Criminal Justice System & Offender Services
The English and Welsh criminal justice system is currently embarking upon key reforms which will bring into being a . A Ministry of Justice is to be established which will over the staff and responsibilities of the Department for Constitutional Affairs, and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), including the prison and probation services, and it will have lead responsibility for criminal law and sentencing.
This section contains local performance reports, designed for local practitioners to identify progress made against targets in their area and support service improvement. For information on your local group, please click on your area. |
The archaic appearance of the formal judicial process in the UK clearly does not help it appear 'of the now' and the often quoted pronouncements of learned judges (of the 'what is an IPod' variety) does not help improve the image of the system of justice. Some recent research (Explaining Attitudes toward the Justice System in the UK and Europe) seems to indicate that there is a greater link than perhaps expected between attitudes toward the state and toward the criminal justice system of that state - so basically an out of touch CJS impacts on our attitudes to other state structures
A Shaky Start to Combined Offender Management
The combining of the English and Welsh Prison Services and Probation Services in the mid 200's was a radical step. The aim was to bring together 'the management of offenders' into one seamless service providing a consistent response to offenders needs throught their journey through the penal system.
However, although from a criminal justice management point of view there is a logic to this approach the 'journey ' is not in fact a logical progression (you start at one end - the commission of an offence and you finish up at the other end - receiving a court penalty) but a series of complex patterns and processes (a bit like the children's game of snakes and ladders - where logic combines with chance).
The foundations of the probations service and of the prison service are clearly different. The probation service, for most of its 100 years of existence has been a court based offender rehabilitation service; providing the social welfare and community sentence supervision services. Whereas the prison service has always had a dual function providing a locally based 'lock up' service for 'misdemeanors' and providing a holding and longer term incarceration service for 'felons'.
In more recent times the Probation Service has been directed to move 'up tariff'; to work with more serious and to adopt a more offender management enforcement role. In practice linking it closer to the needs of the prison service. By taking on the roles of parole officers and also prison welfare officers in the 1970's and more recently a role more akin to the US Federal Probation Service in terms of strict enforcement work with higher risk criminals, much of the 'advise, assist and befriend' offender supervision function of the earlier probation service has had to give way.
Centralisation - moving away from local crime and justice solutions
Since the establishment of th National Offender Management Service (NOMS) there has been a gradual move toward centralising the services and commissioning them via a new regional management service. This in turn has supported a new way of diversifying the provision of services via contestability.
This transition continues with the Offender Management Act 2007.The new arrangements for the provision of probation services contained in the Act takes from regional Probation Boards the statutory duty for making arrangements for probation services and places this duty with the Secretary of State; who will contract with providers to deliver these services.
The Act enables the creation of new public sector bodies, probation trusts, with whom the Secretary of State may contract, alongside providers from the voluntary, charitable and private sectors. The Act also contains a number of other provisions relating to the management of offenders sentenced to custody.
Currently, Autumn 2007, there appears to be moves afoot to deconstruct the overarching agency that manages both the probation and prison services. According to an article published in the Observer newspaper (Multibillion 'shambolic' penal agency to be axed) Ursula Brennan, a senior civil servant, wrote a report for the Ministry of Justice recommending that the agency be broken up and incorporated into the Ministry. If this is the case it will have a major impact both on the operation of the current agency (what is a Regional Offender Manager) and the implementation of the Offender Management Act.
Ministry of Justice - NOMS/Prison Service Business Plan
In 2008 the Justice Secretary announced the publication of an Agency Framework Document for the National Offender Management Service – an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice responsible for delivering adult offender management services in custody and in the community across England and Wales.
The Strategic and Business Plans 2009-10 to 2010-11 sets out the Agency’s agreed strategic priorities for the period 2009 to 2011 and explains how the Agency will work to deliver them to improve offender services. Two elements of the Agency’s approach are to develop more streamlined systems and structures and to maximise the use of commissioning to give a local focus to work, with processes that are benchmarked and tested by competition.
These plans build upon the Government’s previous offender management reform programme.
National Offender Management Service Commissioning Model
Commissioning is an activity the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) undertakes nationally, regionally and locally on behalf of the Secretary of State for Justice. They contract nationally for services which are highly specialised (such as the High Security Prison Estate) or benefit from economies of scale at this level.
The Regional Offender Manager or ROM (as Regional Commissioner acting on behalf of the Secretary of State), contracts or holds service level agreementswith providers for the delivery of:
- Public protection
- Offender Management
- Custodial places
- Interventions with offenders serving sentences in custody, the community or both
In addition the ROM is responsible for aligning priorities and resources with other commissioners of services for offenders through joint commissioning for offender health, drugs, alcohol and learning and skills and for supporting partnership activities with other stakeholders from all three sectors in particular through the Regional Reducing Re-offending Partnership Board.
Providers to the ROM focus on the sub-regional and local delivery of public protection, offender management and supervision (including custodial places), 'but increasingly will be expected to compete and sub-contract much of their interventions work to other providers in all three sectors based on what is most effective, and who is best placed to deliver, in their location (i.e. local commissioning)'.
The providers must work closely with each other and with other regional commissioners of services for offenders (e.g. Primary Care Trusts, the Learning and Skills Council and Drug Action and Alcohol Teams) and their providers to improve outcomes for offenders, victims and communities. They must also seek to improve outcomes through engagement in wider partnership structures in their localities such as through Local Criminal Justice Boards (LCJBs), Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), Local Safeguarding Children Boards(LSCBs), Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) and Local Area Agreements (LAAs).
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Criminal Justice (General) Links
Further Reading
Home page for the English and Welsh criminal justice agencies and services. It includes information for legal practitioners and the public, including a virtual tour of a crown court and statistics on crime trends, prevention, reduction and victims.
Home page for the Scottish Criminal Justice System.
Criminal Justice System of Northern Ireland
Home Page for the Criminal Justice System Northern Ireland.
Local Criminal Justice Board effectivenessA national survey of effective performance management and the performance of Local Criminal Justice Boards summarizing the findings from an investigation into the characteristics associated with high performing Local Criminal Justice Boards.
United States Department of Justice
The U.S. Department of Justice home page provides access to information on law enforcement, and public protection.
Offender Management Service Links National Offender Management Service : Home Office
The Home Office's National Offender Management Service website linking the management of the prison service to the probation service and identifying the central government management services for regional offender managment 'delivery'.
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