug use to avoid detection (many class A drugs only stay in the system for two to three days).

The CSJ heard that DRRs have a “perverse” approach where offenders are more likely to be sanctioned for turning up late for sessions than testing positive for class A drugs.

The report also recommends that new probation providers should inform magistrates of the outcomes of sentences in the community so that they can develop a greater awareness of which interventions are effective at rehabilitating offenders. It also says that courts should do more to include families in rehabilitation efforts.

Notes to the editor

About sentences in the community:

Sentences in the community in the context of this study are used to refer to two separate sentences: Community Sentences (CSs) and Suspended Sentence Orders (SSOs).

Technically an SSO is a custodial sentence, and any breach should mean offenders will ‘usually have to serve the original sentence in prison’. Yet both orders are made up of the same requirements and are served in the community. A CS can last anywhere between 12 hours and three years; whilst an SSO can only last a maximum of two years.

In England and Wales there are currently 12 ‘requirements’ that offenders can be given on sentences in the community – these include: unpaid work, supervision, curfews and the Drug Rehabilitation Requirement (DRR) – and if offenders breach conditions they can be given tougher penalties, including custody.

Sentences in the community are handed out for a wide range of offences. The most common indictable offences that receive sentences in the community are theft and handling stolen goods, and violence against the person, with 39,953 and 16,784 people sentenced for the respectively.

Evidence of the effectiveness of SAC Programmes:

•   A randomised control trial of Hawaii’s HOPE Programme showed offenders

  were 61 per cent less likely to skip appointments with their supervisory officer

  and 55 per cent less likely to be arrested for a new crime;

•   A study of Texas’ SWIFT Programme found that just eight per cent of

  offenders have had their sentence revoked due to breaching the terms of their sentence, and nine per cent for reoffending. Compared to a matched comparison group, SWIFT participants were half as likely to be convicted for new crimes;

•   South Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Programme reduced repeat ‘driving under the influence’ arrests at county level by 12 per cent.

  For media enquiries, please contact:

• Ross Reid from the Centre for Social Justice on 07780 707322

• Nick Wood of Media Intelligence Partners Ltd on 07889 617003.

  About the CSJ

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is an independent think tank established in 2004 to put social justice at the heart of British politics. In June last year, the CSJ was awarded UK Social Policy Think Tank of the Year 2013 at Prospect magazine’s Think Tank Awards.

In 2007 the CSJ published its landmark report, Breakthrough Britain. This publication, which set out 190 evidence-based policy recommendations to tackle poverty in Britain, transformed the social policy and political landscape and was awarded Publication of the Year by Prospect Magazine in 2008.

Since Breakthrough Britain the CSJ has published over 40 reports which have shaped government policy and influenced opposition parties. These have included the seminal papers Dying to Belong and Dynamic Benefits, which has led the Coalition Government’s welfare reforms.

Further to this, the CSJ manages an Alliance of over 300 of the most effective grass roots, poverty- fighting organisations. The CSJ is able to draw upon the expertise and experience of Alliance charities for research work and media inquiries. Journalists wishing to conduct grass-roots research into social problems can be put in touch with front-line charity directors and staff.