PSO 4615 - Prolific and Other Priority Offenders Strategy

PROLIFIC AND OTHER PRIORITY OFFENDERS

This instruction applies to :- Reference :-

Prison establishments PSI 12 / 2010

Issue Date Effective Date Expiry Date Implementation date 12 February 2010 15 February 2010 31 January 2014 Issued on the authority of NOMS Agency Board

For action by Governors (including Directors of Contracted out Prisons) Offender Management Unit staff For information All Prison staff

Contact Stephen Robertson 020 72170700 [email protected]

Associated documents PSO 4615, National PPO strategy

Audit/monitoring : Governors, Regional Managers Custodial Services and Offender Assessment and Management Group NOMS Introduces amendments to PSO 4615 Prolific and other Priority Offenders Page 1

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

This Prison Service Instruction (PSI) sets out the operational policy framework for prison establishments in delivering their contribution to the national Prolific and other Priority Offenders (PPO) strategy.

The PPO strategy mandates local crime and disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs) in England and community safety partnerships (CSPs) in Wales to concentrate resources on the small proportion of offenders whose volume of offending has caused significant impact in their local community. This cohort of offenders can have a variety of contact with the criminal justice system, including offenders under no statutory supervision, those serving community sentences and those serving custodial sentences, including those serving less than 12 months. This PSO relates to those PPOs serving custodial sentences.

DESIRED OUTCOME

 To reduce the reoffending of PPOs

SUMMARY OF MAIN CHANGES

 PPOs to be allocated an offender supervisor within three days (mandatory action)

 The removal of the instruction relating to the PPO clearing house

 Improved establishment liaison details (mandatory action)

 Those likely to be in custody for 2 years or more should be considered for de- selection from the PPO scheme

 Improved information sharing requirements between agencies

Please note that the mandatory actions have been numbered to reflect the sections in the main body of the document.

(signed)

Michael Spurr Chief Operating Officer, NOMS

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SECTION TITLE APPLICABLE TO

- MANDATORY ACTIONS Offender Management Unit staff

1 NOTIFICATION OF PPOs TO ESTABLISHMENTS All staff

2 FLAGGING AND TRACKING PPOS All staff

3 ASSESSMENT, MANAGEMENT & INTERVENTION Offender Management Unit staff

4 PRIORITISING PPOS FOR INTERVENTIONS Offender Management Unit staff

5 EFFECTIVE LIAISON AND INTELLIGENCE Heads of Offender SHARING Management Units

Annex A OUTLINE OF THE PROLIFIC AND OTHER All staff PRIORITY OFFENDERS (PPO) PROGRAMME

MANDATORY ACTIONS

On reception

1.1 Where an establishment believes a prisoner to be a PPO and where the Prisoner Escort Record (PER) or warrant does not indicate this, the establishment must refer back to the relevant designated home police basic command unit (BCU) contact to confirm PPO status.

1.2 Each PPO entering the establishment must be allocated an offender supervisor within three working days of reception.

During sentence

2.1 Establishments must ensure that all PPOs are tracked throughout their sentence and that this information is consistently available to appropriate partner agencies such as the police and probation services.

2.2 Establishments must ensure that once transfer arrangements are made that the receiving establishment is aware of the PPO status.

2.3 Establishments must continue with current methods of flagging PPOs with the use of either the local inmate database system (LIDS) or P Nomis*.

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LIDS contains a PPO flag and P Nomis contains a PPO alert. On receipt of information, from whatever source, that a prisoner is a PPO, the LIDS or P Nomis record must be updated to flag the prisoner as a PPO.

2.4 Where known, the reception and discharge address must be entered onto LIDS or P Nomis, and all details of village, town and metropolitan borough must be included. For prisoners who are ‘NFA’** on reception, the town and county fields must be completed using the committal court as the proxy address.

2.5 Establishments must also ensure that transfer of PPOs must only be considered to put sentence plans into effect.

Section 3 – Assessment & Management 3.1 PPOs serving over 12 months in custody will be managed under phase two of the Offender Management Model.

3.2 OASys is the main tool for assessing PPOs serving over 12 months in custody for further interventions. An OASys assessment will be completed by the offender manager in the community for all PPOs who have a standard delivery report (SDR). Prison establishments must support this process and communicate appropriately with the offender manager in all aspects regarding OASys input.

Section 4 - Prioritising PPOS For Interventions 4.1 Any PPO identified as a problematic drug user (PDU) must be prioritised, with consent, for a CARATs substance misuse triage assessment (SMTA).

4.2 PPOs must also be prioritised for other interventions in custody that will contribute towards their rehabilitation, including those relating to protective factors such as housing and employment.

Section 5 - Effective Liaison and Intelligence-Sharing 5.1 All establishments must provide the contact details of two key individuals who will act as a point of contact for several agencies/personnel:

 the relevant PPO scheme  probation service colleagues  the relevant police basic command units (BCU)  others as necessary and appropriate

These liaison points will normally be from the offender management function within the establishment. One will be the PPO ‘single point of contact’ (SpoC). The other must be a member of the senior management team.

* As you are aware LIDS will be replaced by P-Nomis, the new system still allows users to apply a “PPO case alert” under alert type “other”

** The ability to check the NFA box within P-Nomis will still allow the staff to enter town and county information using the committal court as the proxy address

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In particular, the PPO liaison staff must:

 inform the designated home police BCU contact (normally by email), on the first occasion on which an establishment becomes aware of a PPO in custody, providing the name of the prisoner, the name of the prison, and the liaison email address and telephone number. The same process must be followed if a flagged PPO arrives in prison on transfer from another prison

The establishment must:

 provide the police with intelligence gathered on a PPO while in prison (for example information about criminal contacts which may have been maintained while the PPO has been in prison, or offending during sentence). This information must be provided through the normal police liaison officer network, using the appropriate security information report (SIR) system.

Approaching release

5.2 Establishments must be ready to facilitate the involvement of resettlement in-reach teams from the home locality of PPOs. If a prisoner has been moved away from their home locality, the holding establishment must aim to return them to an appropriate local prison eight weeks before release.

5.3 Each establishment holding PPOs must make arrangements to notify the home BCU, and local PPO schemes (and, in licence cases, the probation service) at least 28 days before the prisoner’s release. If the prisoner is likely to be released early on HDC or ECL, or has a very short sentence that means they serve less than 28 days in custody, the possible release date must also be notified.

5.4 As a further precaution, the BCU and local PPO scheme must also be notified the day before the prisoner is actually released.

5.5 The offender supervisor, in relevant cases, must liaise with the offender manager to ensure that appropriate extra licence conditions have been considered (i.e. for offenders serving 12 months or more).

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THE ROLE OF PRISON ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE PPO PROGRAMME

SECTION 1 - NOTIFICATION OF PPOs TO ESTABLISHMENTS

PPO schemes are locally based and, wherever possible, PPOs will be notified to establishments by local agencies.

1.1 Where an establishment believes a prisoner to be a PPO and where the PER or warrant does not indicate this, the establishment must refer back to the relevant designated home police basic command unit (BCU) contact to confirm PPO status.

1.2 Each PPO entering the establishment must be allocated an offender supervisor within three working days of reception.

SECTION 2 - FLAGGING AND TRACKING PPOS

2.1 Establishments must ensure that all PPOs are tracked throughout their sentence and that this information is consistently available to appropriate partnership agencies such as the police and probation service.

2.2 Establishments must ensure that once transfer arrangements are made that the receiving establishment is aware of the PPO status.

2.3 Establishments must continue with current methods of flagging PPOs with the use of either the local inmate database system (LIDS) or P Nomis. LIDS contains a PPO flag and P Nomis contains a PPO alert. On receipt of information, from whatever source, that a prisoner is a PPO, the LIDS or P Nomis record must be updated to flag the prisoner as a PPO.

2.4 Where known, the reception and discharge address must be entered onto LIDS or P Nomis, and all details of village, town and metropolitan borough must be included. For prisoners who are ‘NFA’ on reception, the town and county fields must be completed using the committal court as the proxy address.

2.5 Establishments must also ensure that transfer of PPOs must not be conducted unless it is to put sentence plans into effect.

Establishments will need to consider that transferring PPOs to other prisons should be completed so that the offender can access the interventions specified in their respective sentence plans. Population pressures and issues of security may have an obvious impact on this particular mandatory action.

SECTION 3 – ASSESSMENT & MANAGEMENT

The Offender Management Model and PPOs

3.1 PPOs serving over 12 months in custody will be managed under phase two of the Offender Management Model.

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For those PPOs without a recent OASys assessment who are serving over 12 months in custody, the offender manager must compete or update an OASys assessment in order to create an initial sentence plan (ISP) within 8 weeks of sentence for those with less than two years to serve to release or within 16 weeks of sentence for offenders with two years or more left to serve to release.

Assessing and managing PPOs not subject to the Offender Management Model

73% of custodial sentences given to PPOs since 1 September 2004 have been of less than 12 months. Therefore, the majority of PPOs on entering prison are not subject to the offender management model. Nonetheless, PPO schemes in the community retain oversight of those PPOs while in custody.

It is also important to facilitate the timely and proper notification to community-based PPO schemes of the release dates and release arrangements, especially any early release (see section 5) to minimise disruption to any treatment plan.

SECTION 4 - PRIORITISING PPOS FOR INTERVENTIONS

Offenders are selected for interventions on the basis of their risk and need. OASys data analysis indicates that PPOs have both a wider range of needs and more intense needs than the general offending population. These can include education, housing, drug treatment services and offending behaviour programmes. The needs of PPOs serving over 12 months must be identified on the OASys assessment.

Guidance on the criteria for assessing suitability and prioritising prisoners for interventions has been issued to establishments. A degree of discretion should be exercised, however, to ensure that priorities are not unduly distorted. For example, if a seriously violent offender is awaiting a place on an offending behaviour programme, he/she should not be displaced by a PPO.

Given the short length of time that most PPOs will spend in establishments, significant intervention is unrealistic. Given the prevalence of substance misuse needs of this offending group, however, it is important to consider referral and assessment to CARAT teams, and the maintenance of substance misuse treatment and support on release. 68% of PPOs with an OASys assessment (July 2007-June 2008) were identified as having a drug misuse problem. We know that the under-12 month PPO population has a similar level of substance misuse.

4.1 Any PPO identified as a problematic drug user (PDU) must be prioritised, with consent, for a CARATs substance misuse triage assessment (SMTA).

This could lead on to a comprehensive substance misuse assessment and care plan, including release planning, which could include referral to the Criminal justice interventions

PSI 12/2010 Issued 12/02/2010 Page 7 team (CJIT). The care plan will identify any treatment needs – which should be prioritised – such as CARAT psychosocial interventions, short-duration programmes and other intensive drug treatment programmes; in addition, access to compact-based drug-testing services should be prioritised. This must be with the offenders consent and the treatment given should be in accordance with the National Treatment Agency models of care and appropriate to the offender level of needs.

Clinical treatment needs should be referred to healthcare in the usual manner.

4.2 PPOs must also be prioritised for other interventions in custody that will contribute towards their rehabilitation, including those relating to protective factors such as housing and employment.

SECTION 5 - EFFECTIVE LIAISON AND INTELLIGENCE-SHARING

Information sharing is a vital component to the success that PPO schemes have in reducing crime, and therefore plays an integral part in the Prison Service’s involvement. Regardless of sentence length, accurate and timely information sharing between prison and other agencies about PPOs is vital to protect the public and to support rehabilitation. This is particularly crucial prior to release.

5.1 All establishments must provide the contact details of two key individuals who will act as a point of contact for several agencies/personnel:

 local PPO schemes  probation service colleagues  offender managers  local police basic command units (BCU)  others as directed

These liaison points will normally be from the offender management function within the establishment. One will be the PPO ‘single point of contact’ (SPoC). The other must be a member of the senior management team.

In particular, the PPO liaison staff must:

 inform the designated home police BCU (normally by email), on the first occasion on which an establishment becomes aware of a PPO in custody, providing the name of the prisoner, the name of the prison, and the liaison email and telephone addresses. The same process must be followed if a flagged PPO arrives in prison on transfer from another prison

The establishment must:

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The contact details provided by each establishment will be shared with partner agencies to increase the advantages of successful communication. Establishments will need to maintain these contact details

Preparation for release

Establishments will already have defined and established links with external agencies, and local schemes will want to capitalise on this relationship to improve the resettlement opportunities for PPOs.

Local statutory and voluntary agencies under the auspices of PPO schemes will be assisting with the resettlement needs of PPOs. They are therefore likely to want to liaise with the establishment in advance of the release of a PPO, and may wish to visit the prisoner themselves. Prison offender management units need to work together with in- reach teams to avoid duplication and gaps.

Informing partner agencies of releases

5.4 As a further precaution, the BCU and local PPO scheme must also be notified the day before the prisoner is actually released.

Licence conditions for PPOs serving 12-months or more

There is a strong presumption that PPOs should have licence conditions that requires them to address their particular problems.

5.5 The offender supervisor must liaise with the offender manager to ensure that appropriate extra licence conditions have been considered (i.e. for offenders serving 12 months or more).

The range of additional conditions can be found in chapter 6 of PSO 6000 Parole, Release and Recall.

Given the prevalence of drug use, establishments will note particularly that a drug-testing licence condition will be included in the licence where the PPO:

. is an adult offender . is a young offender . has a class A (heroin or cocaine/crack cocaine only) drug habit associated with their offending and

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. will be on licence (or notice of supervision) for a ‘trigger offence’ (Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000, s. 64 and schedule 6, as amended).

Trigger offences are (broadly) acquisitive offences associated with drug misuse, and class A drugs offences themselves.

The condition will normally be proposed by the offender manager using a standard form (‘DT2’ issued to probation areas in Probation Circular 34/2005). Where an offender supervisor (or other staff member) believes the offender has such a habit and the condition has not been proposed, this must be communicated to the OM.

For non-parole cases the condition will be inserted on the authority of the governor. For parole cases the decision lies with the Parole Board.

Prisoners recalled from licence

Where a prisoner has been recalled from licence the prison should follow the same procedure for informing the police and local PPO scheme and the home criminal justice intervention team (CJIT) where the offender is a drug user who has previously been referred under the criminal justice intervention programme (CJIP).

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Annex A - OUTLINE OF THE PROLIFIC AND OTHER PRIORITY OFFENDERS (PPO) PROGRAMME

Selection and De-selection of a prolific and other priority offender

The definition of a Prolific and other Priority Offender (PPO) is an offender whose volume of offending has caused significant impact in a local community. Started in 2004, there are now local PPO schemes covering every crime and disorder reduction partnership (CDRP) area in England and every community safety partnership (CSP) in Wales.

Given their impact therefore, PPOs must be treated as a high priority, with a view to providing them with the greatest incentive to desist from crime. Establishments that are working alongside PPO schemes and those that have close working relationships should continue to propose appropriate offenders to the scheme.

New joint Home Office and Ministry of Justice guidance, published on June 18th 2009, has noted that over a third of PPOs have been on the scheme for three or more years. Almost a fifth have been on it for 5 years. The guidance asks each CDRP to review their PPO cohorts so that they are focusing on those who commit the most crime and cause the most damage to their community. CDRPs are asked to review the balance between PPOs in the community and custody, working on the principle that those sentenced and likely to be in custody for longer than two years (i.e. a four-year sentence and above) can be considered for de-selection. De-selection should only be considered when a full multi-agency assessment of risk has been undertaken. If a PPO serving a custodial sentence has been de-selected, PPO schemes and establishments may consider the offender for re-selection three months prior to their release date. Adherence to the sentence plan and behaviour in custody should be factors in deciding whether to re-select.

Effectiveness of the programme

The 2007 Home Office evaluation report found that the PPO programme was a promising approach and showed a 62% reduction in recorded convictions amongst the first offenders selected as PPOs in September and October 2004, over a 17 month period 1. However this success cannot be solely attributed to the PPO scheme due to the difficulties identifying a control group of offenders with similar characteristics.

Scope of the programme

There are around 11,000 PPOs nationally at any one time. Around half are in custody, with 10 per cent on remand and 40 per cent serving sentences.

Local Prolific and Other Priority Offender schemes

Each CDRP will have its own scheme, but some CDRPs may combine with others to run a scheme.

The schemes will vary in their details but each will have three strands of work:

1 http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/ppo/rdsolr0807.pdf

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Deter

Prevent & Deter has now been mainstreamed into youth justice delivery. From April 2009, local criminal justice boards (LCJBs) have been asked to focus their efforts on developing a multi-agency approach to tackle a single priority group of young offenders. This group, ‘Deter Young Offenders’ (DYOs) are identified by youth offending teams (YOTs).

Catch and convict

Police and criminal justice agencies will target PPOs for intensive engagement, both pre- conviction and whilst on a community sentence or on licence.

The aim of this strand is to set a clear message to repeat offenders that re-offending will not be tolerated, and that any continued involvement in crime will result in a swift return to the courts and potentially a recall to custody.

Rehabilitate and resettle

This strand relates directly to the work of the Prison and Probation Services and the services that reduce re-offending and promote rehabilitation.

Governance arrangements

The lead agency in each locality for managing the PPO scheme is the CDRP, the CDRP will be accountable for the success of the local scheme. These arrangements will be overseen by local criminal justice boards (LCJBs) and government offices (GOs).

Existing partnership schemes

In a few places – notably where the catchment area of a prison closely surrounds the prison – there are already excellent working relationships between prisons and surrounding CDRPs, and in some cases prisons are already involved in PPO schemes, this involvement should be encouraged.

Integrated Offender Management

Integrated Offender Management (IOM) is the strategic umbrella or overarching framework that brings together agencies from across government to prioritise intervention with offenders who cause crime in their local area.

IOM builds on and expands current offender-based programmes, including PPO, MAPPA and DIP, recognising that an offender of concern to everyone may end up being no-one’s responsibility. IOM targets offenders of most concern of re-offending and can provide rehabilitative intervention to offenders not usually supervised on release such as short- sentenced offenders (under twelve months), and licence expired offenders who still have a requirement for support.

Performance management

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OASys will be used as the principal means of performance management, with regular reports showing the extent to which the needs of PPOs identified by OASys have been addressed. Probation colleagues are also responsible for their own PPO targets, and work is underway to identify similar targets for prison establishments.

PSI 12/2010 Issued 12/02/2010