Summary

Crime can be reduced through rigorous sentences served in the community. With the right investment, intensive community sentences can succeed where short prison sentences fail. As well as reducing offending, they can ease pressure on prison places. Currently they fall way short of their potential and there has been a dramatic drop in their use. At the same time, prisons, at 99% of operational capacity, are in effect completely full.

The Government acknowledges the critical prison situation, and it is getting worse. We for our part acknowledge the enormity of the challenge it faces.

The use of sentences served in the community has more than halved over recent years. An effective community order can help turn round the life of an offender, providing both treatment and punishment, but the support that is needed is not widely enough provided, or indeed available.

There is an untapped potential for keeping offenders out of prison and supporting them to avoid reoffending. The scope for effective results needs to be better understood, and the good work in the system should be expanded. This needs commitment to increased funding.

In this report, we set out our proposals for making the most out of them.

We looked for the best rehabilitative services (treatment for addictions and mental ill health, tailored to the individual) that, more widely available, would provide a pathway to rehabilitation. The wraparound support offered to female offenders, recognising their circumstances, has proved its effectiveness (Women’s Centres can cut reoffending to 5% against a national average of 23%1). It should be a model for probation services generally.

Youth Offending Services are also said to incorporate good practice when it comes to the supervision of offenders in the community. They are empowered by local partnerships and communicate effectively with young offenders. The adult probation population would benefit from the same approach.

Further investment in treatment places is required. The need for mental health, and alcohol and drug treatment far exceeds the current rate of imposition of Community Sentence Treatment Requirements, which itself exceeds the availability of treatment. 38% of people on probation (c. 91,000 people at any point in time) have mental health issues, but only 1,302 of them started mental health treatment as part of a community sentence in 2022.2 The inclusion of drug treatment requirements has more than halved over ten years. Current efforts to increase the availability of treatment services should be sustained and extended.

Incentives should be created to encourage low-level, repeat offenders to engage with rehabilitation. The approach which underpins Ireland’s ‘integrated’ Community Service Order is a helpful model. Mentoring offered to offenders provides guidance towards a life away from crime.

We also looked at best practices in how these services are delivered. When services are provided locally, various agencies can cooperate effectively. The co-location and co-commissioning of services are the gold standard.

Greater trust should be placed by the Probation Service in the expert and experienced third sector organisations who provide treatment. The forthcoming commissioning process should be the opportunity for bringing in a greater number of providers, longer contracts, more funding, and partnership working.

The potential of community sentences will not be maximised until the Probation Service is fully functional. It has faced many changes in recent years, including the privatisation and renationalisation of part of its work through the ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ reforms. Caseloads are unmanageable and job satisfaction is low. The Probation Service is unable to produce essential Pre-Sentence Reports (PSRs)—without which community sentences are rarely imposed—in a consistent manner and on the scale required (the number of ‘standard’ PSRs, the full form, fell by 92.7% between Q2 2012 and Q1 20233). For these issues to be addressed, the recruitment and training of new probation staff should be sustained until vacancies are filled by appropriately trained officers.

Every year, thousands of people are sentenced to short spells in prison, serving terms of less than 12 months that fuel their offending behaviour. Having acknowledged the issue, the Government has plans for changes in sentencing: many of these offenders could serve their sentences in the community instead.

Community sentences improved and used more widely, would ease pressure on the prison estate and are valuable in themselves. We detail our conclusions and recommendations in the pages that follow.