The work of probation services in court
| Date | 01 September 2017 |
| Published date | 01 September 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550517726459a |
| Author | Emma Cluley |
| Subject Matter | Research & reports |
Drugandalcoholtreatmentinprisonshouldbeimprovedandlinkedto
through-care treatment in the community.
Ensure training for mental health awareness becomes mandatory and for staff
support to be implemented.
In all women’s prisons there needs to be further development of a ‘gender-
aware’ and ‘trauma-informed’ environment that includes staff training on the
effects of separation and loss, an awareness of perinatal mental health and
support for women at risk.
Provide a range of mental health and substance misuse treatments in the
community, which should include counselling services and therapeutic
approaches that encourage women to talk.
Review the implementation of the Care Act 2014 that placed preventative
duties on local authorities and required them to meet social care needs.
Access to secure mental health accommodation should be available to those
who need it, rather than using the prison as a place of safety.
Sentence plans should be regularly reviewed to increase hope and to support
suicide prevention as well as help prepare for release.
End recall to custody for the majority of technical breaches of licence and
instead strengthen supervision arrangements.
This paper raised numerous concerns, which included the effects of poor
resources within the community, in prison and on release. They have subsequently
contributed to an increase in the vulnerabilities of women and a sharp increase in
self-inflicted deaths. Reference is made to Article 2 of the Human Rights Act and for
positive steps to be taken to protect life. For practitioners it is an informative paper
that raises awareness of the deaths within women’s prisons that could possibly
be avoided.
Preventing the deaths of women in prison – Initial results of a rapid information
gathering exercise by the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody,
published in March 2017, is available at: http://iapdeathsincustody.independent.
gov.uk/
Sharon Brereton
NPS (London)
The work of probation services in court
The aim of the inspection was to explore the working arrangements between the
NPS, CRC, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) and sentencers,
and how these arrangements supported effective and timely sentencing. This the-
matic inspection into the work of the probation services in courts was viewed as
important by the inspectorate because of the view that good working arrangements
in court would contribute to subsequent effective sentencing and good offender
management. The report acknowledges that this is an area of probation work that is
298 Probation Journal 64(3)
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