The Scottish Parliament Justice 1 Committee's call for evidence for Inquiry into the Rehabilitation of Prisoners

The UNISON Scotland Response. May 2004

Executive Summary

UNISON Scotland is pleased to be able to respond to the Justice 1 Committee's inquiry into the rehabilitation of prisoners.

UNISON Scotland believes that the current sentencing regime in Scotland has to be addressed if re-offending rates are to be reduced and rehabilitation of prisoners is to be effective.

UNISON Scotland believes the Executive should consider implementing more effective and long-term alternatives to short-term prison sentences.

In addition, UNISON Scotland believes that the development of a more co-ordinated and consistent system of aftercare for all short-term prisoners should be one of the priorities for the Executive in its drive to reduce re-offending rates in Scotland.

UNISON Scotland believes that ring-fenced funding of throughcare and aftercare projects offers, at best, only a fixed short-term response to the rehabilitation of prisoners. We believe that if the Executive is serious about advancing the effectiveness of rehabilitation it should improve and seek to maintain a greater level of investment in rehabilitation programmes for prisoners.

UNISON Scotland believes a multi-agency partnership approach is required to effectively tackle Scotland's high rate of re-offending. We believe the current system would benefit greatly from a greater degree of partnership working between the various agencies, specifically between the SPS and CJSW services.

UNISON Scotland is strongly opposed to Executive proposals for the establishment of a single agency to deliver custodial and non-custodial sentences. We fail to see how shoehorning SWCJ services into a single agency, whose dominant mode of delivery will be based on 'correctional' and 'punitive' measures will help reduce re-offending rates or aid the rehabilitation prospects for prisoners.

Introduction

UNISON is Scotland's largest trade union representing over 145,000 members working in the public sector. UNISON Scotland represents workers from social work services throughout Scotland, including criminal justice social work services and others administrating and supporting local authority social work teams.

We welcome the opportunity to comment on the issue of prisoner rehabilitation and to voice the wider concerns of our members who work within criminal justice social work services. We believe this inquiry to be timely, particularly given the Executives current consultation exercise on re-offending and the current problems in recruitment, retention, job status and pay, along with the increasing pressures facing social workers in Scotland.

This paper constitutes UNISON Scotland's response to the Scottish Parliament Justice 1 Committee's inquiry into the rehabilitation of prisoners.

Responses

Need for a reappraisal of current sentencing regime

UNISON Scotland believes that the current sentencing regime in Scotland is the single most important causal factor that has to be addressed if rehabilitation of prisoners is to be effective.

We know from evidence-based research that short-term custodial sentences do not deter individuals from re-offending. Yet, in Scotland in 2002 over 80% of all custodial sentences were for terms of 6 months or less and, 70% of all individuals who were convicted of a crime in 2002 were re-offenders. UNISON Scotland believes that these figures point to an obvious failing.

UNISON Scotland believes that the Executive must develop sentence regimes that address, minimise and control the factors that contribute to offending behaviour, and which maximise factors that encourage law-abiding lives. As such, UNISON Scotland believes the Executive should give proper consideration to implementing more effective and long-term alternatives to short-term prison sentences.

Effective rehabilitation of short-term prisoners is problematic

UNISON Scotland believes that two important contributory factors behind Scotland's telling re-offending statistics are the fact that there are no mandatory programmes for offenders who spend less than 6 months in a Scottish prison and that supervision on release is not a legal requirement for short-term prisoners (the category of offender, which is statistically most likely to re-offend).

It is the opinion of UNISON Scotland that, as things currently stand, rehabilitation for short-term prisoners is not always a realistic objective. As noted above, there are no mandatory rehabilitation programmes for short-term offenders meaning that little can be done to address the behavioural and lifestyle issues, which commonly influence the criminal behaviour of short-term prisoners.

Also, the lack of effective aftercare provision for short-term prisoners is also problematic. Supervision on release is not a legal requirement for short-term prisoners. This situation makes their successful reintegration back into the community an extremely difficult task and increases the likelihood of re-offending.

Need for greater consistency and co-ordination in the provision of throughcare and aftercare

UNISON Scotland believes that the development of a more co-ordinated and consistent system of aftercare for all short-term prisoners should be one of the priorities for the Executive in its drive to reduce re-offending rates in Scotland. It is the opinion of our members who work in CJSW that in the immediate term additional resources must be found to establish a more effective system of throughcare and aftercare for short-term prisoners.

UNISON Scotland believes also that the different agencies that work within Scotland's criminal justice system require greater strategic clarity, both at the local and national level. In addition, these strategies must be backed up with sufficient resources, which support all the partners who work in the field. This includes not only people in criminal justice, but people in the voluntary sector, people who deal with addiction and local authorities who deal with housing, early education and children in care.

We believe that if re-offending is to be tackled effectively and the successful rehabilitation of prisoners is to be achieved it is crucial that all those people be brought together in a spirit of partnership working.

Further, many of the rehabilitation initiatives that have been established have been done so with ring-fenced funding from the Executive. UNISON Scotland believes that ring-fenced funding offers, at best, only a fixed short-term response to the rehabilitation of prisoners. Funding should be directed towards maintaining and improving core services and not ring-fenced for specific projects. It is the opinion of UNISON Scotland the ring fencing diverts resources and undermines local accountability.

Need for greater level of Inter-agency Partnership Working

Whilst being opposed to a single agency, UNISON Scotland believes that the current system would benefit from a greater degree of partnership working between the various agencies, and a greater level of partnership working between the SPS and CJSW services specifically.

The current scenario in which a prisoner can be assessed several times by different agencies, find himself subject to different interventions which are delivered by different agencies that have no shared objectives, is wasteful of resources and inefficient.

UNISON Scotland believes a multi-agency approach is required to tackle Scotland's high rate of re-offending and to ensure the provision of effective rehabilitation schemes for prisoners. As such we would urge the Executive to consider an arrangement similar to that adopted in the Joint Future Agenda. This way the SPS and CJSW services can be brought together to work more effectively without the kind of structural upheaval that a full-scale merger would involve.

Executive proposals to establish a single agency

UNISON Scotland believes that many of the proposals outlined in the current Executive consultation document are falsely premised on the assumption that sentencing systems alone can have a significant impact on reducing re-offending. We believe that they cannot. It is the opinion of our members in Social Work Criminal Justice (SWCJ) services that properly resourced community-based disposals are more effective in reducing re-offending than imprisonment.

In addition, UNISON Scotland also believes that it is essential that custodial sentencing be integrated with other services that aim both to build offenders' capabilities and provide realistic opportunities for moving away from law-breaking lifestyles.

UNISON Scotland is strongly opposed to Executive proposals for the establishment of a single agency to deliver custodial and non-custodial sentences. Our opposition to the merging of Social Work Criminal Justice (SWCJ) services with the Prison Service is based on the following factors;

1. The policy does not fit the stated objective

There has been no explanation by Ministers as to how creating a centralised single correctional agency will achieve the objective of reducing re-offending rates. There is certainly no evidence to support the supposition that merging Social Work Criminal Justice services with the Prison Service will reduce re-offending and enhance the rehabilitation prospects for prisoners.

2. Social Work Criminal Justice services are not failing

There is no evidence to suggest that Social Work Criminal Justice services in Scotland are not working. The Executives concerns in regards to sentencing, re-offending and rehabilitation are not indicative of failures of social work. There are countless examples of how, when supplied with the appropriate resources, local authority Social Work Criminal Justice teams are successful in addressing re-offending behaviour, making communities safer and preventing the need for custodial sentences.

3. The existence of a different ethos between the Prison Service and the Social Work system.

UNISON Scotland fails to see how shoehorning SWCJ services into a single agency, whose dominant mode of delivery will be based on 'correctional' and 'punitive' measures will help reduce re-offending rates or aid the rehabilitation prospects for prisoners. There is little, if any, evidence of correctional services being able to effectively integrate with other services such as social work services and to excel in developing the wider welfare role that is the strength of criminal justice social work services.

4. Structural change will not, by itself reduce re-offending levels. There must be a redeployment of resources from prison to community-based sentencing.

UNISON Scotland disagrees with the Justice Ministers assertion that additional resources are not the answer to tackling re-offending rates in Scotland. We believe this not to be the case. It is the opinion of our members in CJSW that what is required is a greater reallocation of resources from servicing a prison population to both prevention of offending and alternatives to custodial sentences.

In addition, UNISON Scotland believes that part of the credibility problem with non-custodial sentences is that they are simply under funded at the moment and therefore can never be as credible as a much more heavily resourced prison service. It is our opinion that the £700m earmarked by the Executive for new prisons might be better invested in community disposals, which have a better track record in rehabilitating prisoners and ultimately preventing re-offending.

 5. Diversion of resources away from front-line services into unaccountable quango

UNISON Scotland believes that the establishment of yet another unelected quango would mean the removal of yet more vital services from local democratic control in addition to making it immeasurably more difficult to exploit the close working relationship between the various local authority services - social work, housing, education and community services - and between councils and other public and voluntary sector agencies.

For Further Information Please Contact:

Matt Smith, Scottish Secretary
UNISONScotland
UNISON House
14, West Campbell Street,
Glasgow G2 6RX

Tel 0141-332 0006 Fax 0141 342 2835

e-mail matt.smith@unison.co.uk