Report of the Committee on Serious Violent and Sexual Offenders
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SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SERIOUS VIOLENT AND SEXUAL OFFENDERS Laid before the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish Ministers June 2000 SE/2000/68 i © Crown copyright 2000 First published 2000 ISBN 0 7480 8985 3 CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv INTRODUCTION 1 SECTION 1 A NEW APPROACH TO RISK MANAGEMENT 3 CHAPTER 1: DEFINITIONS AND CONTEXT 3 CHAPTER 2: RISK 7 CHAPTER 3: A RISK MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY 16 SECTION 2 A NEW REGIME FOR HIGH RISK OFFENDERS 26 CHAPTER 4: SENTENCING OPTIONS 26 CHAPTER 5: THE NEW SENTENCE 34 CHAPTER 6: PROCEDURES FOR IMPOSING THE NEW SENTENCE 40 CHAPTER 7: HIGH RISK OFFENDERS WITH A MENTAL DISORDER 46 CHAPTER 8: THE OPERATION OF THE NEW SENTENCE 54 CHAPTER 9: SUPERVISION OF HIGH RISK OFFENDERS 58 SECTION 3 OFFENDERS WITH PERSONALITY DISORDER 63 CHAPTER 10: PERSONALITY DISORDER 63 CHAPTER 11: SERVICES FOR OFFENDERS WITH PERSONALITY DISORDER 71 CHAPTER 12: HIGH RISK OFFENDERS WITH PERSONALITY DISORDER 77 LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS 82 ANNEX 1 MEMBERSHIP OF THE COMMITTEE 89 ANNEX 2 SENTENCING OF SERIOUS VIOLENT AND SEXUAL OFFENDERS 91 ANNEX 3 REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH LITERATURE ON SERIOUS VIOLENT AND SEXUAL OFFENDERS - SUMMARY 105 ANNEX 4 PLACES VISITED 111 ANNEX 5 RESPONDENTS TO THE COMMITTEE’S CONSULTATION PAPER 147 ANNEX 6 CURRENT RISK ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS 151 ANNEX 7 CURRENT SENTENCING OPTIONS AND RELATED ORDERS 159 ANNEX 8 INDETERMINATE SENTENCES AND CONVENTION RIGHTS 165 iii Report of the Committee On Serious Violent & Sexual Offenders ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to express our thanks to all those who responded to our consultation document and those who gave oral evidence to our Committee. They are listed in Annex 5. We would also like to thank the staff of the many establishments which we visited, both in the United Kingdom and overseas, details of which are given in Annex 4. We would also like to acknowledge the immense support we have received from our own Secretariat. When we first met in April 1999 our Secretary, Colin McKay, had only the assistance of Helen Ogg, and, of course, he had the burdensome task of serving both our Committee and the Millan Committee. Fortunately, he was later joined by Alison Bell, then Gavin Russell, and latterly by Bette Francis and Luke McGarty. Without the conscientious efforts of them all, it is unlikely that we would have been able to report as soon as we have, namely, in just over a year. We would, however, like to pay especial tribute to Colin McKay’s contributions. Always imperturbable, he encouraged and cajoled us, and from time to time diplomatically reminded us of matters which we needed to consider in order to fulfil our remit. iv INTRODUCTION The MacLean Committee on Serious Violent and Sexual Offenders, hereafter referred to as our Committee, was established in March 1999 by the UK Government, with the following remit. ‘To consider experience in Scotland and elsewhere and to make proposals for the sentencing disposals for, and the future management and treatment of serious sexual and violent offenders who may present a continuing danger to the public, in particular: to consider whether the current legislative framework matches the present level of knowledge of the subject, provides the courts with an appropriate range of options and affords the general public adequate protection from these offenders; to compare practice, diagnosis and treatment with that elsewhere, to build on current expertise and research to inform the development of a medical protocol to respond to the needs of personality disordered offenders; to specify the services required by this group of offenders and the means of delivery; to consider the question of release/discharge into the community and service needs in the community for supervising those offenders.’ The terms of the remit of our Committee indicate to us a concern on the part of government about certain types of offender: and it must be stressed that, in making recommendations concerning sentencing disposals, our Committee is concerned only with those who have offended but have yet to be sentenced or otherwise disposed of by the court. These offenders are those who have committed serious violent and sexual crimes. Later in this report we consider what may properly be regarded as serious violent and serious sexual crimes. As we see it, there is an apprehension that courts, when imposing sentences, have not always recognised the potential for some offenders seriously to recidivate. Or, if we may express it in another way, the risk of committing further serious violent or sexual offences, at least in some cases, has not been identified satisfactorily. Further, the question of imposing discretionary life sentences for such offences has not been considered by judges in any structured or systematic way. There is also a further, but separate problem raised in our remit. Following the House of Lords decision in the case of Alexander Reid1 the understanding was that some offenders within this group, who were made the subject of hospital and restriction orders by the court, and who may still present a danger to the public, could no longer continue to be detained within hospital because they were no longer susceptible to medical treatment. These are offenders, who are not suffering from mental illness, but who may have a personality disorder and who were made the subject of a hospital order before it was possible by law to make them subject to a hospital direction. We consider later in this report how this problem may be avoided in the future. We were asked by Ministers to report within a year and have tried, as far as possible, to keep to this timescale. During the past year we have undertaken the following pieces of work: • We met in full Committee on 15 occasions, the first being on 15 April 1999 and the last being on 12 June 2000. This included five two-day Committee meetings. 1 See Reid v Secretary of State for Scotland 1999 SC(HL)17 1 Report of the Committee On Serious Violent & Sexual Offenders • We also divided into three sub-groups, which were charged with considering and making recommendations to the full committee on specific elements of the remit. These sub-groups met on a total of 15 occasions. • Committee members undertook 16 visits to facilities in Scotland and England including prisons, hospitals specialising in the treatment of personality disorders, and secure and medium-secure psychiatric hospitals. See Annex 4. • Committee members undertook a total of 14 visits to facilities in The Netherlands, Canada and the USA: these included visits to prisons, secure hospitals and other treatment facilities, and meetings with lawyers, medical professionals, security staff and policy advisors to local and national governments. See Annex 4. • We produced a consultation document and distributed over 500 copies. We also made the document available on the Internet. We received 77 responses. See Annex 5. • We took oral evidence from a number of specialists working with serious offenders: academics, psychologists, psychiatrists, and members of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS). See Annex 5. • We commissioned a literature review and research into discretionary life sentences. See Annexes 2 and 3. Our proposals may be summarised as follows. First, we consider that a new sentence should be introduced, to provide for lifelong control of the offenders with whom we are concerned. This sentence would largely replace the use of the current discretionary life sentence, and would be based on a thorough risk assessment. The principles of risk assessment and risk management would continue to be important throughout the duration of the sentence. We propose the creation of a new body, the Risk Management Authority. This would establish, promulgate and continuously update best practice in risk assessment and risk management. It would also have operational responsibility for ensuring that an individualised risk management plan is developed and implemented for those offenders upon whom the new sentence is imposed. In relation to those serious and violent offenders who have mental disorders, we propose a more systematic use of existing mental health disposals, particularly the interim hospital order and hospital direction. These would be integrated with the assessment procedures for the new sentence. It is a fundamental aspect of the new sentence that the offenders should not be released into the community until they have served an adequate period of time in prison to meet the requirements of punishment, and do not present an unacceptable risk to public safety. At the same time, the period spent in the community should be regarded as being an integral part of the sentence. Our proposals envisage that community services for offenders serving this sentence would involve a greater degree of intensive supervision than is the current norm. We believe that these proposals, taken as a whole, provide a comprehensive framework for dealing with this difficult group of offenders. They are intended to meet the requirements of public safety, while respecting human rights. 2 SECTION 1 A NEW APPROACH TO RISK MANAGEMENT CHAPTER 1: DEFINITIONS AND CONTEXT With whom are we concerned? 1.1 Our terms of reference require us to consider how society should respond to ‘serious violent and sexual offenders who may present a continuing danger to the public,’ including those with personality disorder. This is a complex set of terms, and our Committee spent some considerable time discussing which offenders might properly be regarded as coming within them. 1.2 One possibility would have been to define the target group of offenders by reference to a list of ‘serious’ sexual offences and a list of ‘serious’ offences of violence. Examples of such lists can be found in legislation2 and these could have been drawn upon to identify, at least in part, the range of offenders with which we are concerned.