Reduce Adult Re-offending

Reducing re-offending is one of the Government’s key areas of focus for the next three years. Whilst more crimes are being detected across the country and re-offending rates are starting to reduce, more can be done to reduce re-offending, particularly by the most prolific offenders. The Government sees the following as key to continuing progress:

• Continuing to strengthen the capability of the Police, Crown Prosecution Service and other prosecutors, and the courts, and to simplify criminal justice system (CJS) processes through schemes such as CJSSS.
• Focusing on the most prolific offenders throughout the CJS, particularly implementing the Drug Intervention Programme and the Prolific and Priority Offenders Strategy.
• Ensuring that the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Office work together to ensure that their response to offenders covers the need to punish and deter, to rehabilitate and to increase public confidence in the CJS.

At a local level, the Partnership also has reducing re-offending as a strategic priority and has an established action plan to meet the challenge of transforming offenders in the local area into law-abiding citizens. This action plan focuses on seven main themes, or ‘pathways, to reducing re-offending:

• Helping offenders to deal with problems of drug and / or alcohol misuse that are a factor in their offending behaviour.
• Dealing with the mental health needs of offenders, particularly those in custody or subject to Community Orders.
• Improving offenders’ basic skills and their ability to get and retain a job .
• Ensuring that offenders can access and retain appropriate accommodation, and helping them to tackle debt.
• Improving offenders’ ability to see the consequences of their actions and to tackle problems without recourse to violence.
• Ensuring education, training and employment opportunities for young offenders and raising achievement levels.
• Tackling the intergenerational offending cycle through working with offenders’ families and children.

Our priorities for 2008 – 2011

• Further progressing the local Reducing Re-offending Action Plan, focusing activities on delivery of the seven ‘pathways’ to resettlement.
• Developing and implementing a co-ordinated case management approach to assessing the needs of offenders released into the area and prioritising service delivery for them and their families.
• Implementing revised and updated criteria for targeting PPOs, to ensure that the focus of attention is on those responsible for committing the greatest number of trigger offences.
• Further developing links between the Partnership and the Local Criminal Justice Group (LCJG) and working jointly to improve policy and practice on issues of common interest such as domestic violence and reducing re-offending.
• Building effective and productive relationships with HMP Buckley Hall, to support schemes and initiatives aimed at improving the resettlement prospects of offenders discharged into the local area.

Our targets

• Reduce the level of proven re-offending by adult offenders under probation supervision, including serious re-offending (NI 18).
• Reduce the re-offending rate of prolific and priority offenders (NI 30).
• Increase the number of offenders under Probation supervision living in settled and suitable accommodation at the end of their order or license (NI 143).
• Increase the number of offenders under Probation supervision in employment at the end of their order or license (NI 144).