House of Commons Justice Committee Cutting crime: the case for justice reinvestment First Report of Session 2009–10 Volume I EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY Not to be published in full, or in part, in any form before 0001 am on Thursday 14 January 2010 HC 94-I House of Commons Justice Committee Cutting crime: the case for justice reinvestment First Report of Session 2009–10 Volume I Report, together with formal minutes Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 1 December 2009 EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY Not to be published in full, or in part, in any form before 0001 am on Thursday 14 January 2010 HC 94-I Published on 14 January 2010 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY Not to be published in full, or in part, in any form before 0001 am on Thursday 14 January 2010 The Justice Committee The Justice Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Ministry of Justice and its associated public bodies (including the work of staff provided for the administrative work of courts and tribunals, but excluding consideration of individual cases and appointments, and excluding the work of the Scotland and Wales Offices and of the Advocate General for Scotland); and administration and expenditure of the Attorney General's Office, the Treasury Solicitor's Department, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office (but excluding individual cases and appointments and advice given within government by Law Officers). Current membership Rt Hon Sir Alan Beith MP (Liberal Democrat, Berwick-upon-Tweed) (Chairman) David Heath MP (Liberal Democrat, Somerton and Frome) Rt Hon Douglas Hogg MP (Conservative, Sleaford and North Hykeham) Siân James MP (Labour, Swansea East) Jessica Morden MP (Labour, Newport East) Julie Morgan MP (Labour, Cardiff North) Rt Hon Alun Michael MP (Labour and Co-operative, Cardiff South and Penarth) Robert Neill MP (Conservative, Bromley and Chislehurst) Dr Nick Palmer MP (Labour, Broxtowe) Linda Riordan MP (Labour and Co-operative, Halifax) Virendra Sharma MP (Labour, Ealing Southall) Andrew Turner MP (Conservative, Isle of Wight) Andrew Tyrie MP (Conservative, Chichester) Dr Alan Whitehead MP (Labour, Southampton Test) Powers The committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the internet at www.parliament.uk/justicecom Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Fergus Reid (Clerk); Dr Sarah Thatcher (Second Clerk); Gemma Buckland (Committee Specialist); Hannah Stewart (Committee Legal Specialist); Ana Ferreira (Senior Committee Assistant); Sonia Draper (Committee Assistant); Henry Ayi-Hyde (Committee Support Assistant); and Jessica Bridges-Palmer (Committee Media Officer). Contacts Correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Justice Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 8196 and the email address is [email protected] EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY Cutting crime: the case for justice reinvestment 1 Not to be published in full, or in part, in any form before 0001 am on Thursday 14 January 2010 Contents Report Page Summary 5 Conclusions and recommendations 9 1 Introduction 23 Justice reinvestment 25 Conduct of the inquiry 27 2 Background 28 Recent relevant reports 28 Government policies 29 Use of custody 32 Developments in Scotland 34 Titan Prisons 34 The Sentencing Council and the Coroners and Justice Act 38 Reform of the governance of the criminal justice system 39 Building mainstream provision to reduce crime and re-offending 41 Governance 42 3 The sustainability of the current system 44 Expenditure on prisons and probation 44 The National Offender Management Service 44 Efficiency savings 45 The impact on capacity 46 The capacity of the courts 47 The capacity of prisons 48 The capacity of probation 49 The capacity of youth offending teams 52 Costs of system expansion 53 Effectiveness of prison and probation programmes in reducing crime 55 Cost-effectiveness and social impact of the current system 60 4 Balance between punishment and reform 68 Weaknesses in the capacity of the system 72 Potentially rehabilitative measures not yet implemented 73 Implementing the 2003 restorative justice strategy 73 Community prisons 74 Reform of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 75 Slow progress reform for particular groups of offenders 76 Progress on the Corston and Bradley reports 76 Alternatives for short-sentenced prisoners 78 More appropriate provision for young adult offenders 81 Coherence of criminal justice policy 81 Placing victims at the heart of the system means working to reform offenders 82 2 Cutting crime: the case for justice reinvestment EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY Not to be published in full, or in part, in any form before 0001 am on Thursday 14 January 2010 Mainstream provision to reduce crime and re-offending 85 Integrated crime reduction and reducing re-offending strategies 85 Cross-departmental accountability 87 Capacity to prioritise resources 88 5 Drivers of system expansion 91 The ‘politics’ of criminal justice policy 92 Public opinion, politics and the media 94 Public demand 94 Public priorities for criminal justice 96 The role of the media in shaping public opinion 98 Building a political consensus 102 6 Blueprint for the future: justice reinvestment 107 Introduction 107 Justice reinvestment in England and Wales 108 Support for a more rational use of resources 108 Devolution of funding 108 Localised approaches which benefit victims and communities 110 Regional and local structures to facilitate reinvestment 112 Integrated Offender Management 114 Building on existing initiatives 116 The four stages of justice reinvestment 117 Stage 1: Justice mapping 117 Strengthening the methodology for local strategic planning 119 The value of justice mapping 121 Stage 2: Devising options for policy makers 126 Identifying the policymakers 126 A mechanism for generating options for policy-makers 128 Healthcare experience of linking policy and resources 128 The quality of research evidence on cost-effectiveness 129 Applying the evidence to reduce the expansion of the criminal justice system131 Strengthening the evidence base 133 Building capacity for policy-makers to use evidence 135 Stage 3: Quantify savings and reinvest in select high-stakes communities 137 Shifting resources to facilitate reinvestment at national level 137 Existing mechanisms for reallocating resources at local level 140 Performance incentives 140 Devolution of funding to local authorities 144 Creating financial incentives for reinvestment 147 New local structures 152 Stage 4: Measuring the impact of justice reinvestment approaches 153 Existing performance measures 154 More sophisticated measures to assess outcomes 155 Financing alternative schemes 158 7 Other components of a more sustainable justice system 159 Engagement with the public 159 EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY Cutting crime: the case for justice reinvestment 3 Not to be published in full, or in part, in any form before 0001 am on Thursday 14 January 2010 A national debate on spending on criminal justice 159 Challenging the media reporting of criminal justice policy 161 Building public confidence in the system 162 Public ownership of local problems 164 Community engagement in commissioning 166 Public understanding of the costs of imprisonment 168 Sentencing and Resources 169 The Sentencing Guidelines Council and Sentencing Advisory Panel 169 The Sentencing Council 170 Challenges for the Sentencing Council 171 Promoting ‘what works’ in sentencing 171 Shortcomings in the data on sentencing 173 Promoting cost-effective sentencing 174 Locally responsive sentencing 177 Promoting the confidence of magistrates and judges in community sentences179 Investment in making prison ‘work’ 182 Investment in community provision to reduce crime 185 The relationship between local criminal justice boards, crime and disorder reduction partnerships and local strategic partnerships, and their component agencies. 188 Annex 1: Implementing the reducing re-offending agenda 182 Annex 2: Local performance frameworks 188 Annex 3: Glossary of terms 190 Annex 4: Justice Reinvestment e-consultation 194 Annex 5: Quick reference guide to witnesses for oral evidence and others quoted in the Report 220 Formal Minutes 222 Witnesses (page numbers refer to Vol II) 223 List of written evidence 226 Reports from the Justice Committee since Session 2007–08 227 EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY Cutting crime: the case for justice reinvestment 5 Not to be published in full, or in part, in any form before 0001 am on Thursday 14 January 2010 Summary We decided to undertake an inquiry into “justice reinvestment”, because of three linked issues. First, the criminal justice system is a complex network of agencies with substantial public funding operating under increasing pressure but the different parts of the system do not seem to be pursuing the same goals or making cogent contributions to an agreed overarching purpose. Secondly, the Government’s main answer to the current over- crowding of prisons and the predicted rise in the prison population—already at a record high—is to provide more prison places