Recommendation 60

Part of the issue was that CRCs “were not allowed to engage directly with the courts” according to the National Audit Office. 94 As the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) put it, “there was dissatisfaction about the inability of sentencers to direct the shape of the community order”. 95 An inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) found that, “in the final months” of the Transforming Rehabilitation years, magistrates “liked the idea of drug rehabilitation requirements, but felt that they were being poorly delivered” because “they did not have confidence in CRCs to meet the needs of people on probation who had a drug problem”. 96