Recommendation 106

The then Chief Inspector of Probation told us about a “gap in the market for people with very profound needs who commit very prolific low-level offending but are probably not being reached by community sentences at the moment”. 196 He argued that “the link in our sentencing framework between the seriousness of the offence, the tariff and the intensity of the intervention that can be offered … leaves a lacuna around the group of low-level offenders with very serious needs”. 197 He explained: “One of the interesting things in the way sentencing works is that the intensity of the sentence, particularly the intensity of the interventions associated with it, tends to be associated with the seriousness of the offence that is before the court. It has to be a fairly high-tariff offence before the most intensive interventions, such as drug rehabilitation requirements or mental health requirements, can be attached. That is slightly unfortunate, because quite often the people with the most profound needs are stuck in cycles of very low-level but extremely persistent offending. Typically, a street heroin user who is constantly shoplifting or committing minor, petty offences will not get a long community order; they will get a fine or a short prison sentence. That does nothing to tackle the underlying needs that drive the offending.” 198