A Very British Compromise

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Guiney
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Early Release ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Legal Effect ◽  
Parole System ◽  
The Impact

The chapter explores the impact of Roy Jenkins’ appointment as Home Secretary and the detailed legislative planning that resulted in the complex system of parole given legal effect by the Criminal Justice Act 1967. It goes on to examine the administrative steps taken in 1968 to establish the new parole system and limit the damage of a small number of high profile crimes committed by the first cohort of parolees. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the idiosyncratic operation of parole in England and Wales at this time; a very British compromise that would exert a significant influence over the trajectory of early release policy and practice in the subsequent thirty years.

A New System Takes Shape

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Guiney
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Green Paper ◽  
Home Office ◽  
Legal Effect ◽  
Parole System

The chapter examines the legislative planning process that gradually refined the early release framework eventually given legal effect by Part Two of the Criminal Justice Act 1991. The chapter begins with a review of the post-election planning process that gathered pace following the 1987 General Election. It examines the Home Office strategic awayday held at Leeds Castle in September 1987 and goes on to consider the Green Paper, Punishment, Custody and the Community and an unprecedented conference at Ditchley Park which brought together senior decision-makers from across the criminal justice system. The chapter then examines the passage of the Criminal Justice Bill 1990/91 and reflects upon the dramatic backlash against the new parole system in the mid-1990s. The chapter concludes with a critical appraisal of the underlying tensions that defined the development of criminal justice during this transitional period.

The Politics of Inertia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Guiney
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
Home Office ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Early Release ◽  
Short Sentence ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Face

The chapter explores the ever more complex policy debates that surrounded the efforts to extend a system of early release to short sentence prisoners. It begins with an overview of the main candidates for reform and the strengths and weaknesses of these policy options. It explores the Home Office Review of Parole in England and Wales and considers why these recommendations were so quickly abandoned in the face of political and judicial pressure. It then goes on to examine the passage of the Criminal Justice Act 1982, a significant piece of legislation which resulted in wide-ranging reform of parole in England and Wales. The chapter concludes with a number of reflections upon the policy inertia of the early 1980s and what that reveals about the changing aims and techniques of criminal justice at this time.

scholarly journals Policing, Crime and Mental Illness in England and Wales: Insights from the Literature

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 248
Author(s):  
Frank Kitt ◽  
Colin Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Police Service ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Made In

Mental illness pervades most societies, but it is only recently that its impact and effects upon individuals has slowly been recognised in England and Wales. When people suffering from this illness become involved with various public agencies, the way they are dealt with appears inconsistent and on occasions ends in tragedy. One agency that is constantly in contact with people who suffer mental health illness is the police service. Some high profile cases have clearly illustrated misunderstandings and the fact that the police are not generally equipped to deal with such individuals. This article considers a brief history and theoretical backcloth to police understanding and framing of mental illness in England and Wales, and explores the National Liaison and Diversion Model as an alternative to traditional police understanding and response. The article suggests that only by understanding the historical context, and literature, surrounding mental illness, can improvements be made in the criminal justice system as a whole and within the police service in particular.

‘It’s all considered to be unacceptable behaviour’

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vickie Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Housing Policy ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Housing Authority ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Critical Questions ◽  
Housing Options ◽  
Criminal Justice Practitioners

Despite a growing recognition of the intersectional relationship between homelessness and incarceration, we have a limited knowledge about housing policy and practice for people leaving custody and (ex)offender groups in the community. Addressing these gaps, this paper provides an overview of the main local housing authority statutory duties in the provision of housing support for prison leavers and (ex)offenders in England and Wales, and situates the issues with accessing accommodation within the wider context of austerity. The paper presents a case study that explores criminal justice practitioners’ experiences of working with local authority housing agencies. Stemming from 25 interviews with housing practitioners and criminal justice practitioners, the paper outlines the main challenges facing criminal justice agencies as they try to secure accommodation for homeless (ex)offenders and resettle them in the community. Finally, the paper concludes by raising critical questions about the housing options for this population, now and in the future.

Policies Into Practice: Intermediate Treatment and Community Service Compared

1981 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-160
Author(s):  
Adrian L. James
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Juvenile Offenders ◽  
Young People ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Marked Change ◽  
Criminal Process ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTThe philosophy and the policies for dealing with both juvenile and adult offenders in England and Wales have undergone a marked change in the last decade with the introduction of both the Children and Young Persons Act, 1969, and the Criminal Justice Act, 1972. The spirit behind the policies embodied in the first of these was intended to move juvenile offenders even further towards the provisions for children and young people in general and away from identification with adult offenders and the criminal process. In spite of this, many similarities remain between the two major innovations which emerged from these two pieces of legislation, which were intermediate treatment and community service. In terms of implementing these policies, however, wide differences have emerged in the speed, ease, and uniformity with which the different provisions have been introduced. Intermediate treatment, after a long struggle, is only just beginning to establish itself as a practical provision for juveniles whilst community service, introduced some years later, has now been fully implemented. This difference raises fundamental issues related to the implementation of certain areas of social policy. Although the failure of the 1969 Act to achieve the impact envisaged by its proponents has been attributed to its being only partially implemented and to lack of finance, amongst other things, comparison with the relatively successful introduction of community service suggests that there may also be important administrative factors underlying this failure which have been hitherto ignored.

scholarly journals The impact of policy change on prisoner resettlement and community integration: A case of disproportionate response

2020 ◽  
pp. 026101832095756
Author(s):  
Christopher Kay
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Community Integration ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Early Release ◽  
New Policies ◽  
Desistance From Crime ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Prisoner Rehabilitation

The involvement of prisoners on license in the recent London Bridge and Streatham, London attacks have triggered a series of policies aiming to restrict community release. These aim to address not only the point at which prisoners in England and Wales are released, but also the level of engagement prisoners can have with the community before release. They have been introduced with little consultation of the available evidence and, seemingly, with little consideration of those who will be directly impacted as a result of their implementation. This commentary considers how announced changes in policy relating to the use of Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) with prisoners, represent a response which is not only disproportionate to the scale of the problem but may also negatively impact upon prisoner rehabilitation. It draws upon evidence surrounding the impact of early release and evidence surrounding the practices which work to promote desistance from crime to highlight the flaws in these new policies, but also the importance of maintaining community engagement in the rehabilitation of people with convictions.

Understanding the privatisation of probation through the lens of Bourdieu’s field theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 59-74
Author(s):  
Jake Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Probation Service ◽  
Rehabilitation Needs ◽  
The Way

This chapter contributes to the growing body of criminological work to use Bourdieu’s field theory to understand changes in policy and practice in criminal justice. The chapter uses the privatisation of probation services in England and Wales as a case study to argue that although probation practitioners vociferously opposed the reforms, their attempts to prevent them were always unlikely to succeed. This is because Transforming Rehabilitation needs to be understood as the culmination of a longstanding process of symbolic violence which resulted in the depreciation of relevant forms of capital amongst practitioners and their allies. The chapter begins with a brief overview of the reforms before turning to a discussion of Bourdieu’s field theory. I argue that because ‘capital’ links field and habitus – in that capital is the product of the way in which habitus and field are, or are not, attuned to one another – this is an important mechanism of field theory which has, hitherto, been neglected. I argue that as probation practitioners’ habitus has remained relatively stable over the last fifty years, the changing field led to a delegitimation of the forms of capital owned by practitioners which left them unable to mount a successful defence of a public probation service.

Postscript

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Guiney
Keyword(s):  
New Labour ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Differential Treatment ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Penal Policy ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Early Release ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Serious Offenders

The Postscript traces the evolution of early release since the events described in this book. It examines the growing influence of a ‘strategy of bifurcation’ within penal policy and considers how the differential treatment of low-level and serious offenders has transformed the policy and practice of early release in England and Wales. Given the space available, this involves painting with broad brush strokes and this postscript is loosely divided into three political interludes: the early years of New Labour, 1997 to 2003; the later stages of the New Labour project, 2004 to 2010; and the Coalition and Conservative governments that have followed since 2010.

Temporal Factors in Early Release Policy and Practice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Guiney
Keyword(s):  
Policy Development ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Early Release ◽  
Release Policy ◽  
Temporal Factors ◽  
Complex Picture

The chapter explores how temporal factors have influenced the development of early release in England and Wales. It begins with a number of broad observations upon the everyday business of penal administration and offers a view of policy development that departs from the standard model of the policy-making cycle. It goes on to explore the central role of path dependency in shaping the trajectory of early release policy and practice in England and Wales between 1960 and 1995, before turning to the less well understood catalysing role of ‘timing and sequence’ at key moments of policy reform. The chapter concludes with a critical appraisal of the complex picture of continuity and change that emerges from this book and advances the case for greater use of comparative historical study given how little attention is given to historical lessons in much contemporary public policy debate.

scholarly journals Creating ideal victims in hate crime policy

2018 ◽  
pp. 43-62
Author(s):  
Hannah Mason-Bish
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Hate Crime ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Criminal Justice Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Solid Part ◽  
Stranger Danger

This chapter suggests that problems over the perception of the nature of hate crime mean that often victims of disablist hate crime are overlooked. Developed partly through campaign group activism and high profile cases, hate crime has become a solid part of criminal justice policy and practice. The legal framework recognises different forms of crime motivated by prejudice or hostility towards victims based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or disability. However, this chapter demonstrates that there are particular problems with the implementation of provisions related to disablist hate crime which can be understood by utilising Christie’s ‘ideal victim’ typology. Born out of an identity politics which sought recognition for the specific harms of hate crime, the development of policy has been shaped by sometimes simplistic perceptions of what it is to be victimised, often framed around issues of stranger danger and attributing recognition to ‘deserving victims’. This reliance on identity politics often means that victims of disablist hate crime are portrayed as weak and vulnerable, which can contribute to anxiety. This chapter shows the relevance of Christie’s ideal victim thesis due to an increasing emphasis on identity politics being used to determine ‘deserving’ and ‘legitimate’ victims.

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