7 Reducing violence: work with offenders
151. In chapter five, we argued in favour of consistent
sentencing for knife offenders reflecting the severity of the
offence. However, even those witnesses who supported the presumption
towards custody were concerned about high re-offending rates,
suggesting that a custodial sentence, while often an appropriate
punishment, does not provide a long-term solution in its current
form. In this chapter we look at ways of reducing re-offending,
particularly in relation to changing attitudes towards knife offending
and violent behaviour. We also consider work with low-level offenders
or those on the cusp of offending to prevent them from graduating
to more serious violent offending.
Work in prisons and young offenders
institutions to change behaviour
152. Ministry of Justice research with around 5,000
adult prisoners showed that the odds of re-offending within
a year were 58% overall, including 32% for those in custody
for the first time and 69% for those with previous experience
of custody.[219]
The most recent statistics show that for every 100 juvenile
offenders leaving custody in 2007, 115.7 re-offences were committed.[220]
We were told that there is insufficient work in prisons and young
offender institutes to address offending behaviour. Frances Crook,
of the Howard League Penal Reform, gave us an example of one young
man they had represented:
Since he has been in prison he has had no treatment
at all and he has been in for four years. So if you think that
by sending people to prison they are going to get some kind of
therapy or response to their offending that is not the case. He
has lain on his bunk for four years and nothing has happened at
all … At best they may do a three-week or a six-week offending
behaviour course … I do accept that some people who have
committed very serious offences must go into custody but that
period in custody should be much more useful than it is at the
moment. I know that a lot of these young people will spend four,
six, ten years in custody and come out more dangerous, more violent
and more frightening than when they went in. [221]
DCS Carnochan argued that "when we speak about
mandatory sentencing, we should be thinking about mandatory intervention—that
would be much more effective."[222]
153. The Government's approach to custody is that
it is "first and foremost a punishment" but "alongside
this punishment we must give offenders a chance to reform and
change their behaviour".[223]
A Youth Justice Board study of effective interventions to reduce
re-offending notes a "high consensus" amongst evaluators
that programmes addressing offenders' ways of thinking and the
moral context of their thinking are "particularly promising".[224]
The Enhanced Thinking Skills programme, for example, was introduced
into prisons in the mid 1990s. It consists of 20 sessions run
over a period of four-six weeks. A randomised control trial carried
out in ten prisons to evaluate the programme found that adult
male offenders who completed it showed a significant reduction
in impulsivity (which research has linked with lower rates of
re-offending), a significant reduction in frequency of prison
security reports as well as improvement in attitudes to offending
and attention to the consequences of personal actions.[225]
We heard at first-hand the success of this kind of programme for
some offenders during a visit to Aylesbury Young Offenders' Institution.
154. As part of the Tackling Knives Action Programme,
the Youth Justice Board (YJB) set up a Knife Possession Prevention
Programme in twelve Youth Offending Teams in July 2008 to work
with 10-17 year olds who have been convicted of knife possession.
As with educational campaigns aimed at young people more widely,
the aim of the programme is to try and instil an understanding
of the consequences of carrying a knife in terms of the damage
that can be inflicted on victims, and the legal implications for
offenders. When we took evidence from the YJB in January 2009,
150 young people had been through the programme. Bob Ashford,
Acting Director of Strategy, said:
We know anecdotally … that some of the most
effective parts of that programme have been around the work of
victims' organisations and victims who have been describing to
young people what it feels like to be a victim. Again, anecdotally,
the other parts of the programme we know that have been positively
received are the kind of medical information that has been given
by primary care trusts to young people about the effect of stabbings,
wounding, et cetera, and the kind of damage they can do.[226]
Ministers told us that this scheme could include
elements of meeting the families of knife crime victims.[227]
155. Where offenders are given very short sentences,
there is insufficient time to address their behaviour. Evidence
shows that adults sentenced to less than twelve months in custody
are more likely to re-offend than those subject to longer periods.[228]
The Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne MP, argued
that "if short sentences are used, you find very high re-offending
rates; 92% for example for a first custodial sentence for young
men, and three-quarters for juveniles going into custody."[229]
156. The Government also aims to improve education
and employment opportunities for prisoners as another means of
reducing the likelihood of re-offending. More than half of prisoners
leave school with no qualifications, and a third with literacy
skills at the same level as or below those expected for an 11
year old child.[230]
Shaun Bailey, of MyGeneration, argued:
Absolutely you need to educate children in jail.
Jail is the one time that you as a government have the right and
the opportunity to compel young people to engage in education.
If you are a young person and you were in jail and you were not
doing your GCSEs I would lengthen your stay.[231]
157. We heard about the workshop in HMP Liverpool
run in partnership with the footwear company Timpsons, who train
prisoners in technical, repair and customer service skills then
seek to provide them with jobs within the company when they leave
prison. We were also made aware of the National Grid Transco scheme
in Reading prison, which offers training and employment opportunities
for people leaving custody: following the pilot, 70% of participants
subsequently found sustainable employment and only around 7% were
subsequently reported as re-offending.[232]
The Government has also opened a data cabling workshop at HMP
Wandsworth with Cisco, Panduit and Bovis Lend Lease and a tool
repair workshop at HMP Stocken in partnership with Travis Perkins.[233]
158. The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling MP,
told us that the Conservative Party have "quantified the
savings to be made if we can prevent somebody from re-offending"
and "put forward a proposal for a structure that would allow
governors to access that in partnership with independent organisations
on a payment by results basis to deliver much better rehabilitation
within prisons and after people have been in prison."[234]
Resettlement on release from
custody
159. One of the key factors contributing to the high
levels of recidivism is the number of offenders who do not have
a stable home or a job (or education establishment in the case
of young offenders) upon release. The odds of re-offending increased
by 43% for prisoners reporting both employment and accommodation
problems on release.[235]
The Rainer/RESET publication, The Business Case for Youth Resettlement,
identified the huge cost of ineffective resettlement.[236]
Chris Grayling MP argued that "we should make it a matter
of absolute routine that somebody who leaves prison without a
job to go to—and one assumes that is pretty much everybody—goes
straight onto a structured back to work programme of the kind
that we would offer across the welfare system for the longer-term
unemployed and of the kind that is used in other countries."[237]
The YJB argued:
When young people have been involved in offending
and have had community sentences, maybe even custody, actually
trying to re-engage those young people back into mainstream schools
or get them other educational provision can be extremely difficult,
and the whole issue is around resettlement. How you support young
people once they have gone through with their punishment and paid
the price for what they have done, how you support them back into
mainstream life is a big issue.[238]
160. The YJB has established a Resettlement and Aftercare
Programme in 50 youth offending team areas which provides 25 core
hours of support to access information and education, training
and employment, as well as peer and family support work and ongoing
access to substance misuse and mental health treatment.[239]
The YJB Chair, Frances Done, strongly advocated an increased focus
by local authorities on support for finding accommodation, getting
back into training, jobs, education, and personal mentoring "which
is so difficult to find [but] is equally important as anything
you do individually with a young person on first detention in
custody." Given its cost, this support should be targeted
at offenders "who are ready or in the frame of mind where
they may start to think seriously about not offending again".[240]
The Prince's Trust told us about a mentoring scheme they are running
in three prisons, which involves using former offenders who have
reformed themselves to meet young people at the prison gate and
support the transition process.[241]
161. While we advocate the use of custody for
violent knife offenders and some knife possessors, we are concerned
about high re-offending rates among both adult prisoners and young
offenders. Reducing re-offending is key to tackling violent crime
in the long-term. There is currently insufficient work in prisons
and young offender institutions to address offending behaviour.
Young offenders in particularly are likely to be impulsive and
not consider the consequences of their actions; evaluations of
cognitive behavioural programmes, such as Enhanced Thinking Skills,
appear to show positive results. We recommend that the Ministry
of Justice should expand provision so that more prisoners and
young offenders who are judged likely to benefit can participate
in such programmes.
162. We heard anecdotally that the Knife Possession
Prevention Programme run for all young people convicted of knife
possession in Tackling Knives Action Programme areas has had a
positive influence on their behaviour. We recommend that an evaluation
is carried out to measure re-offending rates and, if judged to
be a success, long-term funding for the programme is made available.
163. Improving literacy and skills can also reduce
the likelihood of re-offending. More than half of prisoners leave
school with no qualifications, and a third with literacy skills
at the same level as or below those expected for an 11 year old
child. We commend those private companies, such as Timpsons, National
Grid Transco, Cisco, Panduit and Bovis Lend Lease and Travis Perkins,
who are working with prisons to improve the employment prospects
of prisoners. The Government should consider offering incentives
for more companies to become involved in such partnerships. A
Ministry of Justice study found that odds of re-offending increased
by 43% for prisoners reporting both employment and accommodation
problems on release. We therefore also advocate increased resettlement
support targeted at prisoners who have demonstrated in prison
they are unlikely to re-offend.
Gang exit strategies
164. Without support, offenders may find it difficult
to fulfil any good intentions made in custody when they return
to their community. On the basis of the evidence she heard during
her research for Why Carry a Weapon?, prison governor Nicola
Marfleet questioned how effective interventions carried out in
prisons to address behaviour can be "where a juvenile returns
post-custody to the very culture that gave rise to and reinforced
their criminal actions". The four young offenders whom she
interviewed at Feltham all expressed a desire to stay out of trouble
on release but only one suggested that disengaging from "hanging
out on the streets" could be a way to ensure this.[242]
165. A former young offender told us that he was
only really able to change his behaviour pattern by moving away
from the area.[243]
However, this is not always easy. Kirk Dawes, a former police
officer who founded West Midlands Mediation and Transformation
Services [WMMTS] to resolve disputes between rival gang members
noted that:
They gravitate back. There is a lot of work going
on to relocate people and move them out of the gangs, but everything
they know is normally contained within the community. That is
why mediation, conflict management or conflict resolution should
be utilised; otherwise, they will go back to where they came from.
You actually deal with the issue.[244]
Conflict resolution
166. The processes used by WMMTS are influenced by
techniques used in Northern Ireland where people with a history
of extreme violence towards each other are persuaded to sit down
together with mediators and talk about their differences. Mediators
include a forensic psychologist, former gang members, firemen,
youth offending workers, probation officers and mothers who have
lost their children to violence. WMMTS mainly takes referrals
from the community: often gang members who are about to be released
from prison will phone to ask for help in resolving a conflict
with a rival gang member, for which they may have received a prison
sentence, but the underlying problem has not been resolved. As
well as taking referrals, through the Birmingham Reducing Gang
Violence Partnership the multi-agency public protection panel
uses intelligence from the public authorities and the community
to target gang members.
167. Kirk Dawes explained why the approach works.
Firstly, it has an advantage over police-led approaches in that
the service can act in response to rumour and innuendo rather
than waiting until actual violence has been committed. Secondly,
the mediators are able "to start the dialogue that [gang
members] will find difficult to have, or indeed cannot be seen
to have, and in that way we slow it down."[245]
Thirdly, they can create the conditions that means people have
a chance to get on with the positive aspects of their lives:
What we do is create the peace. If people go
back into education, training or employment they can put their
time into that rather than look over their shoulder or plan retaliation
and revenge.[246]
The 'Boston miracle'
168. We also took evidence from the Scottish Violence
Reduction Unit (VRU) on their gang exit strategy. The VRU employs
a tactic used successfully in Boston, USA—referred to as
the 'Boston miracle'—to combat gang crime in the 1990s:
gang members were offered the choice between support for finding
jobs and counselling or told they would face longer, harsher custodial
sentences. This contributed to a reduction in violent crime in
Boston of about 50% in two years.[247]
169. The VRU's Detective Chief Superintendent John
Carnochan described how they had gone about this in Glasgow in
the autumn of 2008. Strathclyde Police used intelligence to identify
all the gangs and gang members in the area and invite them to
a meeting with police officers, teachers, social workers and community
workers; 150 of the 220 invited turned up. There were a series
of presentations including from the Chief Constable, who made
the gang members aware of the extent of police knowledge about
them and how seriously they would be targeting them, Medics Against
Violence, who gave graphic accounts of the damage caused by violence,
former gang members, a mother whose son had been attacked and
life coaches. At the end, they were given a card with a phone
number on it and told to stand up if they were prepared to seek
help to change:
When he said, "Right, stand up", first
of all ten stood up and then maybe 15, and then 20. Every one
of them stood up except three and … In the afternoon we had
55 adults in … They all stood up. We had six young men in
from Polmont Prison who were in the dock with prison officers.
They would not leave until they had been given a card with a phone
number on it. They have already been on the phone saying, "I
get out in seven months. Will this still be here?" It will
be. Within the first four weeks 70 contacted us, and they are
now in programmes … It might be about education, it might
be about readiness for work, it might be about alcohol counselling,
drug counselling, it might be housing, it can be a whole range
of things. We have also set up a football tournament with 160
involved in it and yesterday morning my DCI, who is the project
manager, received a phone call from the sub-divisional officer,
who said, "I am just phoning you, Andy, to let you know,
I had no disturbance calls in Easterhouse over the weekend."
So we know it works … It is our ability to deliver it consistently
that is the challenge.[248]
170. We were also made aware of the Pathways initiatives
in London, intended to target violent offenders operating in street
gangs through the provision of direct support coupled with close
monitoring and police-led enforcement[249]
and the Safer Southwark Partnership's programme of home visits
to confront young people involved in or at risk of becoming involved
in gang activity, with their parents.[250]
During a previous inquiry, we had visited Manchester to hear about
the success of their Multi-Agency Gang Strategy in reducing gun
crime.
171. We were impressed with innovative gang exit
and violence reduction strategies employed in Strathclyde and
the West Midlands, which use different methods but share a multi-agency
approach and replicate good practice from the United States and
Northern Ireland respectively. We believe that local partnerships
are best placed to develop solutions tailored to the needs of
their communities, but recommend the establishment of a cross-departmental
unit at Government level, along the lines of the Scottish Violence
Reduction Unit, whose role is to oversee the work of partnerships
in this area and spread good practice.
Work with low-level offenders
and those at risk of offending
172. The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling MP,
argued that the system does not seek to intervene at the first
signs of trouble, which often occur in the form of anti-social
behaviour when young people start secondary school: there is "nothing
in between the problem and the criminal justice system."[251]
While it is true that young people have been increasingly criminalised
over the past decade, the Youth Justice Board gave evidence about
some of their interventions which take place prior to offending.
Firstly, they have established a police toolkit with the Association
of Chief Police Officers to identify, from intelligence held by
police, Youth Offending Teams and schools, young people who are
at risk and then draw together local organisations to assess the
risk posed by that young person and the type of intervention needed
to divert them from potential offending behaviour. In contrast
to the feedback we heard from Policy Exchange, the Youth Justice
Board argued that the ability of youth offending teams to do prevention
work has greatly increased recently.[252]
173. The Youth Justice Board has also developed a
range of initiatives with the Department for Children, Schools
and Families to try to prevent young people from offending. These
include youth inclusion programmes (YIPs), which were established
in 2000 for 8-17 year olds at risk of re-offending, future offending
or school exclusion. They were designed particularly to offer
intensive interventions to the 50 young people in the most deprived
communities in England and Wales who are most at risk of this
behaviour, but also offer activities open to all young people
in the area. The programme includes "positive activities
for young people, triage schemes to try to divert young people
in police custody suites, the increasing use of youth workers
in terms of outreach work out in the communities, obviously, where
young people are engaging in this kind of activity."[253]
174. Two fairly positive evaluations of YIPs have
been carried out. For example, evaluation of phase 2 of the programme,
which ran from 2003 to 2006, found that on average 82% of the
core 50 in each area had been engaged at some point. Although
YIPs struggled to maintain a high level of contact throughout
the programme, there was a decrease in average offending of 66%
for those who were engaged to any point (to put this in context,
rates for young people in general are expected to fall by 55%
regardless of intervention as many young people 'grow out' of
criminal behaviour). Furthermore, the average cost per young person
over the three years was only £1,641.[254]
A young witness who gave evidence with 11 MILLION described the
impact of a YIP:
What the YIP has done, it has done a lot for
the teenagers of Midland because it has taken them off the streets
and it has reduced the crimes that have been committed because
those teenagers have been taken off the street. By taking them
off, we have prevented—well not "we" but the YIP—a
burglary, a stabbing, any type of crime and with that moving we
can all see the crime rate shooting back up to large numbers again.[255]
175. We also took evidence from the Scout Association
about the beneficial impact of organised activity for young people
at risk of offending. While scout groups do not generally target
any specific group of young people, in Essex a group has been
running for about 13 years taking referrals from schools, social
services and projects working particularly with young people whose
parents are in prison and takes them away for weekend training,
which combines activities such as camping and rock climbing with
mentoring:
They are people who, when you look at other studies
about what the motivating factors for young people getting involved
in antisocial behaviour might be, have those factors. We have
anecdotal and tracking evidence that proves the difference that
it makes to those young people to have that moment where somebody
actually says, "You know what, you're worth something. We're
going to invest in you" … and it does work …
The first and foremost test for us is the young
people who want to come back. It is young people who perhaps you
would not think of wanting to be involved in these kinds of organisations
who clamour to come back, whose organisations write to us asking
for more spaces and for us to increase the number of kids that
we work with.[256]
176. Witnesses told us that Youth Inclusion Programmes
are helping the young people who are most at risk of offending
or school exclusion in deprived communities to stay out of trouble.
About half of teenagers "grow out" of crime, but an
evaluation showed that arrest rates for those who had engaged
with a YIP decreased by a further 10%. We were also impressed
by the comparatively low costs involved. We therefore recommend
that the Government continues to fund Youth Inclusion Programmes
as a means of reducing youth crime.
219 Ministry of Justice, Research Summary Five:
Factors linking to re-offending: a one-year follow-up to prisoners
who took part in the Resettlement Surveys 2001, 2003 and 2004,
October 2008 Back
220
Ministry of Justice, Re-offending of juveniles: results from
the 2007 cohort, England and Wales, May 2009 Back
221
Qq 296, 306 Back
222
Q 199 Back
223
Ministry of Justice, Punishment and Reform: Our Approach to
Managing Offenders, December 2008, Summary, p 8 Back
224
Youth Justice Board, Offending Behaviour Programmes: Source
Document, 2008, p 25 Back
225
Ministry of Justice, Evaluation of HM Prison Service Enhanced
Thinking Skills programme, March 2009 Back
226
Qq 173, 184 Back
227
Q 550 Back
228
Ministry of Justice, Research Summary Five: Factors linking
to re-offending: a one-year follow-up to prisoners who took part
in the Resettlement Surveys 2001, 2003 and 2004, October 2008 Back
229
Q 523 Back
230
Ministry of Justice, Punishment and Reform: Our Approach to
Managing Offenders, December 2008, Summary, p 8 Back
231
Q 327 Back
232
The Smith Institute, CSR in action: a review of the Young Offenders
Programme led by National Grid Transco, 2005 Back
233
Q 578; Ministry of Justice, Punishment and Reform: Our Approach
to Managing Offenders, December 2008, Summary, p 9 Back
234
Q 515 Back
235
Ministry of Justice, Research Summary Five: Factors linking
to re-offending: a one-year follow-up to prisoners who took part
in the Resettlement Surveys 2001, 2003 and 2004, October 2008 Back
236
Rainer/RESET, The Business Case for Youth Resettlement,
August 2007 Back
237
Q 516 Back
238
Q 172 Back
239
Youth Justice Board website, www.yjb.gov.uk, accessed 11 May 2009
Back
240
Q 181 Back
241
Q 293 Back
242
Nicola Marfleet, Why Carry a Weapon? A Study of Knife Crime
Amongst 15-17-Year Old Males in London (London: Howard League
for Penal Reform, 2008), p 79-82 Back
243
Q 284 [Witness 3, The Prince's Trust] Back
244
Q 425 Back
245
Q 412 Back
246
Q 419 Back
247
"Boston Miracle inspires UK's gang fight", BBC News
Online, 16 November 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk Back
248
Q 213 Back
249
Ev 131 Back
250
Ev 178 Back
251
Q 501 Back
252
Q 186 Back
253
Q 175 Back
254
Youth Justice Board, Evaluation of the youth justice programme:
phase 2, 2008, Summary, pp 8-10 Back
255
Q 359 Back
256
Qq 249-50 Back
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