Judge Justing rolling ten deep

DJ Philips, D and Liam, lists Clerk, 

 

 

 

 At 6' 2" in his stockinged feet, D completed his DRR order today, completely off heroin, reducing 5x5x5 Methadone, coming off cocaine, got himself on a training course learning painting and decorating, all in 15 months. Outcomes, not doublespeak and rhetoric. This was such a pleasure to be part of, human to human.

"Judge Juston saved my life," He said tearfully as he stood up to hug the District Judge with a 20% reduction in reoffending rate , one of the highest in any UK courtroom and certainly in any DRR treatment programme.

Keeping the main thing the main thing, out of the circle of punishment and control, profit lead criminalization and probation services cosying up with some not very nice prospective partners as more of their functions are privatised, after endless failures at cutting reoffending and addressing the root causes of crime. 


All in all a great week.  Pure justice at work. . 

"Human beings not human doings."

Short sentences. But let's not quibble over the language.

Short sentences do not work, and in fact create  situations which lead to further re-offending.

Judge warns 'short prison sentences lead to reoffending' A judge yesterday attacked short jail sentences designed to ease prison overcrowding warning that they create a “revolving door” of reoffenders. A judge has criticised short sentences, warning they lead to re-offending Photo: REX By Murray Wardrop Judge Anthony Goldstaub QC said he had little choice but to let a repeat burglar walk free from court because prison had failed to curb his o ffending. He said the case of David McKenzie, 37, was “a strong counter to the argument that prison works” because the alcoholic thief's previous jail sentences provided no rehabilitation. McKenzie, 37, instead escaped with an 18-month community order, although, as a third time convicted burglar, he could normally have expected a minimum sentence of three years in jail. The case threatens to inflame the row over the Government’s prisons strategy after David Cameron signalled an embarrassing U-turn on Kenneth Clarke’s plans to halve sentences for criminals who plead guilty. The Justice Secretary – who has also called for tougher community punishments rather than jail sentences – has faced demands by fellow Tory MPs to resign for damaging the Conservatives’ reputation as the party of law and order.

Unholy Alliances, but hey, whatever works.

Nick Clegg gets behind the Justice Secretary's working prisons proposals.
Unleashed from behind the Times paywall. Spelling mistakes theirs, not ours.

 

The bosses of Britain’s top companies are to be drafted in by Kenneth Clarke in an effort to get prisoners working in jail.

The Justice Secretary believes that inmates should be offered hard work to relieve the “stupefying boredom” in prisons throughout England and Wales.

The Confederation of British Industry and large UK firms are to join an advisory group to help develop constructive work opportunities for prisoners, giving offenders skills they can use when they are released.

A report by a leading think-tank published today provides support for Mr Clarke’s ambition but adds that the creation of a proper working week for prisoners should develop slowly if it is to be a success. The Policy Exchange recommends that thousands of inmates should be paid a new prison minimum wage of £3.10 an hour for an eight-hour day. Deductions would be made to a victims fund and towards helping released inmates resettle.

Almost three quarters of the public support expanding work opportunities using outside employers in jails, according to a YouGov poll conducted for the report.

But those questioned were more evenly divided on the issue of paying prisoners for their work. Just over half believed that they should be paid, but 41 per cent said that inmates should get nothing for prison employement.

Blair Gibbs, head of the crime and justice unit at Policy Exchange, said: “People expect prisoners to work in jail but under the current system no inmate is compelled to work and most do not choose to, meaning that they leave prison totally unprepared for working life.

“Creating a market for real work in prison where inmates are encouraged to replicate a full working week should reduce employment rates on release and cut reoffending rates. Real prison work is a long overdue justice reform that the public support.”

The report is published as Mr Clarke revises plans for sentence discounts of up to fifty per cent for early guilty pleas. He is expected to publish his revised overhaul of sentencing within the next ten days.

Mr Clarke said: “This survey shows overwhelming public support for our plans to expand real work in prisons. We will shortly announce the establishment of an advisory group, to include major UK firms and the CBI, to help encourage the growth of hard, constructive work in jail, in a way that does not disadvantage the law-abiding workforce.”

Part of Mr Clarke’s proposals include a drive to bring more outside firms into jails to provide skills and jobs to prisoners which will improve their chances of getting work on release.

In April Mr Clarke told The Times that he wanted more companies involved in providing employment opportunities in jails. He said they should have the opportunity to train and recruit among prisoners whose lives could be turned around so they could lead an honest life on being released.

Some firms are already providing employment in jails but Mr Clarke said they were reluctant to advertise their involvement because “newspapers write them up as ‘employing jail birds’”.

Among companies working in jails are Travis Perkins in Stocken prison, where inmates repair plant tool hire equipment, and ASD Lighting in Gartree jail, where inmates assemble components. Many other small firms have contracts with prisons but most of the work is general packing and assembly, recycling, textile finishing and laundry work.

The report said that only low-risk prisoners with at least two years of their sentence should initially be involved in real work employment. They should be tested to ensure they are free of drugs and have a reading age of 11 or above.

On this basis the report estimates that between 2,600 and 7,300 of the 60,000 sentenced adult male population would be ready and available for work.

The report suggests that some manufacturing or industrial work outsourced abroad could be carried out in prison.

Prisoners would make contributions to victims and their own future resettlement on release from their weekly wage. Take-home pay would be about £25 a week.

A quarter of the wage would go towards resettlement and their would also be deductions for tax and national insurance.

C'mon Dave, give it up and the ghost of Margaret Thatcher

"The Coalition is not the first centre-Right government to enter office promising to give power away. Back in the early 1970s, Ted Heath was elected offering to disperse control over the economy. Because of what came next, it is easy today to forget the radicalism of his so-called Selsdon agenda, which promised to set the market free. Yet, in office, without knowing how to make it happen, Heath soon lost his way. Buffeted by events, he U-turned, and ended up centralising control over the economy. It was left to the grocer’s daughter to deliver what the grocer had promised."

Bigger balls than most men.

from today's Telegraph by Douglas Carswell MP  and  Daniel Hannan  MEP

Another day another shortsighted politician whoring for votes

Douglas Carswell MP for the leafy suburb of Clacton criticizes the report by the highly respected Women's Justice Taskforce into the Sentencing Commission's Review. The report was welcomed by the normally conservative Magistrate's Association,  who said

"The Magistrates’ Association endorses the proposals in the final report of the Women’s Justice Taskforce. Magistrates applaud the work done by women’s centres and, where they are available and suitable, welcome alternatives to custody for vulnerable defendants or those who are sole carers for dependants, especially children. We note with approval the recommendation of increased provision of bail accommodation which would give viable alternatives in more instances to remands in custody."   

Their deputy chairman Malcolm Richardson stated

“We completely agree that provision is needed beyond the current centres, and would suggest as a matter of urgency that such provision is made available throughout the country to remove the unfairness of the full range of sentencing options being available in only some cases - effectively resulting in postcode sentencing”.

The report, which clearly Mr Carswell has not read, doesn't call on a blanket ban on custodial sentences for all women, but when politicians pander to the extremities of misogyny and retribution in a cheap attempt to garner votes from the hang'em, flog 'em, eat 'em for breakfast Daily Fail reading public, perhaps someone might take this young fresh-blooded bull by the horns and lock  him up for a couple of quiet, Twitter-less nights, in the recesses of HMP Wormwood Scrubs. He criticizes the Prison Reform Trust, perhaps the most respected charity in the field of criminal justice with cross-party support, for being a bunch of left wing loonies and *ironically* suggests we leave sentencing in their hands. Rather them than a right-wing-nut with no idea of what the public wants.*  Then tell us about how easy prison is. This from the man who makes no mystery of his contempt for the judiciary who are struggling to find alternatives for prison, because however you look at it, it is expensive and it doesn't work at over £56 000 a pop a year, that'll buy you a lot of camouflage, Dougie Ducks.
 

So out of touch with what people want,  but then doesn't really matter does it? It's the exclusive politics of the political elite, not as elected representatives of your constituency

*An  ICM poll, commissioned by SmartJustice, revealed that most people support alternatives to prison for non-violent offenders. 86% of 1,000 people polled were in favour of local centres for women where they could break addictions, receive mental health treatment, gain skills and get out of debt.

Men getting all bendy.

 
This is a guest post by  James Fox, the founder of Prison Yoga.

There are currently 7.3 million Americans under correctional supervision in the criminal justice system, 2.25 million warehoused in U.S. prisons. Prisons are located away from where the rest of us live, usually not where we can see them. Yes, out of sight, out of mind. We’re out of touch with the fact that huge numbers of us are behind bars. Usually it’s just families who care…and the remote locations of most prisons make it harder on families to reunite.
 
The U.S. criminal justice system is fundamentally about punishment. It’s retributive justice. Do the crime, do the time. Prisoners aren’t made to come face to face with their crimes, to take responsibility for damage they’ve done to their victims or themselves. On average it costs $29,000 a year to imprison an adult, $45,000 in New York, more in California. Yet prisoners are released with little rehabilitative improvement, social or life skills. It’s no wonder 67% of them re-offend in California (60% US average). We have to ask ourselves, after release, what kind of person do we want coming back into our communities? At the grocery store. In a restaurant. At the park?

We believe in restorative justice. Prison Yoga Project provides a cost-effective method of improving prisoner health and behavior. We believe in addressing the damage done and providing tools for self rehabilitation. We’ve helped hundreds of prisoners by instilling self-control and fostering accountability. While they’re ‘doing the time,’ we focus on violence prevention, impulse control, mood disorders, depression, despair, addiction and PTSD. Prisons are dumping grounds for people afflicted with trauma and addictions.
The need for yoga and mindfulness training in prisons is critical. There is an ever-growing and unmet demand for programs and the teachers who run them. These volunteers need special training to effectively deal with at-risk populations. And there are so many prisons we haven’t yet reached. At San Quentin alone there are waiting lists to enter the current program. As you can see from the prisoners’ own letters, one of the most important things this program does is to put free books into their hands. This takes money. And this says nothing about the need for office and other support and supplies. The list is long.

Thanks for believing, as we do, in the healing power of yoga and the worthiness of all human beings to receive this healing. We appreciate your support. If you need further information or wish to arrange a program in your community, please contact me directly at james@prisonyoga.com.

~ James Fox MA, Founder and Director, Prison Yoga Project

You must be the change you want to see in the world. ~ Mohandas Gandhi

Time to turn feminist Mr Justice Secretary? Theresa May get your Marigolds on.

More tosh ( nasty internal spinning from MoJ policy resistant wonks) about what The Justice Secretary is meant to have said about women and incarceration.

It doesn't tally at all with what he says privately, he conceeds women are "far more messed up than men" when they get to prison and the the prisons "don't know what to do with them". So how does that justify locking them up , when diversion sentences are more successful in cutting reoffending and clearly more cost-effective?

Released from behind the Times paywall.

Mary Bowers and Richard Ford

Last updated June 3 2011 12:01AM

 

Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, is set to reject calls to speed up the closure of women’s prisons, in a blow to penal reformers who want thousands of female offenders to be spared jail. He is also to ignore demands to appoint a “women’s justice champion” with the task of ensuring that the specific needs of female offenders are at the heart of his department’s work.

Mr Clarke’s rebuff to penal reformers will fuel their fears that women offenders are being marginalised in sentencing reforms to be outlined later this month.A report to be published next week is to call for far-reaching reform of justice, with a switch of emphasis away from imprisoning women to developing community-based alternatives.

But Mr Clarke’s insistence that there will be no swift moves to close women’s prisons and his robust response to penal reform groups will delight those Conservative MPs who believe he is soft on crime.
Cuts in police numbers, along with sentencing reforms intended to stabilise and then reduce the prison population, are provoking fears that the coalition is soft on law and order.

David Cameron will seek to reassure the public and his party that the Government has a tough approach to crime when he makes a speech on law and order later this month. He will speak shortly before Mr Clarke unveils proposals to overhaul sentencing, including plans to divert men and women suffering from mental health, drug and alcohol abuse away from the criminal justice system and to health facilities for treatment.
Penal reformers claim that thousands of female criminals currently jailed for non-violent crimes should not be sent to jail but punished in the community.

The latest figures show that just under 45 per cent of women sent to jail in 2009 were convicted of theft, fraud and forgery offences, compared with 21 per cent of men. Just 14 per cent of women jailed were convicted of violence against the person, compared with 21 per cent of men.

Andrew Neilson, assistant director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said that Mr Clarke could take steps to reduce the number of women in jail without alarming the public.

“He could target this area as a way of reducing the prison population. Cutting the number of women in prison is much easier to sell to the public than men, particularly as so many women are in prison for non-violent crimes.”

Penal reform groups believe that the momentum for reforming the way women are dealt with in the justice system has slowed since Labour lost the general election. Under Labour, there was a female prisons minister who also championed women’s justice.

There are also fears over the future funding for a network of pioneering centres set up to help overhaul the way female offenders are treated. They were seen as the core element of a strategy to keep women out of prison and able to remain in their communities.

The Government gave £15.6 million over four years to trial centres around the country when they were piloted in 2007. Last month, the Government added £1.7 million to the £1.5 million provided by charities to ensure the survival of 26 centres, after fears that several were facing closure.

Crispin Blunt, the Prisons Minister, made clear that the Justice Ministry contribution was a “one-off” and there are fears that charities will be unwilling or unable to bear the financial burden of keeping the centres open.
Early findings from the centres suggest that they have a better record of turning women away from a life of crime. Anawim centre in Birmingham reported last year that 3 per cent of women using the unit had reoffended, compared to 54 per cent of those in jail.

The centres also represent a much cheaper and more effective way of dealing with female offenders. It costs, on average, about £54,000 to keep a woman in prison for a year compared with between £10,000-15,000 for a community order.

A Ministry of Justice official said last night that the Government remained committed to developing policies addressing the particular needs of women offenders.

Corston? What Corston?

Such promise after the findings of the Corston Report, which the coalition government has decided to ignore.  It wouldn't be so bad, if they had an alternative agenda, but the longer the White Paper to Breaking the Cycle is delayed ( After the Health Reform Bill listening excercise, some time late summer) , the longer women are locked up unfairly and with devastating consequences. The cost of locking up one woman for one year, in related court, police, housing, welfare and other societal costs over ten years exceeds £10million.

Get your cheque books out, then. This round's on you, Mr Taxpayer.


When will they DO something?

Baroness Jean Corston

Judge Justin and Justice that works

His special pilot drug court boasts a 20% re-ffending rate, 1/3 of the national average. He'd rather hug a druggie and apply some structure, programmes and accountibility to his life than chuck him a jail sentence.

"According to figures supplied by the judge - who is patron of an anti-drug charity and serves on the Council on Misuse of Drugs - an average 60 per cent of his 'clients' did not reoffend while under the court order and 20 per cent became drug-free. The National Drug Treatment Agency's average is just three per cent."

Soft? No. Sensible? Oh yes.

 Hugging druggies

THE TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE SLEEPING

In spite of lots of promises and a wad of cash from the Justice Secretary and the Minster for Health, Andrew Lansley,  who signed up to divert mentally ill patients from the criminal justice system for proper health care to meet complex diagnosis, it appears, in that same old time-honoured fashion, not much is happening on the ground.

It took the tragic death of a son of a member of the Women's Institute to bring about this awareness.
How many more deaths is it going to take to actually do something about it? This isn't justice this is barbarism and didn't Hitler do something similar?

.Mentally ill treated like criminals