17 August 2007
November 16th 2009
MEDIA RELEASE Community Sentences and their Outcomes in Jersey: the third report.
The third in a series of reports published by the Jersey Probation and Aftercare Service highlights the continuing success of community penalties in reducing the risk of re-offending in Jersey. The report is authored by Jersey-based researchers Dr Helen Miles and Ms Brenda Coster in partnership with Professor Peter Raynor from Swansea University.
The research demonstrates that the assessment tools used to predict reconviction risk in Jersey continue to be reliable for both adult and youth offenders. The findings also suggest that reconviction rates for community penalties are generally lower than in England and Wales, whereas reconviction rates of custodial penalties are generally higher. Offenders in the sample were sentenced prior to the introduction of Probation through care at the prison and prior to the other improvements in regime over the last few years. The impact of these changes will be seen in the next report due in 2012.
Programme intervention delivered to Probationers has resulted in statistically significant reductions in the risk of re-offending.
The findings from this research give a very positive view of probation service activities in Jersey and demonstrate the beneficial impact that orders can have on changing behaviour.
Details of good probation practice in Jersey have attracted international attention and have contributed to the development of an international research network studying probation practice. Articles have been published in international journals and the benefits of the Jersey model of supervision have been highlighted in a number of countries.
The full report can be found in the Reports and Publications section of our website.
October 2nd 2009
The summer break seems like a dim and distant memory. The States have been meeting to discuss the Business Plan for next year which will impact directly on what services we deliver next year and how we do them. Up for approval are resources to implement the specialist Court Advisory Service, to assist the Family Division of the Royal Court; and resources to allow us to begin the implementation of the New Sex Offender's Law which is being debated next week.
Three weeks ago we were lucky enough to have Professor Chris Trotter of Monash University, lead some training in Pro social modelling and problem solving for the entire staff team. This approach is demonstrably effective at helping offenders to make positive changes and reduce their likelihood of re offending. It's not just the Probation Officers who make the difference either: every intervention counts from the moment we answer the phone or greet a client which is why every staff member went to the training.
This week I have been reviewing progress into our new inspection framework and it's first subject area: - Leadership and Management. Well, it seemed unfair to unleash the new arrangements on others without experiencing it ourselves first. Indications so far are that that the framework is a good one, though we need to do some more work in being more specific about what we are looking for in some parts of the paperwork. The initial results on performance have been good too which is always gratifying.
August 26th 2009
The long school holidays can be something of a blessing for busy managers. Not only do they mean those of us with children have to take annual leave and thus get a dose of real life, but convening any sort of large meeting is pretty much impossible. The States Assembly is also not meeting. As a result it's possible to get more of those jobs done which require a half or full day's attention at a time. Thinking and planning time is invaluable but sometimes hard to find at other times of the year.
The summer holiday period is different on the "front line" of course as colleagues look after each other's workload to allow them to take some badly needed leave. On occasion even the Chief Probation Officer covers court duties and other client work. This serves to remind me, firstly of the high level of skill and commitment I require of all my staff team and secondly how rusty my own practitioner skills and knowledge have become. The most important thing it reminds me of however, is that the clients of our service are people and not just statistics or units to be processed. It sounds like stating the obvious, but is all too easy even in a small service like ours to forget that each individual is unique and much more than the problem or offence which they present with.
July 28th 2009
It has been a busy month! Visitors from the UK; a new Bailiff taking the oath of office; financial pressures next year; half yearly performance statistics to scrutinise and a preview of a forthcoming reconviction study.
Visitors
We were delighted to welcome Carolyn Downs, the Deputy Permanent Secretary and Director General of the Ministry of Justice in London during her recent visit to Jersey. In the short time available I hope we were able to demonstrate that despite our size, we are able to provide the Courts, public and other Criminal Justice Departments with a high quality and effective service.
Finance
More challenging has been the news that we have to cut our budget next year. Whilst not totally unexpected, very short timescales were provided and the cuts have been made across departments rather than through prioritising services. Fortunately, the team here is constantly reviewing efficiency and effectiveness and we had already identified areas where we could make savings, albeit planning to reinvest these to develop other areas of our work. The difficulty is that we have had to spend to save so these savings will not become apparent until 2011. Will the States of Jersey Treasury find a way to reflect this in the accounts? I hope so, otherwise we will have to cut expenditure further which will impact on effectiveness directly and cause increases in costs elsewhere in the Criminal Justice System.
Effectiveness
Whilst on the subject of effectiveness some good news. The latest reconviction study is showing a good strong performance for both Probation and Community Service Orders. Properly targeted, both sanctions provide cost effective alternatives to custody; this is recognised by our Courts who rarely use short custodial sentences in contrast to the position in mainland UK. Statistics for the first six months of this year show an increase in almost all areas of our work, though this may not mean that crime has gone up. The challenge is to maintain our effectiveness when numbers go up like this.
July 1st 2009
Update
The Annual Report and Business Plan is now in the Publications part of the website. We have also loaded a couple of Research reports which relate to the effectiveness of our work and a copy of a Powerpoint presentation given to a Conference of academics, politicians and criminal justice professionals in Trinidad earlier this year. I hope you find them interesting and informative.
Jersey Court Advisory Service
At the beginning of this year the Probation and After Care Service was granted an extra post to compensate for the increase in work seen in recent years for the Family Division of the Royal Court. We provide reports for the Court in private law proceedings involving children, usually when separating couples cannot agree on residence or contact arrangements for the children of the relationship. This new post is the start of a new specialist department of our service to be called the Jersey Court Advisory Service. Currently other staff from our service and the Children's Service also continue to carry out this work alongside their other duties, but over time and subject to the Williamson Report recommendations being implemented, all the staff involved in this complex and sensitive work will be specialists.
In addition to this following a decision of the Royal Court Social Work Guardians will be appointed for children in public law matters such as Care proceedings. This decision is a step forward in safeguarding the interests of some of our most vulnerable children. The Court are presently using the NSPCC for this work but it is planned that within a 3 - 5 year period the work will be taken on by the Jersey Court Advisory Service.
December 17th 2008
The Jersey Probation and After Care Service enjoys a strong partnership with Highlands College. The college provide an accredited cognitive behavioural skills based programme for people under our supervision, and also provides valuable support to our efforts to ensure that those we work with are provided with opportunities to improve their skills in literacy and numeracy. A huge variety of full time and part time programmes are on offer including nine degree courses, so I should not have been surprised to hear that as part of their enrichment curriculum students from across the college were being invited to participate in equality and diversity activities this week. I was invited to be a member of the judging panel for an art competition organised as part of this. What really impressed me was the enthusiasm with which the students had entered into the spirit of the occasion and that they were so positive about the inclusive nature of their college: it made me feel very optimistic for our Island's future.
December 10th 2008
The latest issue of "Vista" arrived on my desk yesterday. I was pleased to read one of the lead articles "Evaluating Probation Outcomes: Possible Approaches for Small Probation Services" highlighted Jersey as a good example for other Services to follow, for the way in which we have created a virtuous circle linking research and practice to improve performance. "Vista, perspectives on Probation, criminal justice and civil renewal" is a professional peer reviewed journal published by the University of Birmingham three times each year and widely read by senior managers and researchers in the Probation world.
December 1st 2008
No logo'd Orange boiler suits here!
Offenders performing Unpaid Work (what we call Community Service) in England and Wales, are now having to work in distinctive uniforms which identify them as offenders. The idea behind this is that the local community will be able to see clearly the projects which are performed by offenders and the resultant improvements to their area. However, it also has the effect of stigmatising the Offenders carrying out the work. Like many initiatives in England and Wales this idea has been imported from the United States of America.
In Jersey we prefer to publicise the projects we have worked with rather than identify the Community Service Workers. We often work alongside groups of non offenders on projects, and it is not unusual for people to stay on as genuine volunteers after completing their hours or to take their families to see work they have been involved in. We see our role as helping ex offenders reintegrate into their community, not setting them apart from it. All those completing Community Service in Jersey would otherwise be in custody. By performing this unpaid work for the Community of course the offender and their families gain, but so do taxpayers through paying out less benefits and saving the costs of imprisonment; over 10,000 hours of unpaid work is performed each year for charities and other not for profit organisations. Community Service in Jersey has a positive effect on reconviction rates and has good completion rates. My prediction is that the latest developments in England and Wales will have a negative effect on on both those important measures.
November 20th 2008
Jersey Probation and After Care Service invited to attend meeting at the Council of Europe.
I have been invited to attend a meeting at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg at the end of next week. The Council of Europe are developing proposals to reduce the use of custody and promote the use of alternatives. What may surprise some people in Jersey after the publicity of the last week, is that the Jersey Probation and After Care Service has worked hard with the Jersey Courts and other stakeholders to reduce the use the of custodial sentences. Jersey is recognised internationally as having a good story to tell with custodial sentences reducing from over 600 per year in the late 1980s to around 200 - 250 per year now. The use of short custodial sentences which serve no purpose in protecting the public are the exception rather than the rule, being replaced with constructive alternatives such as Probation and Community Service. Other Jurisdictions have been interested in how this has been achieved.
November 19th 2008
The Howard League for Penal Reform Report into the Jersey Youth Justice System
The Political response to this report can be found on the front page of www.gov.je . The Report has been also the subject of extensive media reporting locally, but there are are a number of findings and recommendations which impact on or have implications for the work we do, I think it is appropriate to offer some comment here.
Firstly, were I or the Howard League asked to prepare a report on the Youth Justice Systems of the other British Jurisdictions the result would probably be a similar mixture of good features and areas of concern. In England and Wales for example, many children as young as 12 are sentenced to custody by the Courts, whereas in Jersey that is only possible for the most serious crimes if a child is aged under 15. 83% of children in custody in England and Wales are held in Prison Service accommodation according to the Howard League - in Jersey the proportion is generally much lower. Although the other British Jurisdictions have signed up to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child they are regularly found to be in breach of it, as are many other Countries which are signatories.
Jersey's Parish Hall Enquiry System is praised in the Report as it should be. Typically over 85% of children who offend are dealt with at this level avoiding the stigma of a criminal conviction and being dealt with in a constructive rehabilitative environment. Similarly our considerable efforts in encouraging Restorative Justice have been recognised. To correct the League slightly, I should clarify that this is available throughout the Criminal Justice process whatever the sentence or sanction, providing that both offender and victim will commit to it.
The "high" custody rate for children in Jersey is a concern and one which was brought to the attention of the States of Jersey by the Probation and After Care Service in 2004. However to describe it as higher than England and Wales is only partially correct. The numbers of children remanded and sentenced in Jersey at any one time is now so small that it is difficult to describe it as a "rate." the figure of 26 was arrived at by multiplying the average number for the year (4.5) to give the figure per 100,000 of children. There will be times where the figure is much higher than England and Wales and other times when it is substantially lower. The question for Politicians to consider is whether they want Jersey to roughly mirror the rates of custody seen in other British Jurisdictions or to align with some other European jurisdictions where very few children are ever dealt with by the criminal justice system.
The Howard League identify the problem as being the remanding of children to custody prior to sentence rather than the sentencing of children. Based on their figures for this year Jersey's rate of custodial sentencing is around a quarter of that for England and Wales; a cause for some celebration surely though as mentioned above, a set of serious offences committed by a group of youngsters could raise the rate considerably.
It should follow therefore that it is in the area of remands to custody and access to Bail that Jersey should address its efforts. Decisions about whether Legislation in this area is needed is a matter for the Politicians. However, by continuing to improve the pre sentence bail support packages on offer to the Courts, our Service and colleagues in the Youth Action Team will aim to provide alternatives for the Courts wherever possible and aim to continue the reductions in the use of custody for children seen over the last 10 years.
September 2008
Glasgow University Conference
I attended the annual meeting of the Credos group in Glasgow recently. Credos is a collection of academic researchers and their partners from organisations dedicated to finding out what constitutes best practice in Probation supervision and how to improve it. What was particularly noteworthy was the impact that work in Jersey was having on the wider Probation community. In many ways research carried out here by the University of Swansea is at the very forefront of Probation research. My interest of course is in feeding this back into the Service here to improve our practice. Research, inspection and quality control are all important components of an effective and continually improving organisation.
Publicising our involvement in the Community
Traditionally the Probation Service has been shy about its involvement in the local Community. However, we would not be able to function effectively without the partnerships we have within the wider community. Our Community Service scheme works closely with many local charities, sports clubs and environmental organisations. Recently we helped out at a Hill Climb event where the photograph below was taken.
gov.je