Criminal Justice Lecture 6
PRISON
RECAP OF LAST LECTURE
SUMMARY OF COMMUNITY SENTENCING OPTIONS ORDERS x 2
• Community Order
• Suspended Sentence Order
REQUIREMENTS x 12
• Supervision
• Community Payback
• Accredited Programme
• Specified Activity
• Drug Rehabilitation
• Alcohol Treatment
• Mental Health Requirement
• Curfew
• Attendance Centre
• Residence Requirement
• Exclusion
• Prohibited Activity
THE COMMUNITY ORDER (CJA 2003)
•Supervision: -attend regular appointments with Probation Officer.
•Community Payback / Unpaid work: - formerly community service, between 80 and 300 hours
unpaid work for community –painting, decorating, gardening, clean-up rubbish, graffiti removal.
•Offending Behaviour Programme: - attend group or one-to-one programme to address attitudes and
patterns of offending behaviour, e.g. drink-drivers, sex offenders or drugs users.
•Curfew: - stay indoors for certain periods at specified place, usually home, for up to six months.
Electronic tagging common.
•Drug rehabilitation: reduce/eliminate dependency on or misuse of drugs
•Alcohol treatment -to reduce or eliminate alcohol dependency
•Mental health treatment -Court must be satisfied that offender’s mental condition requires
treatment.
•Residence -Offender must reside at specified place. This may be Approved Premises managed by
the Probation Service.
•Exclusion (usually with electronic tagging): Offender may not enter a specified place for a period of
time
, •Attendance centre (for 18 –24 year olds): -Offender must attend centre for between 12 and 36
hours. -Attendees focus on developing social skills and challenging offending behaviour.
•Prohibited activity: -Offender barred from certain activities, e.g. attending football match or going
to pub, on particular day or days, for period determined by court.
•Rehabilitative Activity Requirement (RAR): -A requirement that the defendant participates in activity
to reduce the prospect of reoffending. Maximum of 60 days.
DO COMMUNITY SENTENCES WORK?
•Comparing reconviction rates from short custodial sentence vs. community sentence often
produces results that have little or no difference (Cavadino, Dignan& Mair, 2013)
•Those sentences focusing on social skills/CBT more effective than those with explicitly punitive
element (McGuire & Priestley, 1995)
•More likely to succeed in reducing recidivism if offenders find community sentences worthwhile
•If the same as prison in terms of reoffending rates, but help to reduce numbers in custody
(overcrowding) and save money (£3,000 vs. £50,000) should punishment in the community be the
default sanction, leaving the Prison Service to deal with the most violent, dangerous offenders?
•If not, why? •What do the public think about this issue?
‘WHAT WORKS’: EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE
How to measure success?
•Outputs:
• completes the order without breach
•Outcomes:
• reduced risk and need
• reduced seriousness of offending
• Desistance / rehabilitation
•What works for who in what context?
Understanding the inter-relationship between the sentence; individual characteristics and outcome
“SOFT OPTIONS”
• 6 week curfew
• 80 hours unpaid work
• 5 month suspended sentence
Can community orders ever be viewed as serious punishments, or always ‘soft options’?
PRISON
RECAP OF LAST LECTURE
SUMMARY OF COMMUNITY SENTENCING OPTIONS ORDERS x 2
• Community Order
• Suspended Sentence Order
REQUIREMENTS x 12
• Supervision
• Community Payback
• Accredited Programme
• Specified Activity
• Drug Rehabilitation
• Alcohol Treatment
• Mental Health Requirement
• Curfew
• Attendance Centre
• Residence Requirement
• Exclusion
• Prohibited Activity
THE COMMUNITY ORDER (CJA 2003)
•Supervision: -attend regular appointments with Probation Officer.
•Community Payback / Unpaid work: - formerly community service, between 80 and 300 hours
unpaid work for community –painting, decorating, gardening, clean-up rubbish, graffiti removal.
•Offending Behaviour Programme: - attend group or one-to-one programme to address attitudes and
patterns of offending behaviour, e.g. drink-drivers, sex offenders or drugs users.
•Curfew: - stay indoors for certain periods at specified place, usually home, for up to six months.
Electronic tagging common.
•Drug rehabilitation: reduce/eliminate dependency on or misuse of drugs
•Alcohol treatment -to reduce or eliminate alcohol dependency
•Mental health treatment -Court must be satisfied that offender’s mental condition requires
treatment.
•Residence -Offender must reside at specified place. This may be Approved Premises managed by
the Probation Service.
•Exclusion (usually with electronic tagging): Offender may not enter a specified place for a period of
time
, •Attendance centre (for 18 –24 year olds): -Offender must attend centre for between 12 and 36
hours. -Attendees focus on developing social skills and challenging offending behaviour.
•Prohibited activity: -Offender barred from certain activities, e.g. attending football match or going
to pub, on particular day or days, for period determined by court.
•Rehabilitative Activity Requirement (RAR): -A requirement that the defendant participates in activity
to reduce the prospect of reoffending. Maximum of 60 days.
DO COMMUNITY SENTENCES WORK?
•Comparing reconviction rates from short custodial sentence vs. community sentence often
produces results that have little or no difference (Cavadino, Dignan& Mair, 2013)
•Those sentences focusing on social skills/CBT more effective than those with explicitly punitive
element (McGuire & Priestley, 1995)
•More likely to succeed in reducing recidivism if offenders find community sentences worthwhile
•If the same as prison in terms of reoffending rates, but help to reduce numbers in custody
(overcrowding) and save money (£3,000 vs. £50,000) should punishment in the community be the
default sanction, leaving the Prison Service to deal with the most violent, dangerous offenders?
•If not, why? •What do the public think about this issue?
‘WHAT WORKS’: EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE
How to measure success?
•Outputs:
• completes the order without breach
•Outcomes:
• reduced risk and need
• reduced seriousness of offending
• Desistance / rehabilitation
•What works for who in what context?
Understanding the inter-relationship between the sentence; individual characteristics and outcome
“SOFT OPTIONS”
• 6 week curfew
• 80 hours unpaid work
• 5 month suspended sentence
Can community orders ever be viewed as serious punishments, or always ‘soft options’?
