04 August 2022
The States of Jersey Prison Service (SoJPS), and Probation and Aftercare Service have made a number of developments in their ongoing strategy to reduce re-offending amongst prison leavers.
Carli Garraghan has been appointed as Lead Forensic Psychologist and will lead on the needs analysis of the prison’s population as well as evidential research for the most effective practice for interventions by the services. She will work across the criminal justice space in the island to ensure joined up working and efficiencies in resource allocation. Carli, who is Jersey-born, has spent time in the UK studying and continues to build upon her professional development through remote and in-person learning as well as shared opportunities with other prisons outside of the island.
She commented: “I’m delighted to have taken up this post and look forward to continuing to build upon what I’ve already achieved in my 13 years at La Moye prison, including knowledge sharing with different jurisdictions, through established relationships. Throughout my career, I have been extremely well supported by the Government of Jersey in my professional development and opportunities to progress.
“I’m particularly interested in working with staff from both the prison and probation teams to ensure we are all providing a rehabilitation culture and meaningfully address offending behaviour and the drivers behind those, so that we can prevent the recurring pattern.”
In addition to Carli’s senior posting, overseas research has been undertaken by staff from both services during a trip to Norwegian counterparts in April. A team of seven, including Prison Governor Susie Richardson, travelled to Bergen Fengsel, one of the prisons within the Norwegian Correctional Service that has a focus on ‘providing a system that allows criminals to change their patterns of behaviour.’
Prison Governor, Susie Richardson, said: “Here in Jersey, we already do a lot of really good work between SoJPS and Probation and Aftercare, and there are some clear parallels between our work and the Norwegian model, but I know we can do better and we have the potential to become one of the best prisons in the world; it is one of the things that attracted me to the role as Governor here.”
Home Affairs Minister, Helen Miles, said: “I’m really interested in the progression of the strategy to reduce reoffending that shows clear joint working across services and departments. The teams are clearly making progress in implementing the plans and I look forward to how they develop over time.”
gov.je