Published 25th June 2014
Transforming Rehabilitation - Court Chaos, Excessive Workloads and Unanswered Questions
Since 1 June, which saw the implementation of the National Probation Service (NPS) and 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC’s), there has been a significant drop in service delivery to the Courts. Poor IT systems, lack of access to offender records and staff shortages have led to serious delays and frustrations for probation staff, Magistrates and the Judiciary. Napo has received the following information that we believe should be addressed as a matter of urgency by the Ministry of Justice and the Government should halt its plans on TR until the basic infrastructure is in place.
- An offender currently subject to a community order with Unpaid Work appeared in the Magistrates Court last week for new offences. The Magistrates rightly wanted to know how he had been complying with his current order to assist with their sentencing. All Court officers have been assigned to the NPS, but the defendant was a CRC case. As such the officer was unable to access the offender’s records to see how many hours he had completed. He informed the Magistrates of this to which the Chair replied “this is crackers, I will have to take this further”. His sentencing was adjourned for one week for the information to be found at additional cost to the tax payer.
- Defendant cost orders – If a defendant is found not guilty of a breach of a community order, or a breach is withdrawn, they can claim their costs back from the Court. These can be significant, especially if they require transport or an interpreter. The NPS is responsible for prosecuting breaches, but if the case is held by the CRC it is the CRC who is responsible for preparing the paperwork and deciding whether or not a case proceeds. What is unclear is who is responsible for paying the defendant cost order? Staff still do not have this information but orders are still being made.
- At Breach Court, NPS staff are advised to ask for costs of £85 for a successful breach. If the case is held by the CRC they will prepare the paperwork but the NPS will carry out the prosecution. Who receives the costs?
- Writing pre-sentence reports is a duty for the NPS. However, due to staff shortages staff in both organisations are being asked to complete them. In many areas shortages are so bad that staff are being expected to complete two pre-sentence reports a day, when the agreed bench mark for this task is 6.5 hrs. This is leading to inappropriate reports (same day or oral reports) being completed on complex high risk cases such as domestic violence and sexual offences. The Magistrates Association and the Judiciary have always welcomed Probation reports to assist with sentencing and the information they contain is critical for long term risk management. These short format reports lack the detailed risk assessments required to manage these offenders appropriately.
- Due to staff shortages pre-sentence reports are being allocated to staff who are not appropriately trained. A member of staff was asked to complete an oral report at Court on a high risk domestic violence perpetrator despite having no training in this area. Offences of this nature should be subject to a full assessment involving a two hour interview with the offender, discussion with other agencies such as Children’s Services and a referral to a Women’s Safety Worker to work with the victim. None of these procedures can be undertaken for an oral report at Court and clearly this puts the public, the victim and children at risk of serious harm.
Questions you may wish to ask
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Can the Minister clarify who is responsible for paying Defendant Costs Orders; and if costs are awarded for a successful prosecution of a breach, which organisation receives the payment?
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What feedback has the MoJ had from Magistrates and the Judiciary since 1 June regarding service delivery and will they be asking for feedback as part of Testgate 4 to ensure that the plans to sell of CRC contracts are not having a detrimental impact on sentencing and Court processes?
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The new paperwork that Probation staff have to complete at Court has reduced their pre- sentence report production by a third. What is the additional cost of this in terms of delayed sentencing and further adjournments of Court listings?