Teaching role for prison staff urged in report

UK: Prison officers should play a greater role in the education of inmates to prevent reoffending, says an academic report published today. The report marks the first time that uniformed staff, who normally have little involvement in prisoner education, have been consulted at length.

The government spent £122m on prison education last year to try to cut reoffending rates. But more than half of the prison population of almost 78,000 people still have a reading age of 11 or below.

The prison service contracts out education all work to public and private sector providers. But the report, called Wings of Learning, from the centre for crime and justice studies at King's College London, found these organisations lacked experience and had a high staff turnover, and that there was a wide gulf between "old and new guard" prison staff.

The Learning and Skills Council now runs education in jail. The report says that confusion caused by several changes in organisations running education services has worried staff and managers.

It also shows that just 20% of the staff are women and only 4.12% of officers are from black or ethnic minority groups. While most staff say their job begins and ends with security, others claim they have utilised their talents and qualifications. Phil Wheatley, the director general of the prison service, said the report was helpful in "giving a voice ... to frontline staff".

By Eric Allison posted 4 November 05

Related:

A long stretch
UK: As head of prisons for England and Wales, Martin Narey tried to improve life for people on the inside. One of those inmates was Erwin James, then serving a life sentence. Now, as Narey leaves his job after a career spanning three decades, the two men meet and discuss the many problems still facing Britain's jails.

Prison officers responsible for smuggling into jails
Fresh Home Office research also confirmed the extent of abuse in prisons yesterday, and suggested that prison staff were one route for drugs to get in. The study found that smuggling by uniformed or civilian staff was thought to be "substantially increasing" the availability of heroin and cannabis behind bars.

Plea to release Biggs rejected by ruling-class
UK: Home Secretary Charles Clarke has rejected a plea by Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs to be released from prison on compassionate grounds.

Prisons chief hits at 'gross' overcrowding
Martin Narey, a civil servant who has served every Home Secretary since 1989, highlights statistics showing that thousands of mentally ill inmates and a record number of children now constitute a significant part of the prison population.

Clarke faces a fight over probation overhaul
UK: The home secretary, Charles Clarke, yesterday confirmed his plans to abolish 42 local probation boards and instead create "a vibrant mixed economy" in the management of 200,000 offenders in the community.

The devilish advocate
UK: The devilish advocate John Hirst taught himself law in jail, and has never lost a case against the prison service. Erwin James meets up again with the former 'lifer' who won inmates the right to vote.

Racism still rife in jails, five years after the murder of Zahid Mubarek UK: The prison service will be strongly criticised for continued racial discrimination against ethnic minority inmates by the official report from the Zahid Mubarek inquiry.

UK prisoners should get vote, European court rules
UK: Laws setting out who can and cannot take part in elections are to be rewritten after the European court of human rights today ruled in favour of giving British prisoners the right to vote.

Prison plan 'will cut reoffending'
UK: A network of community prisons to help cut the number of criminals who re-offend has been outlined by Home Secretary Charles Clarke.

Clarke to scrap plan to peg prison numbers
UK: The home secretary, Charles Clarke, has said he is to abandon his predecessor's aspiration of pegging the prison population in England and Wales at 80,000. He will also drop plans to put a legal obligation on the judges' sentencing guidelines council to take the size of the prison population - currently 77,000 and rising - into account when laying down the "going rate" for major crimes.

Crowded jails 'boosting suicides'
UK: The chief inspector of prisons warned that an overcrowding crisis in Britain's jails was leading to an increase in prisoner suicides.

Chief justice calls for new approach to law and order
UK: The retiring [ruling class] lord chief justice, Lord Woolf, made a passionate plea for a new approach to law and order which would see a major shift away from punishment towards the solution of problems which generate crime.

Britain's only prison ship ends up on the beach
UK: The last inmates have departed and a skeleton staff is left guarding Britain's only prison ship - in case anyone is minded to break in rather than out.

Throw away the key
The one profession to get results on recidivism has been sacrificed to Labour's desire to lock up criminals in private prisons.

Judges' misdeeds will remain secret
UK: Judges who are disciplined for bad behaviour will not have the findings against them made public under a complaints regime to be launched next year.

Prisoner total rises 15% in six years
England and Wales are continuing to jail offenders at a higher rate than any other major country in western Europe, it emerged today. New research indicates that the government's use of prison as its main tool of penal policy has increased by 15% since 1999.

CPS drops prosecution over death in custody
UK: The family of Roger Sylvester, who died after being restrained by police officers, yesterday expressed their disappointment at a decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute any of the officers involved.

Prisoner's cell death
UK: A prisoner was found hanged in his cell last week, the Home Office said, fuelling criticism over the soaring number of suicides in custody.

Plans for five new 'superprisons'
Recent figures show a total of 75,550 prisoners were held in 139 jails in England and Wales, nudging up the previous record of April 2004 by just six inmates.

Prison has lost its way - report
UK: Bristol prison is suffering wide-ranging problems because of inconsistent management, the Chief Inspector of Prisons has said.

Row over acupuncture for prisoners
UK: The Home Office has responded to criticism over prison inmates who are being offered acupuncture on the NHS in order to relieve stress.

Number of prisoners sent back to jail trebles
UK: The number of prisoners being sent back to jail after release has nearly trebled in the past five years, according to a report published today.

Top judge says crowded prisons cannot break cycle of crime
UK: Reoffending rates after a prison sentence are at an "unacceptably high level" and the failure of the criminal justice system to stop prisoners reoffending should shock the public, England's top judge, [Ruling Class] Lord Woolf, said last week.

All the World's a Prison: History
No doubt many of my readers, even those who are well-educated or widely read, think that the prison -- the place where dark deeds are darkly answered[2] -- is an ancient institution, a barbaric hold-over from barbaric times. In fact, the prison is of relatively recent origin, and this tells us a great deal about the pretentions and realities of modern times, and the wisdom and high degree of development of the ancients.

Decade after inspector left in disgust, report tells of filth
UK: Dirty, mice-infested cells, high levels of self-harm, and widespread bullying over drugs and medications were just some of the damning findings of a report into conditions at Holloway, Britain's largest women's prison.

Most women 'should not be jailed'
Women make up 6% of the prison population in England and Wales. Imprisonment of women should be "virtually abolished", a prison reform group has said.

Youth 'murdered for officers' pleasure'
UK: An Asian teenager was murdered by a white racist after they were placed in the same cell as part of a game to fulfil the "perverted pleasure" of prison officers, a public inquiry heard on Friday.

Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases
The use of segregation [solitary confinement] of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation.

Inquest blames jail for overdose death
UK: An inquest jury returned a verdict itemising a catalogue of faults at Styal prison in Cheshire, concluding that the prison's "failure of duty of care" contributed to the death of Sarah Campbell, 18, who took an overdose of tablets on the first day of her three-year sentence.

Put in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect others
UK: Sarah Campbell, 18, spent the last hours of her life in the segregation unit of Styal prison, Cheshire. "The seg", as those places are referred to, used to be known as "the block", short for punishment block. [ Seg is a bullshit word for Punishment, Solitary Confinement, Torture, Mental Illness, Self-Harm, Human Rights Abuse and that is State Terror.]

Britain 'sliding into police state'
The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is transforming Britain into a police state, one of the country's former leading anti-terrorist police chiefs [false flag police chiefs] said yesterday.

UK solitary confinement
UK: Segregation units are prisons within prisons - the places where the most unchecked brutality is meted out to prisoners. In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased.

Inquiry must root out prison racists
UK: It is difficult to imagine a more brutal murder than that of Zahid Mubarek. The 19-year-old was clubbed to death by his cellmate at Feltham Young Offender Institution in the early hours of 21 March 2000. He was due to be released just a few hours later.

Prison suicides soar as jails hire 'babysitters'
UK: Prison officers are being taken off suicide watch and replaced by unqualified 'babysitters' because the system is overwhelmed by an epidemic of self-harm.

Plan to sell off juvenile jails as job lot
UK: The government is to put out to tender all its dedicated juvenile jails that hold children under 18 in a departure in Whitehall's privatisation programme.

Failure to sack 'racist' prison staff condemned
UK: Two prison officers suspended for racism are still on full pay three years after a stash of Nazi memorabilia, neo-fascist literature and Ku Klux Klan-inspired 'nigger-hunting licences' was found in a police raid on their home.

Report slams 'unjust' jailing of women on remand
UK: Six out of 10 women sent to jail while they await trial are acquitted or given a non-custodial sentence, a report published today reveals. Introducing the report, Lady Kennedy QC calls for a complete review of the use of remand and bail for women saying it is "inhumane and unjust".

Concern as UK prison suicides hit record level
UK: More prisoners took their own lives in English jails in August than in any other month since records began, prison reformers said today.

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors
But now Holloway prison in north London - where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, was hanged in 1955 - has been earmarked for closure, along with several other women's prisons, which have been hit by a spate of suicides.

How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the brink
UK: Six suicides in 12 months made Styal jail notorious and the Prisons Ombudsman criticised the prison and its staff for serious failures. But things are changing.

Belmarsh detainees consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim detainees released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism has told the Guardian his fellow prisoners are suffering such severe mental problems that they constantly consider suicide.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.

England tops the EU in imprisonment
England and Wales jail more offenders per capita than any other European, Union country, according to new figures.

Clarke faces a fight over probation overhaul

UK: The home secretary, Charles Clarke, yesterday confirmed his plans to abolish 42 local probation boards and instead create "a vibrant mixed economy" in the management of 200,000 offenders in the community.

He intends to take over the statutory duty of the local boards to provide probation services and enable a Whitehall network of 10 regional "offender managers" to put them out to tender to private companies and voluntary organisations or remain with the public sector.

"This is not about cost-cutting: it is about driving up standards and improving value for money. It is not about privatisation. It is about finding the best provider for the job," said Mr Clarke.

But the Home Office consultation paper published yesterday makes clear that the local probation boards are to be abolished and replaced with new probation "trusts" which will be packed with senior financial and business people so they can "win contracts in the first place in a competitive environment" and then manage performance so the standards specified in the contracts are met.

Public probation trusts which fail to win any business, or enough to sustain their overheads, will cease to exist, says the consultation paper. It envisages that the changes will come into effect in April 2007, the centenary of the 1907 Edwardian legislation which set up a public probation service in Britain.

The decision has provoked widespread opposition. Martin Wargeant of the Probation Boards' Association warned that they would fight the proposal, saying they "shouldn't be competing over the carcass of the Probation Service" with private companies.

Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation officers' union, said that fragmentation and privatisation would drive down standards, cut wages and lead to less cooperation and not more between criminal justice services: "Probation is not a business but a viable public service."

Neil Gerrard, Labour MP and chair of the justice unions parliamentary group, said he believed the overwhelming majority of MPs were disturbed by the proposals, which went much further than the initial plan to open up the Probation Service.

But Neil Bentley, director of public services for the CBI, welcomed the plans. "Plainly when half of all crime is committed by those who have already been through the system then radical change is essential," he said.

By Alan Travis posted 22 Octobrer 05

Related:

The devilish advocate
UK: The devilish advocate John Hirst taught himself law in jail, and has never lost a case against the prison service. Erwin James meets up again with the former 'lifer' who won inmates the right to vote.

Racism still rife in jails, five years after the murder of Zahid Mubarek UK: The prison service will be strongly criticised for continued racial discrimination against ethnic minority inmates by the official report from the Zahid Mubarek inquiry.

UK prisoners should get vote, European court rules
UK: Laws setting out who can and cannot take part in elections are to be rewritten after the European court of human rights today ruled in favour of giving British prisoners the right to vote.

Prison plan 'will cut reoffending'
UK: A network of community prisons to help cut the number of criminals who re-offend has been outlined by Home Secretary Charles Clarke.

Clarke to scrap plan to peg prison numbers
UK: The home secretary, Charles Clarke, has said he is to abandon his predecessor's aspiration of pegging the prison population in England and Wales at 80,000. He will also drop plans to put a legal obligation on the judges' sentencing guidelines council to take the size of the prison population - currently 77,000 and rising - into account when laying down the "going rate" for major crimes.

Crowded jails 'boosting suicides'
UK: The chief inspector of prisons warned that an overcrowding crisis in Britain's jails was leading to an increase in prisoner suicides.

Chief justice calls for new approach to law and order
UK: The retiring [ruling class] lord chief justice, Lord Woolf, made a passionate plea for a new approach to law and order which would see a major shift away from punishment towards the solution of problems which generate crime.

Britain's only prison ship ends up on the beach
UK: The last inmates have departed and a skeleton staff is left guarding Britain's only prison ship - in case anyone is minded to break in rather than out.

Throw away the key
The one profession to get results on recidivism has been sacrificed to Labour's desire to lock up criminals in private prisons.

Judges' misdeeds will remain secret
UK: Judges who are disciplined for bad behaviour will not have the findings against them made public under a complaints regime to be launched next year.

Prisoner total rises 15% in six years
England and Wales are continuing to jail offenders at a higher rate than any other major country in western Europe, it emerged today. New research indicates that the government's use of prison as its main tool of penal policy has increased by 15% since 1999.

CPS drops prosecution over death in custody
UK: The family of Roger Sylvester, who died after being restrained by police officers, yesterday expressed their disappointment at a decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute any of the officers involved.

Prisoner's cell death
UK: A prisoner was found hanged in his cell last week, the Home Office said, fuelling criticism over the soaring number of suicides in custody.

Plans for five new 'superprisons'
Recent figures show a total of 75,550 prisoners were held in 139 jails in England and Wales, nudging up the previous record of April 2004 by just six inmates.

Prison has lost its way - report
UK: Bristol prison is suffering wide-ranging problems because of inconsistent management, the Chief Inspector of Prisons has said.

Row over acupuncture for prisoners
UK: The Home Office has responded to criticism over prison inmates who are being offered acupuncture on the NHS in order to relieve stress.

Number of prisoners sent back to jail trebles
UK: The number of prisoners being sent back to jail after release has nearly trebled in the past five years, according to a report published today.

Top judge says crowded prisons cannot break cycle of crime
UK: Reoffending rates after a prison sentence are at an "unacceptably high level" and the failure of the criminal justice system to stop prisoners reoffending should shock the public, England's top judge, [Ruling Class] Lord Woolf, said last week.

All the World's a Prison: History
No doubt many of my readers, even those who are well-educated or widely read, think that the prison -- the place where dark deeds are darkly answered[2] -- is an ancient institution, a barbaric hold-over from barbaric times. In fact, the prison is of relatively recent origin, and this tells us a great deal about the pretentions and realities of modern times, and the wisdom and high degree of development of the ancients.

Decade after inspector left in disgust, report tells of filth
UK: Dirty, mice-infested cells, high levels of self-harm, and widespread bullying over drugs and medications were just some of the damning findings of a report into conditions at Holloway, Britain's largest women's prison.

Most women 'should not be jailed'
Women make up 6% of the prison population in England and Wales. Imprisonment of women should be "virtually abolished", a prison reform group has said.

Youth 'murdered for officers' pleasure'
UK: An Asian teenager was murdered by a white racist after they were placed in the same cell as part of a game to fulfil the "perverted pleasure" of prison officers, a public inquiry heard on Friday.

Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases
The use of segregation [solitary confinement] of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation.

Inquest blames jail for overdose death
UK: An inquest jury returned a verdict itemising a catalogue of faults at Styal prison in Cheshire, concluding that the prison's "failure of duty of care" contributed to the death of Sarah Campbell, 18, who took an overdose of tablets on the first day of her three-year sentence.

Put in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect others
UK: Sarah Campbell, 18, spent the last hours of her life in the segregation unit of Styal prison, Cheshire. "The seg", as those places are referred to, used to be known as "the block", short for punishment block. [ Seg is a bullshit word for Punishment, Solitary Confinement, Torture, Mental Illness, Self-Harm, Human Rights Abuse and that is State Terror.]

Britain 'sliding into police state'
The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is transforming Britain into a police state, one of the country's former leading anti-terrorist police chiefs [false flag police chiefs] said yesterday.

UK solitary confinement
UK: Segregation units are prisons within prisons - the places where the most unchecked brutality is meted out to prisoners. In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased.

Inquiry must root out prison racists
UK: It is difficult to imagine a more brutal murder than that of Zahid Mubarek. The 19-year-old was clubbed to death by his cellmate at Feltham Young Offender Institution in the early hours of 21 March 2000. He was due to be released just a few hours later.

Prison suicides soar as jails hire 'babysitters'
UK: Prison officers are being taken off suicide watch and replaced by unqualified 'babysitters' because the system is overwhelmed by an epidemic of self-harm.

Plan to sell off juvenile jails as job lot
UK: The government is to put out to tender all its dedicated juvenile jails that hold children under 18 in a departure in Whitehall's privatisation programme.

Failure to sack 'racist' prison staff condemned
UK: Two prison officers suspended for racism are still on full pay three years after a stash of Nazi memorabilia, neo-fascist literature and Ku Klux Klan-inspired 'nigger-hunting licences' was found in a police raid on their home.

Report slams 'unjust' jailing of women on remand
UK: Six out of 10 women sent to jail while they await trial are acquitted or given a non-custodial sentence, a report published today reveals. Introducing the report, Lady Kennedy QC calls for a complete review of the use of remand and bail for women saying it is "inhumane and unjust".

Concern as UK prison suicides hit record level
UK: More prisoners took their own lives in English jails in August than in any other month since records began, prison reformers said today.

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors
But now Holloway prison in north London - where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, was hanged in 1955 - has been earmarked for closure, along with several other women's prisons, which have been hit by a spate of suicides.

How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the brink
UK: Six suicides in 12 months made Styal jail notorious and the Prisons Ombudsman criticised the prison and its staff for serious failures. But things are changing.

Belmarsh detainees consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim detainees released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism has told the Guardian his fellow prisoners are suffering such severe mental problems that they constantly consider suicide.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.

England tops the EU in imprisonment
England and Wales jail more offenders per capita than any other European, Union country, according to new figures.

Legislation in Victoria on sexual offenders: issues for health professionals

Rather than ever more oppressive laws "false positives" will result in detention on spurious grounds. Preventive detention is odious and affects classes of people rather than individuals.

AUSTRALIA: VICTORIA: Abstract

* New legislation passed in Victoria (the Serious Sex Offenders Monitoring Act 2005) extends the role of doctors in managing and treating sex offenders.

* This legislation is not based on a solid understanding of the research evidence on treatment of sex offenders or on their risk of reoffending.

* The legislation creates ethical and professional dilemmas for health professionals through the conflation of legal control of offenders with the medical management of disorders of sexual preference.

* There is a critical need for research and funding in this area, rather than ever more oppressive laws, if governments are to be serious about treating sex offenders, rather than simply incarcerating them.

The Victorian State Government has introduced legislation to provide for extended supervision of some sexual offenders. The Serious Sex Offenders Monitoring Act 2005, was enacted in June 2005. It permits an order to be made providing for up to 15 years of conditional supervision and "treatment" subsequent to the expiration of a criminal sentence or parole for a range of child sexual offences and bestiality (Box).

In the second reading, the Hon. Tim Holding, MLA, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, noted that:

The deterrent effect of ongoing supervision, reduction of the offenders' exposure to environmental risk factors and ongoing access to treatment and support will deter the commission of further offences.2

Reducing child molestation is an admirable goal, and anything is welcome that might decrease the serious sequelae in its victims.3

However, we hold significant concerns that the legislation can achieve this goal. We are also concerned about its compromise of fundamental legal and ethical principles. The legislation has been adopted with remarkably little debate or comment from interested professional bodies. It is not based on research evidence, relies on faulty appraisals of risk, encroaches significantly on personal autonomy and principles of justice, and potentially places doctors in a compromising, policing role.

The international context

Jurisdictions in a number of developed countries have enacted laws directed against child molesters, which provide for indeterminate sentencing, mandated treatment, community registration and protracted supervision beyond the duration of a sentence. For instance, the Queensland Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 was designed to allow continued detention in custody and supervised release of offenders seen at high risk of reoffending. It was upheld as valid on appeal to the High Court of Australia.4

These laws, often described collectively as "sexually violent predator" laws, are a controversial response to the public distress and media attention accorded to reoffending by convicted sex offenders.5 However, despite the popularity of these laws, we are unaware of any research that has yet demonstrated that they actually reduce rates of sexual offending against children.

The Victorian Act

The Victorian Act provides for extended supervision with conditions. Among its mooted requirements are that an "assessment report" be provided by a psychologist, psychiatrist or other prescribed health service provider (a very broad definition not limited to doctors and psychologists) (s.7). Such a report must address "propensity to commit relevant offences in the future", and previous treatment and its effects (s. 8).

The standard of proof required in the Act is "a high degree of probability" (s.11(1)).The Adult Parole Board is empowered to direct that the offender fulfil conditions, including "treatment or rehabilitation programs or activities that the offender must attend and participate in" (s. 16(3)(d)), and courts involved may take into account "whether the offender cooperated .....fully, in the preparation of an assessment report" (s. 34).

These requirements are similar to international sexually violent predator laws, although the Victorian Act does provide for procedural protection, including rights of appeal, and does not go as far as some other laws which, for instance, reverse the burden of proof (ie, require that the offender demonstrate that any risk has abated, rather than the onus remaining on the court to find that the offender continues to pose a high risk).6 The Act is modelled on New Zealand legislation enacted in 2004. The cost of enforcing its conditions on a single offender has been reported as hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.7

As citizens, we welcome any measure which makes our children safer, but we question whether the Victorian Act will achieve this goal. Furthermore, we believe that it flouts fundamental principles of justice, in effect providing for offenders to be sentenced twice for the same crime and making them subject to legislation retrospectively. It also raises important ethical and professional issues for doctors. It conflates the legal control of offenders with the medical management of disorders of sexual preference and, in so doing, attempts to make health professionals the agents of a particularly draconian form of social control. Doctors treating patients subject to the Act may be required to report non-compliance, thus facilitating incarceration.

Will this Act make our children safer?

What is the evidence for treatment effectiveness?

Most convicted child molesters will eventually return to the community. This is why effective management of those who might reoffend is so important. Treatment of sex offenders is usually psychological, using a cognitive behavioural framework. This includes cognitive restructuring, training in victim empathy and social skills, and relapse prevention. Increasingly, treatment is targeted towards specific deficits and is individualised, although it may be delivered in group settings.8 Its effectiveness relies on proper assessment and the use of interventions justified by well constructed research evidence, which is as yet lacking.

A number of biological treatments are also currently used. These include specific serotonin uptake inhibitors, progestagens (eg, medroxyprogesterone), anti-androgens (cyproterone acetate) and gonatodotropin-releasing hormone agonists (eg, leuprorelin).9 These medications seem to have efficacy in reducing sexual drive, deviant sexual arousal and problem sexual behaviours. Because of their side effects, their use tends to be limited to those at higher risk of reoffending.10

However, the evidence base for both types of treatment of sexual offenders is poor. Study populations have been either highly selected(eg, by severity of offence or imprisonment) or heterogeneous (eg, in predilection or offending rates). Psychological treatments are rarely manualised (that is, adherent to a specified methodology) or tested for integrity by blinded external raters. For biological treatments,the evidence generally comprises uncontrolled case series with small numbers and limited follow-up.

Despite the extensive clinical experience with these medications, there is only limited empirical support for their effectiveness. Until more is known of their effects on deviant arousal and sexual recidivism, any legislative mandate for such treatment is both premature and clinically unjustified. There seems little interest at government or industry level in funding studies of interventions to reduce sexual offending. This may well correlate with the ease of introducing legislation to provide correctional solutions.

Who is at risk of reoffending?

Recidivism rates for sexual offenders are far lower than is popularly assumed. A meta-analysis of recidivism studies, acknowledging their generally limited periods of follow-up and reliance on reconviction rates (which underrepresent reoffending), suggests that the overall rate of sexual reoffending is 13.4%, which is much lower than for most other types of offending, such as theft and violent crimes.11 Knowledge is expanding about the clinical indicators of increased risk of offending, which potentially enable targeted intervention for higher risk subgroups. Currently, large amounts of public money are expended on psychological treatments that we believe are of dubious benefit or may even be detrimental, for large numbers of sex offenders who are at very low risk of reoffending. At the same time, high risk offenders often go unrecognised and effectively untreated.

We do not believe that the Victorian Act will improve this situation. The Act requires a prescribed health service provider to assess the risk of reoffending. However, the range of people who might be defined as prescribed" providers is uncomfortably broad and not defined by expertise or skill base. In addition, we believe that the tools currently available for assessment may be inappropriate for Australian use. A range of objective risk assessment scales are used in jurisdictions in North America and the United Kingdom.12-14

However, these scales are based on actuarial data and focus on historical variables, without taking into account significant clinical and current variables (such as motivation or response to treatment), or variables which reduce offending risk (such as the advent of physical illness or frailty).15 The resulting estimates of recidivism risk are subject to significant error.16

Furthermore, these scales have not been normed for Australian use, particularly for subgroups such as Indigenous offenders. Our concerns about these scales are even greater given that they are to be used in legal forums, where they are prone to manipulation and misinterpretation. It must be remembered that "false positives" will result in detention on spurious grounds. Preventive detention is odious and affects classes of people rather than individuals. Some will be detained unnecessarily. Ethical issues and role conflict

The role of clinicians under the Act is ethically contentious. Clinicians assessing risk of reoffending will be required to determine eligibility for continued coercive supervision, rather than being called on to inform treatment. Treating doctors may find treatment is subject to lower standards of informed consent, and the voluntariness of those subject to conditions of treatment is a vexed issue. In the United States, sexually violent predator laws have often legislated for a reduced standard of informed consent -- for instance, not requiring full explanation of side effects equivalent to usual practice -- and have offered indemnity to doctors treating patients under these laws.6 These indemnity clauses reflect the fact that doctors may not necessarily be acting in the best interests of their patients.

Of course, many psychiatric interventions are less than consensual and are provided under involuntary treatment legislation. However, these civil commitment laws do not provide for protracted incarceration in prison for failure to comply with treatment. Similarly, one could argue that doctors involved in assessments under such laws are executing the public health duties of medicine, or that the protection of the community warrants such incursions into individual autonomy. However, in a court such arguments substantially alter the duties of beneficence and non-maleficence which are integral to the practice of medicine. Doctors acting in legal forums should not be so easily seduced by the needs of the legal system.

The dual role of treating doctors under this legislation may also have detrimental effects on the therapeutic relationship. For those in treatment, the threat of being subjected to supervision laws is quite likely to discourage candid disclosure about the magnitude and nature of thoughts, impulses and behaviours, lest these be considered incriminating. These factors reflect that treating doctors may be viewed not as independent clinicians but increasingly as agents of supervision, social control and monitoring.

Although a similar situation may arise under other legislation (eg, legislation on monitoring of infectious diseases and other public health issues), to our knowledge no other legislation has been so closely linked with the goals of justice rather than patient care. This shift in the ethical basis of practice warrants careful consideration and consultation. We are not aware that this has occurred in formulating the Victorian Act. Conclusions

The introduction of legislation in Victoria to provide lengthy post-sentence supervision of some sex offenders is likely to set the tone for similar laws throughout Australia. It reflects an international trend for laws targeted at sex offenders, many of which involve doctors and clinical psychologists in non-therapeutic goals, such as monitoring and risk management.

The roles of health professionals in assessment and treatment under the Victorian Act are contentious and at odds with existing standards of ethical practice. It is preferable for clinical staff to focus on treatment rather than policing, as the latter can be adequately, and ethically, undertaken by correctional staff responsible for ensuring compliance with legal orders.

Most importantly, the possibilities for effective treatment that will reduce sexual offending have once again been neglected. In part, the Victorian Act is a response to previous misdirection of resources. Those responsible for providing programs for sex offenders all too often rely on therapists who are not clinically trained psychologists and who are frequently unsupported by appropriate psychiatric input. Instead of developing, funding and evaluating community - and prison-based assessment and treatment programs, what is offered are claims of effectiveness based on no more than a hope and a prayer. This Act, far from making our children safer, may simply allow an unsatisfactory situation to continue.

There is a critical need for funding, training and research to clarify the effect of psychological and pharmacological interventions and to determine their effectiveness in achieving a popularly desired goal. However, to embed treatment in legislation is currently both controversial and premature. It is time to stop gambling with our children's safety and to develop sound evidence-based assessment and treatment programs for sex offenders, administered by properly trained and registered clinical psychologists and psychiatrists.

The Serious Sex Offenders Monitoring Act 2005 (Vic)1

* Requires some sexual offenders against children to be subject to supervision and treatment after release (an Extended Supervision Order).

* An assessment report by a psychologist, psychiatrist or other health service provider is needed for consideration of an Order.

* This report must address: propensity to commit relevant offences in the future; efforts made by the offender to address the causes of sexual-offending behaviour; factors that might increase or decrease any identified risks; and an assessment of risk that the offender will commit another relevant offence if not subject to an Extended Supervision Order.

* A court may make an Extended Supervision Order only if it is satisfied to a high degree of probability that the offender is likely to commit a relevant offence.

* The prosecution has the burden of proof.

* Conditions of the order may include: attendance, reporting and electronic monitoring; notification of changes of address, name or employment; conditions of residence, curfews, and restrictions on movement, associations and employment; and attendance and participation in treatment and the preparation of reports.

* The Order can be made for up to 15 years and is renewable, but subject to review.

* Breach of an Order may be punished by imprisonment of up to 5 years.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Professor James Ogloff (Monash University, Melbourne, Vic) for his suggestions.

Competing interests

None identified.

References

1. Serious Sex Offenders Monitoring Act 2005 (Vic). Available at: http://www.dms.dpc.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubLawToday.nsf?OpenDatabase (accessed Jun 2005).

2. Victoria, Legislative Assembly, Parliament of Victoria Hansard, 22 February 2005: 10. Available at: http://tex.parliament.vic.gov.au/bin/texhtmlt?form=VicHansard.adv (accessed Aug 2005).

3. Fergusson DM, Mullen PE. Childhood sexual abuse: an evidence based perspective. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage, 1999.

4. Fardon v Attorney-General for the State of Queensland [2004] HCA 46. Available at: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/2004/46.html (accessed Jul 2005).

5. Mercado CC, Elbogen EB, Scalora M, Tomkins A. Judgements of dangerousness: are sex offenders assessed differently than civil psychiatric patients? Psychiatry Psychol Law 2001; 8: 146-153.

6. Stone TH, Winslade WJ, Klugman CM. Sex offenders, sentencing laws and pharmaceutical treatment: a prescription for failure. Behav Sci Law 2000; 18: 83-110.

7. News: paedophile parole still worries some [television broadcast]. New Zealand: TV One, 2005: 18 Mar.

8. Wood RM, Grossman LS, Fichtner CG. Psychological assessment, treatment and outcome with sex offenders. Behav Sci Law 2000; 18: 23-41.

9. Bradford JMW. The neurobiology, neuropharmacology, and pharmacological treatment of the paraphilias and compulsive sexual behaviour. Can J Psychiatry 2001; 46: 26-34.

10. Hill A, Briken P, Kraus C, et al. Differential pharmacological treatment of paraphilias and sex offenders. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol 2003; 47: 407-421.

11. Hanson RK, Bussière MT. Predicting relapse: a meta-analysis of sexual offender recidivism studies. J Consult Clin Psychol 1998; 66: 348-362.

12. Hanson RK, Thornton D. Static 99: improving actuarial risk assessments for sex offenders 1999-02. Available at: http://www.psepc-sppcc.gc.ca/publications/corrections/199902_e.pdf (accessed Apr 2005).

13. Firestone P, Bradford JM, Greenberg DM, Serran GA. The relationship of deviant sexual arousal and psychopathy in incest offenders, extrafamilial child molesters and rapists. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 2000; 28: 303-308.

14. Hanson RK, Harris A. The Sex Offender Need Assessment Rating (SONAR): a method for measuring change in risk levels 2000-1. Available at: http://www.psepcsppcc.gc.ca/publications/corrections/200001b_e.asp (accessed Apr 2005).

15. Heilbrun K, Ogloff JR, Picarello K. Dangerous offender statutes in the United States and Canada. Implications for risk assessment. Int J Law Psychiatry 1999; 22: 393-415.

16. Thomas-Peter B, Jones J. High risk inferences in assessing high risk: some concerns about the clinical use of the PCL-R. Presentation to the 5th Annual Conference of the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services; Melbourne; April 2005.

(Received 3 May 2005, accepted 28 Jul 2005)

Monash University, Melbourne, VIC. Danny H Sullivan, MHlthMedLaw, FRANZCP, Psychiatrist and Honorary Lecturer; Paul E Mullen, DSc, FRANZCP, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry; Michele T Pathe, MD, FRANZCP, Psychiatrist and Honorary Senior Lecturer.

Correspondence: Dr Danny H Sullivan, Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, Monash University, Locked Bag 10, Fairfield, VIC 3078. danny.sullivanATforensicare.vic.gov.au

http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/183_06_190905/sul10338_fm.html

By Danny H Sullivan, Paul E Mullen and Michele T Pathe MJA 2005; 183 (6): 318-320 posted 20 September 05

Related:

WA/ Satellite Surveillance
Re : Satellite Tracking of offenders of serious crime released to community supervision.

Custody as the challenge to corrections
Despite their problematic nature, however, recidivism figures do not suggest that the prison component of a sentence improves prospects for deterrence or rehabilitation, by comparison with other sentencing options.

Department of Corrective Services fails to rehabilitate offenders
NSW: Unpopular people will be forced to wear tracking devices at a cost of $5,000 dollars per unit because the NSW Department of Corrective Services failed to rehabilitate those offenders at a cost of $65,000 a year while they were held in custody for many years.

QLD INDEFINITE DETENTION 'IN A NUTSHELL'
The Queensland Attorney-General Rod Welford has taken the unusual steps by taking sex offenders to court right at the time of their release and making sure the keys were thrown away.

Child porn investigation hits school morale
The Primary Principals Association says the ongoing investigation into child pornography in Victoria is having an impact on morale in the state's school system.

Partners of Paedophiles support group in demand
A Partners of Paedophiles support group says it has received an influx of calls after a police operation in which hundreds of Australians have been accused of possessing child pornography.

Dr Louise Porter on protecting children
"When I say that rewards and punishments have limited success what I mean is at the most they can only ever teach children to do as they're told and I think that's a very dangerous thing to do for children.

Expert says child porn investigation tip of iceberg
A leading expert on child abuse says the current New South Wales police investigation into child pornography is just the tip of the iceberg.

Police offer protection to family following gang rape allegations
The parents of a 14-year-old girl claim their daughter was gang-raped in Sydney earlier this year, and have raised concerns about corrupt policeman Detective Sergeant Christopher Laycock's review of the case.

NSW police prosecutor charged with child porn possession
A New South Wales police prosecutor has been charged with the possession of child pornography.

Rockspiders: Police, Teachers, Childcare Owners, and Uncle Pervy!
Police have indicated there will be hundreds more arrests as part of Australia's largest ever crackdown on child pornography even though it is some of the police themselves? Authorities have so far charged more than 190 people with a total of 2000 offences and seized more than two million pornographic images.

Indefinite detention means the government owns its citizens
A convicted rapist detained indefinitely in a north Queensland jail has lost a High Court appeal against his detention. Robert John Fardon was due for release more than a year ago but remains in custody under controversial Queensland legislation.

Police, teachers charged in child porn bust
One-hundred-and-fifty people, including police officers and teachers, have been arrested in what the Federal Police (AFP) describe as Australia's biggest Internet child pornography bust.

Child sex offenders to be monitored in NSW
New South Wales Police Minister John Watkins says convicted child sex offenders in south-western Sydney will be monitored during a six-month trial.

Restorative Justice Conferences
Two Restorative Justice-related conferences will be held days apart in February and March 2005, in Australia.

NSW: Rapists more criminally versatile than Paedophiles
Parents to be given paedophile details? But rapists are more criminally versatile than Paedophiles! So who let the dogs out? Police Minister John Watkins! That's who.

Vic database to track sex offenders' movements
The Sex Offenders Registration Bill is due to be tabled in Parliament later this week. Sex offenders will have to tell police if they change their names, address or work and will not be allowed to work with children.

Govt stands by child sex offender program
The Western Australian Government is standing by a taxpayer-funded agency that offers conditional confidentiality to child sex offenders.

Therapy key for teen sex offenders
US: One girl allegedly was raped in the boys' bathroom at Folsom High School on a warm midday in March. Another told officials the same boy, a freshman at the school, had tried to rape her days earlier in a girls' bathroom. Two other girls told investigators the boy had committed lesser sex crimes against them at school within the previous week. If true, such a pattern of escalation is worrisome, according to experts who study and treat sex offenders.

Gang-rape, police, disparity and the law..
The young woman and her friend have told police they met the players in Coffs Harbour on the evening after the Bulldogs played a trial match there and went back to the team's hotel with them.

Today Sex offenders TOMMORROW YOU!
To suggest there is a need to restrict their movement is rubbish! This is a grab for civil liberties in NSW and it offends everyone else who is free to associate because soon it could be you who is restricted or someone you know.

Tony still seeking release after half a lifetime inside
After serving imprisonment continually since February of 1956, because of his age 74, he suffers from high blood pressure, angina, has survived a mild stroke and two major strokes in the past few years, leading to mobility problems on gradients and he continues to have irregular heart problems.

'Lifers' swap cells for nursing beds
A MURDERER and a child molester each judged too dangerous to ever be free of the prison system have been paroled to ordinary nursing homes where other residents have not been told about their pasts. Child sex offender Phillip Adamson and murderer Percy David Bond, who were both in poor health, were moved in recent weeks. Both have spent more than 30 years in jail and both were sentenced under conditions that mean they will never technically be released.

NSW Prisons Inmate Development Committee speaks out
I am writing on behalf of the IDC Inmate Development Committee in area 3, MSPC at Long Bay. Area 3 is where, the Department is congregating minimum-security offenders within maximum-security walls whilst awaiting mandatory programs at Cubit (Sex Offenders Program).

Clarke to scrap plan to peg prison numbers

* New emphasis placed on reducing reoffending rates
* Community prisons will make family visits easier

UK: The home secretary, Charles Clarke, has said he is to abandon his predecessor's aspiration of pegging the prison population in England and Wales at 80,000. He will also drop plans to put a legal obligation on the judges' sentencing guidelines council to take the size of the prison population - currently 77,000 and rising - into account when laying down the "going rate" for major crimes.

"I am not convinced that an overall obligation to look at the overall size of the prison population is the right thing to do," Mr Clarke, who succeeded David Blunkett, said. Instead, the home secretary wants to cut Britain's reoffending rates by creating a network of community prisons to ensure that those serving short sentences remain close to their families and communities.

He recognises that an overcrowded prison system means that goal will be difficult to achieve but believes a system of community prisons can be set up by restructuring the jail network and by greater use of community punishments for some of those serving short sentences.

The new approach will be unveiled tonight by Mr Clarke in a speech to the Prison Reform Trust - his first major statement on penal policy since he became home secretary last December.

Mr Clarke also dismissed "as a complete horlicks" repeated Sunday newspaper speculation that Tony Blair is unhappy with his performance as home secretary and intends to reshuffle him.

He described himself as "tough but not populist", a position he says No 10 is very happy with. Some described Mr Blunkett as populist, so Mr Clarke is signalling a change in style.

He also said that he wants to end the remote image of the Home Office. Because of the pressure on his time caused by the terrorist outrages, he admitted he has not yet had the chance to spell out his vision of penal policy, saying today's speech to the Prison Reform Trust will make clear that for a government that puts health and education at the heart of its mission, the prison system does not reflect Labour values. "We don't do enough for the least healthy and the least educated people in the country, who are the people in the criminal justice system, particularly if we know that if you solve issues like literacy and numeracy then you can solve issues like drug abuse and mental health [so] that people are less likely to offend than would otherwise be the case."

He said a large proportion of the prison population, including some on remand or serving shorter sentences, need to remain more closely integrated with their communities. "We need to get to a state of affairs where prisoners are able to reintegrate into society through developing their relations with their friends and family. The break in that - and it happens often -is the damaging thing in people's ability to stop reoffending."

Families and friends on average travel five hours to visit an inmate and the number of jail visits is dropping. As many as two-thirds of prisoners see their relationships with partners end. Many others lose job or home.

"We need to work much harder to organise community prisons so that prisoners when they are in prison are in reasonably close geographical proximity to the people who they know and to their future."

He added that he was asking some multinational companies to employ a set number of former prisoners, so long as they had acquired the relevant skills. One such deal has already been struck, with Transco, the gas pipelines company.

Main aims

* create a network of community prisons so inmates are closer to their families

* abandon the aspiration of pegging the prison population to 80,000

* abandon proposals that sentencing take into account prison overcrowding

* end the remote image of the Home Office

By Patrick Wintour and Alan Travis 19 September 05

Related:

Crowded jails 'boosting suicides'
UK: The chief inspector of prisons warned that an overcrowding crisis in Britain's jails was leading to an increase in prisoner suicides.

Chief justice calls for new approach to law and order
UK: The retiring [ruling class] lord chief justice, Lord Woolf, made a passionate plea for a new approach to law and order which would see a major shift away from punishment towards the solution of problems which generate crime.

Britain's only prison ship ends up on the beach
UK: The last inmates have departed and a skeleton staff is left guarding Britain's only prison ship - in case anyone is minded to break in rather than out.

Throw away the key
The one profession to get results on recidivism has been sacrificed to Labour's desire to lock up criminals in private prisons.

Judges' misdeeds will remain secret
UK: Judges who are disciplined for bad behaviour will not have the findings against them made public under a complaints regime to be launched next year.

Prisoner total rises 15% in six years
England and Wales are continuing to jail offenders at a higher rate than any other major country in western Europe, it emerged today. New research indicates that the government's use of prison as its main tool of penal policy has increased by 15% since 1999.

CPS drops prosecution over death in custody
UK: The family of Roger Sylvester, who died after being restrained by police officers, yesterday expressed their disappointment at a decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute any of the officers involved.

Prisoner's cell death
UK: A prisoner was found hanged in his cell last week, the Home Office said, fuelling criticism over the soaring number of suicides in custody.

Plans for five new 'superprisons'
Recent figures show a total of 75,550 prisoners were held in 139 jails in England and Wales, nudging up the previous record of April 2004 by just six inmates.

Prison has lost its way - report
UK: Bristol prison is suffering wide-ranging problems because of inconsistent management, the Chief Inspector of Prisons has said.

Row over acupuncture for prisoners
UK: The Home Office has responded to criticism over prison inmates who are being offered acupuncture on the NHS in order to relieve stress.

Number of prisoners sent back to jail trebles
UK: The number of prisoners being sent back to jail after release has nearly trebled in the past five years, according to a report published today.

Top judge says crowded prisons cannot break cycle of crime
UK: Reoffending rates after a prison sentence are at an "unacceptably high level" and the failure of the criminal justice system to stop prisoners reoffending should shock the public, England's top judge, [Ruling Class] Lord Woolf, said last week.

All the World's a Prison: History
No doubt many of my readers, even those who are well-educated or widely read, think that the prison -- the place where dark deeds are darkly answered[2] -- is an ancient institution, a barbaric hold-over from barbaric times. In fact, the prison is of relatively recent origin, and this tells us a great deal about the pretentions and realities of modern times, and the wisdom and high degree of development of the ancients.

Decade after inspector left in disgust, report tells of filth
UK: Dirty, mice-infested cells, high levels of self-harm, and widespread bullying over drugs and medications were just some of the damning findings of a report into conditions at Holloway, Britain's largest women's prison.

Most women 'should not be jailed'
Women make up 6% of the prison population in England and Wales. Imprisonment of women should be "virtually abolished", a prison reform group has said.

Youth 'murdered for officers' pleasure'
UK: An Asian teenager was murdered by a white racist after they were placed in the same cell as part of a game to fulfil the "perverted pleasure" of prison officers, a public inquiry heard on Friday.

Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases
The use of segregation [solitary confinement] of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation.

Inquest blames jail for overdose death
UK: An inquest jury returned a verdict itemising a catalogue of faults at Styal prison in Cheshire, concluding that the prison's "failure of duty of care" contributed to the death of Sarah Campbell, 18, who took an overdose of tablets on the first day of her three-year sentence.

Put in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect others
UK: Sarah Campbell, 18, spent the last hours of her life in the segregation unit of Styal prison, Cheshire. "The seg", as those places are referred to, used to be known as "the block", short for punishment block. [ Seg is a bullshit word for Punishment, Solitary Confinement, Torture, Mental Illness, Self-Harm, Human Rights Abuse and that is State Terror.]

Britain 'sliding into police state'
The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is transforming Britain into a police state, one of the country's former leading anti-terrorist police chiefs [false flag police chiefs] said yesterday.

UK solitary confinement
UK: Segregation units are prisons within prisons - the places where the most unchecked brutality is meted out to prisoners. In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased.

Inquiry must root out prison racists
UK: It is difficult to imagine a more brutal murder than that of Zahid Mubarek. The 19-year-old was clubbed to death by his cellmate at Feltham Young Offender Institution in the early hours of 21 March 2000. He was due to be released just a few hours later.

Prison suicides soar as jails hire 'babysitters'
UK: Prison officers are being taken off suicide watch and replaced by unqualified 'babysitters' because the system is overwhelmed by an epidemic of self-harm.

Plan to sell off juvenile jails as job lot
UK: The government is to put out to tender all its dedicated juvenile jails that hold children under 18 in a departure in Whitehall's privatisation programme.

Failure to sack 'racist' prison staff condemned
UK: Two prison officers suspended for racism are still on full pay three years after a stash of Nazi memorabilia, neo-fascist literature and Ku Klux Klan-inspired 'nigger-hunting licences' was found in a police raid on their home.

Report slams 'unjust' jailing of women on remand
UK: Six out of 10 women sent to jail while they await trial are acquitted or given a non-custodial sentence, a report published today reveals. Introducing the report, Lady Kennedy QC calls for a complete review of the use of remand and bail for women saying it is "inhumane and unjust".

Concern as UK prison suicides hit record level
UK: More prisoners took their own lives in English jails in August than in any other month since records began, prison reformers said today.

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors
But now Holloway prison in north London - where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, was hanged in 1955 - has been earmarked for closure, along with several other women's prisons, which have been hit by a spate of suicides.

How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the brink
UK: Six suicides in 12 months made Styal jail notorious and the Prisons Ombudsman criticised the prison and its staff for serious failures. But things are changing.

Belmarsh detainees consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim detainees released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism has told the Guardian his fellow prisoners are suffering such severe mental problems that they constantly consider suicide.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.

England tops the EU in imprisonment
England and Wales jail more offenders per capita than any other European, Union country, according to new figures.

Chief justice calls for new approach to law and order

UK: The retiring [ruling class]lord chief justice, Lord Woolf, made a passionate plea for a new approach to law and order which would see a major shift away from punishment towards the solution of problems which generate crime.

Lord Woolf suggests a shortlist of four strictly limited categories of offenders who might be imprisoned and - in sharp contrast to the rhetoric of government ministers - he adds: "We need wider understanding and acceptance that the principles of sentencing are not just founded on punishing offenders."

Lord Woolf is stepping down in September after five years as the most senior criminal judge in England and Wales. His comments come in a response to the Guardian's two-year investigation into the criminal justice system, which uncovered fundamental weaknesses. The heads of prisons, drug treatment and the new National Offender Management Service (Noms) also respond in the paper.

Lord Woolf argues for a fundamental change in the use of imprisonment, restricting its use to the most dangerous offenders and the most serious crimes, as a recognition of special offences and as a fall-back where all other efforts have failed. But his stress is on the need to find more effective ways of cutting crime.

"Whilst I firmly believe that for serious and violent crimes there is no alternative to a custodial sentence, I also believe passionately on taking steps to turn people away from crime," he writes.

"We do not want a system that shuts people outside society, once they have left the prison gates."

He highlights the failure of current measures to prevent reoffending: "All of us working within the system must aim to do much better than that."

He supports moves towards restorative justice, which sees offenders making amends to their victims; and he suggests there might be a wider use of the approach taken with young offenders by the Youth Justice Board, which pulls together different agencies in a concerted attack on the roots of crime: "I see great value in looking at the specific needs and problems of particular groups."

He welcomes the creation of the new Noms but, in an aside which may irritate Whitehall, he acknowledges concerns, highlighted in the Guardian series, that the Home Office is struggling to manage the creation of the new service.

His comments come as the prison population in England and Wales shows alarming signs of surging upwards. On Friday, it reached a new high of 76,877 with predictions that it may break through 77,000 this week - despite the fact that August normally sees a drop in imprisonment.

Courts are apparently being driven into tougher sentencing by the recent outbreak of punitive rhetoric from government ministers, led by the prime minister's comments on young people wearing hoodies. This week a court sentenced a teacher who had had sex with a 14-year-old pupil to 15 months in jail.

Lord Woolf has a history of standing up to ministers and other hardliners over this kind of rhetoric. In May he spoke out against the overcrowding of prisons immediately after the chief constable of Hampshire, Paul Kernaghan, had called for yet more offenders to be jailed.

Last year, he clashed with the former home secretary, David Blunkett, and the Sun newspaper, both of whom attacked his proposal to reduce the time served in prison by murderers who plead guilty. He has also challenged the lord chancellor's intervention in the appointment of judges for public inquiries.

In his response, the chief executive of Noms, Martin Narey, defends the organisation, which is merging prisons and probation. But he is outspoken about the past failings of probation, conceding that reporting to courts was "close to collapse"; some leaders of probation did not believe their clients were capable of being educated, even though this was one of their priorities; and that the caricature of community penalties being badly enforced was "uncomfortably close to reality".

By Nick Davies posted 18 August 05

The Long Trail to Apology

Native America: All manner of unusual things can happen in Washington in an election year, but few seem so refreshing as a proposed official apology from the federal government to American Indians - the first ever - for the "violence, maltreatment and neglect" inflicted upon the tribes for centuries.

Restorative Justice Practices

Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation and Other Indigenous People of North America. This is part one in a series of articles about restorative justice practices of Native American, First Nation and other indigenous people of North America. The series is not intended to be all-inclusive, but rather a broad thematic overview. A related eForum article, "The Wet'suwet'en Unlocking Aboriginal Justice Program: Restorative Practices in British Columbia, Canada," can be read at:

Restorative Justice and the Law

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe."-- Marilyn vos Savant.

Government justice not personal justice

Mr Brett Collins of Justice Action said, "Victims should be looked after properly by implementing restorative justice measures and victims should be compensated for their pain and suffering. " However prisoners are entitled to serve their sentences in peace and privacy as well."

Sentencing: Violent crime and practical outcomes

In addition introducing restorative justice programs giving the offender a chance to interact with the offended person if they wish and visa-versa. People are not "dogmatic" therefore should be given a second chance opposed to Life means Life!

Sentencing reform

Beyond Bars is making a submission (with a focus on alternatives to custody) to the sentencing council. "We should consider the alternatives which take into account victims' interests and involvement. Restorative justice. Also mentoring as a positive form of social support, coupled up to restorative justice (as the punishment) to satisfy those who demand it."

RESTORING TRUE JUSTICE:

Australian prisons are fast becoming the new asylums of the third millennium. The prison industry is booming, while Australia spends far less on mental health services than similar countries.

Some Practicalities Of Emptying The Prisons [287]

Given the importance that prisons and punishment have in maintaining control of increasingly restless populations, the task of achieving the release of the people in the jails and the closure of those institutions, seems daunting. But it is so vital to the 2nd Renaissance that we must find ways to do it.

Related:

Britain's only prison ship ends up on the beach
UK: The last inmates have departed and a skeleton staff is left guarding Britain's only prison ship - in case anyone is minded to break in rather than out.

Throw away the key
The one profession to get results on recidivism has been sacrificed to Labour's desire to lock up criminals in private prisons.

Judges' misdeeds will remain secret
UK: Judges who are disciplined for bad behaviour will not have the findings against them made public under a complaints regime to be launched next year.

Prisoner total rises 15% in six years
England and Wales are continuing to jail offenders at a higher rate than any other major country in western Europe, it emerged today. New research indicates that the government's use of prison as its main tool of penal policy has increased by 15% since 1999.

CPS drops prosecution over death in custody
UK: The family of Roger Sylvester, who died after being restrained by police officers, yesterday expressed their disappointment at a decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute any of the officers involved.

Prisoner's cell death
UK: A prisoner was found hanged in his cell last week, the Home Office said, fuelling criticism over the soaring number of suicides in custody.

Plans for five new 'superprisons'
Recent figures show a total of 75,550 prisoners were held in 139 jails in England and Wales, nudging up the previous record of April 2004 by just six inmates.

Prison has lost its way - report
UK: Bristol prison is suffering wide-ranging problems because of inconsistent management, the Chief Inspector of Prisons has said.

Row over acupuncture for prisoners
UK: The Home Office has responded to criticism over prison inmates who are being offered acupuncture on the NHS in order to relieve stress.

Number of prisoners sent back to jail trebles
UK: The number of prisoners being sent back to jail after release has nearly trebled in the past five years, according to a report published today.

Top judge says crowded prisons cannot break cycle of crime
UK: Reoffending rates after a prison sentence are at an "unacceptably high level" and the failure of the criminal justice system to stop prisoners reoffending should shock the public, England's top judge, [Ruling Class] Lord Woolf, said last week.

All the World's a Prison: History
No doubt many of my readers, even those who are well-educated or widely read, think that the prison -- the place where dark deeds are darkly answered[2] -- is an ancient institution, a barbaric hold-over from barbaric times. In fact, the prison is of relatively recent origin, and this tells us a great deal about the pretentions and realities of modern times, and the wisdom and high degree of development of the ancients.

Decade after inspector left in disgust, report tells of filth
UK: Dirty, mice-infested cells, high levels of self-harm, and widespread bullying over drugs and medications were just some of the damning findings of a report into conditions at Holloway, Britain's largest women's prison.

Most women 'should not be jailed'
Women make up 6% of the prison population in England and Wales. Imprisonment of women should be "virtually abolished", a prison reform group has said.

Youth 'murdered for officers' pleasure'
UK: An Asian teenager was murdered by a white racist after they were placed in the same cell as part of a game to fulfil the "perverted pleasure" of prison officers, a public inquiry heard on Friday.

Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases
The use of segregation [solitary confinement] of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation.

Inquest blames jail for overdose death
UK: An inquest jury returned a verdict itemising a catalogue of faults at Styal prison in Cheshire, concluding that the prison's "failure of duty of care" contributed to the death of Sarah Campbell, 18, who took an overdose of tablets on the first day of her three-year sentence.

Put in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect others
UK: Sarah Campbell, 18, spent the last hours of her life in the segregation unit of Styal prison, Cheshire. "The seg", as those places are referred to, used to be known as "the block", short for punishment block. [ Seg is a bullshit word for Punishment, Solitary Confinement, Torture, Mental Illness, Self-Harm, Human Rights Abuse and that is State Terror.]

Britain 'sliding into police state'
The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is transforming Britain into a police state, one of the country's former leading anti-terrorist police chiefs [false flag police chiefs] said yesterday.

UK solitary confinement
UK: Segregation units are prisons within prisons - the places where the most unchecked brutality is meted out to prisoners. In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased.

Inquiry must root out prison racists
UK: It is difficult to imagine a more brutal murder than that of Zahid Mubarek. The 19-year-old was clubbed to death by his cellmate at Feltham Young Offender Institution in the early hours of 21 March 2000. He was due to be released just a few hours later.

Prison suicides soar as jails hire 'babysitters'
UK: Prison officers are being taken off suicide watch and replaced by unqualified 'babysitters' because the system is overwhelmed by an epidemic of self-harm.

Plan to sell off juvenile jails as job lot
UK: The government is to put out to tender all its dedicated juvenile jails that hold children under 18 in a departure in Whitehall's privatisation programme.

Failure to sack 'racist' prison staff condemned
UK: Two prison officers suspended for racism are still on full pay three years after a stash of Nazi memorabilia, neo-fascist literature and Ku Klux Klan-inspired 'nigger-hunting licences' was found in a police raid on their home.

Report slams 'unjust' jailing of women on remand
UK: Six out of 10 women sent to jail while they await trial are acquitted or given a non-custodial sentence, a report published today reveals. Introducing the report, Lady Kennedy QC calls for a complete review of the use of remand and bail for women saying it is "inhumane and unjust".

Concern as UK prison suicides hit record level
UK: More prisoners took their own lives in English jails in August than in any other month since records began, prison reformers said today.

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors
But now Holloway prison in north London - where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, was hanged in 1955 - has been earmarked for closure, along with several other women's prisons, which have been hit by a spate of suicides.

How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the brink
UK: Six suicides in 12 months made Styal jail notorious and the Prisons Ombudsman criticised the prison and its staff for serious failures. But things are changing.

Belmarsh detainees consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim detainees released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism has told the Guardian his fellow prisoners are suffering such severe mental problems that they constantly consider suicide.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.

England tops the EU in imprisonment
England and Wales jail more offenders per capita than any other European, Union country, according to new figures.