- Conference
- 2024 Police, Probation and CAFCASS Conference
- Date
- 17 June 2024
- Decision
- Carried
The Conservative government’s mishandling of all areas of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) has led to the worst prison capacity crisis that England and Wales has ever been seen. Significant resource and emergency measures have had to be taken in order to try and mitigate the situation, for example; ECSL, extension of HDC, Operation Early Dawn, measures which have negatively impacted on members across the service group all of which have had a negligible effect on the scale of the prison population. There is no quick fix for this situation but we do know that things cannot continue in the way that they have. Reform and investment in various areas of the CJS are 2 key components to alleviating this situation and thinking about who should be in prison and what offences should attract custodial sentences are part of this wider conversation. The Probation Service through it’s Pre Sentence Report function and in our liaison with the judiciary, have the ability to be hugely influential in this in this area. However the impact of TR, the Tory crime and punishment agenda including One HMPPS, and increasingly stretched resources has led to the whole system being geared more towards punishment and prison than towards rehabilitation and community. This clearly this has not served us, our service users or our communities as it should have. This crisis has therefore got to be seen as an opportunity for a change of focus we therefore call on the SGE to:
: Encourage Probation Service Leaders to establish a relationship with organisations who have a focus on alternatives to custody such as The Howard League of Penal Reform, The Probation Institute and We Level Up (who campaign for ending imprisonment for pregnant women).
: Encourage the employer to expand on their prison alternative offer to women such as we have seen them do in Wales with the Women’s Residential Centre and to continue to consult with the recognised Trade Unions in relation to job descriptions and recruitment of new staff