Source · IAPDC
Effective community sentences and the role treatment requirements can play in preventing deaths in custody
Published: 3 June 2019
Sector: Cross-cutting
Type: Joint Report
Joint with: Magistrates Association
Recommendations: 23
No formal response
Joint report with the Magistrates Association on how effective community sentences and treatment requirements can divert people from custody and reduce deaths. Contains 23 recommendations.
Recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Addressee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1a | The Ministry of Justice should ensure that forthcoming reforms to probation services include the requirement for local probation services to keep sentencers informed about community sentencing options in their local area. This could be achieved through information and presentations to magistrates by local probation services and the requirement for magistrates to visit community sentencing options at least once a year, alongside the opportunity to hear directly from offenders about progress made. | Open | |
| 1b | A feedback mechanism for sentencers should be created for identification of areas where community sentencing options provided for in law are not made locally available in a timely way. Information gathered via this mechanism should be used to inform local commissioning arrangements and fill gaps in existing services, as well as being aggregated for national reporting. | Open | |
| 1c | A process whereby magistrates and district judges review the progress of individuals given treatment requirements should be developed; see 2g. | Open | |
| 1d | Magistrates and district judges should receive timely information from liaison and diversion services about a defendant’s mental health, learning disability, substance misuse and other needs; see recommendation 3. | Open | |
| 1e | The Judicial College should analyse whether current training on mental health conditions and disorders, including acquired brain injury, meets the needs of the judiciary and consider what further training may be required. | Open | |
| 2a | Following the five Community Sentence Treatment Requirement (CSTR) trial sites, the Ministry of Justice and Department of Health and Social Care should agree funding arrangements for national roll out of CSTRs. This should include universal and timely access to the Mental Health Treatment Requirement (MHTR), Drug Rehabilitation Requirement (DRR) and Alcohol Treatment Requirement (ATR). | Open | |
| 2b | A protocol for secondary care MHTRs should be developed and funding arrangements agreed by the Ministry of Justice and Department of Health and Social Care. | Open | |
| 2c | The overall funding necessary for treatment requirements should be reviewed by the Ministry of Justice and Department of Health and Social Care and made available, and the need to ring fence local funding considered. | Open | |
| 2d | The need for services for specific cohorts should be considered in the development and delivery of treatment requirements. Intersectionality should also be considered; for example, young men from Black and Minority Ethnic communities and women who have experienced abusive relationships with men. | Open | |
| 2e | Treatment requirements should be flexible and able to respond appropriately to offenders with multiple needs; for example, people with co-existing mental health and substance misuse problems. | Open | |
| 2f | Treatment requirements should be accessible for people with acquired brain injury, learning disabilities and/or autism and be flexible in responding to need. | Open | |
| 2g | The Ministry of Justice and Department of Health and Social Care should create a mechanism whereby treatment requirements are reviewed by magistrates. This would enable magistrates to monitor progress of how treatment requirements are delivered and of individual offenders (in an appropriate manner, taking into account patient and clinical confidentiality). | Open | |
| 3a | Quarterly updates from liaison and diversion services should be provided to, amongst others, the Bench Chair and MA branch mental health and learning disability champion. The Bench Chair should ensure information is disseminated to all magistrates. Information provided by liaison and diversion services should include: i. how members of the judiciary are informed about a defendant’s mental health, learning disabilities, substance misuse or other needs and suggestions for reasonable adjustments, as necessary ii. when members of the judiciary can expect to receive this information, i.e. as part of the case management file iii. what members of the judiciary should do if, in the absence of a report by liaison and diversion services, they are concerned about a defendant’s mental health, learning disability and/or autism or other needs – including the possibility of acquired brain injury, and would like an assessment to be undertaken by liaison and diversion services iv. what members of the judiciary should do if they believe a defendant’s condition or circumstances have changed and a new assessment might be necessary. | Open | |
| 3b | A feedback loop between liaison and diversion services and members of the judiciary should be established to provide feedback on what is working well and where there are concerns so that early solutions can be found where difficulties arise. | Open | |
| 3c | Reports from liaison and diversion services should inform PSRs and be clearly referenced within the PSR as coming from liaison and diversion services; see recommendation 5c. | Open | |
| 4a | Over half of magistrates said they didn’t find Sentencing Council guidelines clear in setting out how they should take account of mental health needs. The two Sentencing Council consultations (Expanded Explanations in Sentencing Guidelines and Sentencing Offenders with Mental Health Conditions or Disorders) are both welcomed and timely, and provide the opportunity to ensure feedback from magistrates, including via the Magistrates Association. | Open | |
| 5a | Relevant agencies should clarify when a pre-sentence report (PSR) is required and what information should be included. Written guidance should be issued, noting that sentencers should have full discretion to specify what information they want included in response to a specific case. | Open | |
| 5b | Where a custodial sentence is being considered, the National Probation Service should ensure that PSRs address risk and vulnerability of the offender and whether a community sentence might offer improved justice and health outcomes. | Open | |
| 5c | Reports from liaison and diversion services should inform PSRs, and information provided by them should be clearly identified as such in the PSR. In the absence of information from liaison and diversion services, the case should either be adjourned until the offender is seen by liaison and diversion services and a report made or a ‘nil return’ should be recorded by the report writer to confirm the absence of mental health needs, learning disability and/or autism, and substance misuse. | Open | |
| 6a | Access to secure and specialist beds, whether for assessment or treatment and care, should be dealt with in the same urgency for individuals in the criminal justice system as for those in the wider community. Prison should not be used as a temporary solution while a hospital bed is found, neither should it be used as a place of remand while awaiting a mental health assessment; instead, s.35 of the Mental Health Act should be invoked. For those convicted, but requiring treatment, there should be a greater use of s.38. | Open | |
| 6b | Prison should never be used as a place of safety; this has implications for the Bail Act 1976 provision to remand a person into custody for their own protection25. | Open | |
| 6c | Should there be no alternative to a custodial sentence, reports by liaison and diversion services should be shared proportionately with the prison service and be available when the offender first arrives into prison. | Open | |
| 6d | The impact of the prison environment on prisoners’ mental health and wellbeing should be recognised. Prisoners should expect to be accommodated in an environment that promotes their mental health and wellbeing, and at the very least does no harm. | Open |
Report details
- Published
- 3 June 2019
- Sector
- Cross-cutting
- Type
- Joint Report
- Joint with
- Magistrates Association
Status breakdown
| Open | 23 |