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The encounter Royal S ociety of Edinburgh Alternatives To Prison Report of a Conference organised by The RSE: Educational Charity & Scotland’s National Academy Encounter and 22-26 George Street Edinburgh EH2 2PQ The Royal Society of Edinburgh e-mail: [email protected] Tel. 0044 (0)131 240 5000 Minicom: (0)131 240 5009 www.royalsoced.org.uk 7-9 December 2006 CONTENTS Acknowledgements.................................................................................2 Programme...................................................................................................4 Alternatives To Prison ...............................................................................7 Appendix One: Speakers’ Biographies ...................................................34 Appendix Two: Participant List ...............................................................39 Rapporteur: Elizabeth Aston Alternatives To Prison: 7-9 December 2006 © The Royal Society of Edinburgh: February 2007 ISBN: 978 0 902198 25 8 Requests to reproduce all or part of this document, larger print versions or more copies, should be submitted to: Stuart Brown The Royal Society of Edinburgh 22-26 George Street Edinburgh EH2 2PQ e-mail: [email protected] Tel: 0044 (0)131 240 5000 Minicom: 0044 (0)131 240 5009 www.royalsoced.org.uk Opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily represent the views of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, nor its Fellows. 7-9 December 2006 Encounter and The Royal Society of Edinburgh wish to acknowledge the support of Scottish Executive The Robertson Trust The Airborne Initiative Consulate General of Ireland in Edinburgh 2 7-9 December 2006 Alternatives To Prison and thank the Organising Committee: Sir David Blatherwick KCMG OBE UK Joint Chair, Encounter Lia Brennan Events Officer, The Royal Society of Edinburgh Róisín Calvert-Elliott Events Manager, The Royal Society of Edinburgh Richard Holloway FRSE Former Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church Dr Magnus Linklater FRSE Columnist, The Times & Scotland On Sunday Peter Lyner OBE UK Administrator, Encounter Susan McVie Senior Research Fellow, School of Law, University of Edinburgh Dorothea Melvin Irish Joint Chair, Encounter Trevor Royle FRSE Former Deputy Chairman, The Airborne Initiative Dr Salters Sterling Irish Administrator, Encounter Professor Jackie Tombs Professor of Criminology, University of Stirling 3 7-9 December 2006 CONFERENCE PROGRAMME 14.00 Registration and Coffee 14.30 Welcome Sir Michael Atiyah OM FRS PRSE HonFREng Hon FMedSci HonFFA President, The Royal Society of Edinburgh Sir David Blatherwick KCMG OBE UK Chair, Encounter Dorothea Melvin Irish Chair, Encounter 14.40 Criminal Justice In These Islands Cathy Jamieson MSP Minister for Justice, The Scottish Parliament 15.00 Session 1 Chairperson: Tom O’Malley Barrister and Senior Lecturer in Law, University College Galway Overview and Scene Setting Baroness Linklater of Butterstone Chair, Rethinking Crime and Punishment 15.15 Elfyn Llwyd MP House of Commons 15.30 Claire Hamilton LLB Lecturer in Criminology, Dublin Institute of Technology 15.45 Dr Lesley McAra Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Edinburgh 16.00 Discussion Session 16.45 Afternoon Tea/Registration for The Airborne Initiative Evening Lecture 17.30 Welcome and Introduction Dr Alan Rutherford OBE Co-founder and Former Chairman, The Airborne Initiative 17.35 Handcuffed With Kindness: Towards A Deeper Understanding Of Youth Crime Camila Batmanghelidjh Director and Founder, Kids Company 18.25 Discussion Session 4 7-9 December 2006 Alternatives To Prison 18.50 Vote Of Thanks Trevor Royle FRSE Former Deputy Chairman, The Airborne Initiative 20.00 Dinner Speaker The Lord McCluskey Friday 8 December 2006 Session 2: Does Custodial Sentencing Work? - The View From Both Sides Chairperson: Professor Jackie Tombs Professor of Criminology, University of Stirling 09.00 Professor Andrew Coyle CMG Former Prison Governor, International Centre for Prison Studies, University of London 09.15 Andrew R C McLellan HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland 09.30 Erwin James Journalist and Author, who was in prison for 20 years 09.45 Discussion Session 10.45 Morning Coffee Session 3: Alternatives To Prison Chairperson: Professor Richard Sparks Professor of Criminology, University of Edinburgh 11.15 Sir Anthony Bottoms FBA Wolfson Professor of Criminology, University of Cambridge 11.30 David Casement Recorder of the Crown Court and Barrister at Exchange Chambers, Manchester 11.45 Governor John Lonergan Mountjoy Prison, Dublin 13.00 Lunch 14.00 Session 4: Discussion Session Chairperson: Rt Hon Lord MacLean PC QC FRSE Senator of Her Majesty’s College of Justice in Scotland 16.00 Close 5 7-9 December 2006 20.00 Dinner Speaker John Rowe QC Former Chairman of the Bar of England and Wales Saturday 9 December 2006 Session 5: Youth and Justice Chairperson: The Rt Hon Lord Hope of Craighead FRSE Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, The House of Lords 09.30 The Rt Hon The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers The Lord Chief Justice of England 10.00 The Hon Mr Justice John L Murray Chief Justice, Ireland 10.30 Session 6: Judicious Summary / Concluding Remarks Baroness Vivien Stern CBE Senior Research Fellow, International Centre for Prison Studies, London 11.30 Close 6 7-9 December 2006 Alternatives To Prison Cathy Jamieson MSP, Minister for Justice, ask ourselves why we still have so many people in Scottish Parliament told us she is proud of recent prison for short sentences and why alternatives to radical reforms, which have put victims, witnesses prison lack credibility with the public. Scotland has and public safety at the heart of Scotland’s Criminal led the way in the UK in setting up specialist courts Justice system. Crime is down, we have more (for example youth courts and a domestic abuse police officers, clear up rates are at historically high court), which have adopted a problem-solving levels and people in Scotland are safer in their approach, provided access to a good range of homes and on our streets. Her ambition is to have interventions and brought the offender to account a criminal justice system to which other jurisdictions though regular reviews in front of the same Sheriff. will aspire. She said we respect the rights of The Minister also told us about the 218 Centre in individuals, but we also expect individuals to take Glasgow, a small residential facility with a day-care responsibility for their own actions. The public centre for women in the criminal justice system. expects that offenders will be punished for their The 218 Centre combines criminal justice, social crimes and they will be given opportunities for work, addictions and health services and offers a rehabilitation. They also want a system which package of services designed around the specific makes offenders less likely to re-offend. In order needs of female offenders. She said many female to keep the public’s confidence, we must offenders would be better dealt with in the demonstrate that the justice system is on the side community rather than in prison. With regard to of the communities who suffer most from the problem of short prison sentences for fine offending. We need a smarter, sharper, more default, she told us about a recent pilot of the focused justice system, where we know what is mandatory use of Supervised Attendance Orders, effective and build on what works. which are expected to be rolled out nationally. Today Scotland’s prison population stands at 7,128 For community sentences to succeed, they must and Ms Jamieson emphasised that for every challenge offending behaviour; assess and manage prisoner there is a victim, family or community that risk; be tough on compliance and enforcement; has been damaged. Although Scotland is and help individuals to access the services to move struggling with an increasing prison population, we on to positive lifestyles. The Minister pointed out have one of the widest ranges of community that Scotland has more offenders in prison and sentences in Western Europe and their use has more offenders on community sentences at a time been steadily growing over the past few years. when the crime rate is falling, which suggests that She said one of the main problems is Scotland’s the system is getting tougher – a message which unacceptably high rate of re-offending. She told has not got through to the media or the public at us it is not simply a matter of resources, because large. She does not want community sentences funding has increased by over 50% in the last five to be seen as the soft option; there should be more years to a record £103 million next year. At the emphasis on reparation – short, sharp, quick and centre of Scotland’s reforms are eight new visible solutions in which communities are given a Community Justice Authorities (CJAs), which have say in the work offenders should do. She spoke each prepared an area plan to reduce re-offending, about the fact that few Community Reparation translating national priorities into local action. Ms Orders have been imposed in the pilot courts and Jamieson wants the justice system to reflect and said that they are deliberately targeted at lower engage with the concerns of local people and level offenders with the intention being to stop deliver changes in communities. She wants CJAs offending becoming persistent or serious and to bring agencies together at the local level to reduce the numbers who go on to face a prison tackle the causes of offenders’ behaviour