Government commits to "breaking the cycle" of crime

The Government today launched Breaking the Cycle, its "rehabilitation revolution" green paper.

You can download our press release here and read Dominic's blog here.

In the press release Revolving Doors Agency today welcomed justice secretary Ken Clarke’s announcement of reform to the criminal justice system set out in the Breaking the Cycle green paper.

Dominic Williamson, chief executive at Revolving Doors, said:

“We welcome the direction set out by Ken Clarke today which offers real hope to victims by reducing the crime committed by repeat offenders. By recognising that a “significant proportion of crime is committed by offenders who have multiple problems” the paper provides a long-needed shift in thinking. Difficulties such as drug and alcohol misuse, poor mental health and housing issues all interact and lead to lives of crisis and crime. This is something we have worked hard to demonstrate and we are pleased this now been understood by the Government.”

Breaking the Cycle also demonstrates that ministers have considered how to tackle the problems underlying much of the crime committed by repeat offenders, particularly the complex problems faced by women and young people.

Revolving Doors strongly endorses the commitment to join up efforts across government departments including work with:

• the Department of Health and Home Office to develop liaison and diversion schemes for people with mental health problems
• the Home Office “on reducing crime and working in partnership with the police on integrated approaches to managing offenders”
• the Department for Communities and Local Government in tackling the barriers into stable and suitable housing faced by many offenders.

The paper highlights a number of approaches which will encourage improved partnership working at a local level, including local incentive schemes in London and Manchester and a roll out of Integrated Offender Management.

The paper also has a welcome focus on early intervention, diversion and effective rehabilitative approaches.

On effective community provision for women offenders, the paper describes effective rehabilitation as community-based partnership working which tackles a range of problems together, including drug and alcohol dependency, provided alongside education and therapeutic interventions to address past trauma. It goes on to propose that the learning from this work could be “applied to male offenders, particularly in a coordinated approach to those with more complex issues underlying their offending.”

Dominic Williamson added:

“The proposals above chime with our evidence that taking a holistic and personalised approach and facilitating access to support services in the community can allow many repeat offenders to address the underlying cases of their criminal activity.“

Understandably, public safety and punishment remain key priorities for the Ministry of Justice, however this should not distract from recognizing that short prison sentences are costly to the state and to communities and are do nothing to reduce reoffending.

The paper proposes to improve community sentences are made more effective and flexible. It recognises that flexible community sentences “may be particularly valuable in tackling offending by people with mental health, alcohol or mental health problems”, and recommends that “a more generic health treatment requirement may be a better way to engage [offenders with multiple problems] with all the treatment they need.