The Prison Reform Trust, in partnership with the University of the Third Age and Pact (the Prison Advice and Care Trust), will today (Monday 20 May 2013) launch two new resources for the public at a reception at Manchester Town Hall.

Where Do You Stand? and What Can I Do? are designed to inform debate by busting myths about the penal system, and to equip people to get involved in making a difference by promoting a wide range of volunteering opportunities.

More than eight out of ten of sentenced women entering prison have been convicted of non-violent offences. Many have young children. Many have themselves been the victims of serious crime, including domestic violence, sexual abuse and rape.

Commenting on the government’s plans announced in the Queen’s Speech to extend probation supervision to short sentenced prisoners, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“According to government figures, community sentences are better at cutting reoffending than a short spell behind bars. So, rather than use prison as a gateway to rehabilitation for over 50,000 petty offenders, the Justice Secretary should ensure that cost effective, robust community penalties are available to all courts in England and Wales.

“For those whose offending is so serious to warrant up to a year in custody, then supervision, support and drug treatment on release make some sense. There is a downside: a year of demands and an inflexible approach to breach of license conditions could refill our prisons and spin people through the revolving door of prison and crime.”

“Payment by results is untried and untested in the criminal justice system. Reform should be properly thought through and based on evidence of what works. The government should build on best practice rather than risk fragmenting the probation service and undermining the vital role played by small voluntary organisations in the delivery of services for vulnerable offenders. Is it wise to widen the ambit of the criminal justice industry when many of the solutions to crime lie in prevention, housing, employment, mental health and social care and treatment for addictions?”

Click read more to read our submissions to the Transforming Rehabilitation consultation.

Soroptimist (UK), in partnership with the Prison Reform Trust, will today (Thursday 25 April 2013) launch an action pack at a reception in the House of Commons to support the Soroptimists’ initiative to reduce women’s imprisonment in the UK.

Click this link to find out more and download the pack

Adult social care services have a vital, and often overlooked, role in supporting the large number of people with multiple needs who offend to desist from crime, according to a new joint briefing by the Prison Reform Trust, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), the Centre for Mental Health and Revolving Doors Agency.

Click this link to read more and download the report 

The Minister’s announcement should be a catalyst for coordinated cross-government action to reduce women’s prison numbers. Over 10,000 women were sent to prison every year, most to serve short sentences for non-violent crimes. Many women in prison have themselves been the victims of serious crime, including domestic violence, sexual abuse and rape. Mental health problems, drug and alcohol addiction and self-harm are particularly common among women in prison. Each year, more than 17,000 children are separated from their mothers by imprisonment.

A new briefing by the free market thinktank, Reform, sets out to reignite the debate about the role of the private sector in our prisons.

Read our response to the report's findings here.

KeepOut, an innovative crime diversion scheme delivered by dedicated teams of serving prisoners, has won the inaugural Robin Corbett Award for Prisoner Rehabilitation 2013.

A new report released today by the Prison Reform Trust and YoungMinds reveals that high numbers of vulnerable children with mental health needs and learning disabilities are getting caught up in the criminal justice system. The charities found that children who offend have health, care and education needs which, if not met, could lead to a lifetime of ill health, unemployment and crime.

The Prison Reform Trust has today published a briefing to assist MPs in the Second Reading Debate on the Crime and Courts Bill on Monday 14 January. Following discussions with MPs and the outcome of previous stages of the Bill, the briefing highlights key parts to Schedule 15 (Dealing non-custodially with offenders) as well as significant omissions in the Bill.

Commenting on new government plans for prison closures and building, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

"Closing prisons and reducing prison numbers offers major social and economic gains but it would be a gigantic mistake if the Justice Secretary were to revive the discredited idea of  titans and pour taxpayers' money down the prison building drain, when the Coalition Government could invest in crime prevention, healthcare and community solutions to crime.

"Small community prisons tend to be safer and better at reducing reoffending than huge anonymous establishments.

"Prison is an important place of last resort for serious and violent offenders not, as it has become, a place to dump people who are mentally ill, those with learning disabilities, addicts and vulnerable women and children."

Plans to build three 2,500-capacity "Titan" jails by the previous government at a cost of £2.9 billion were scrapped in 2009 following representations by the Prison Reform Trust and allied organisations. Read our briefing here.

Peers have backed an important amendment to the Crime and Courts Bill requiring contracts made with probation trusts to make "appropriate provision for the delivery of services to female offenders".

The amendment, drafted by the Prison Reform Trust with the assistance of Paul Cavadino, was moved by the Chair of the Prison Reform Trust, the former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf. It stated the need for programmes to prevent reoffending with "the particular needs of women in mind".

A new prison service instruction is set to improve sentencing planning for prisoners, especially for those serving an Indeterminate sentence for Public Protection (IPP) and for people who have a learning disability.

A YouGov opinion poll, launched today by the Prison Reform Trust, reveals strong support for public health measures to tackle women’s offending. Treatment for drug addiction, help to stop alcohol misuse, and mental healthcare, were the top three solutions to get public backing for reducing offending by women who commit non-violent crimes.

The Prison Reform Trust is launching these poll results on the day that Dame Elish Angiolini delivers the Prison Reform Trust lecture 2012 on Reforming Women’s Justice. You can watch the lecture here and read it here.

Read today's jointly signed letter in the Guardian calling on the government to comply with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights and allow prisoners the vote.

A new evidence based report examining the experiences and treatment of children and young people who died in prison custody in England and Wales is published by INQUEST and the Prison Reform Trust today. Fatally Flawed: Has the state learned lessons from the deaths of children and young people in prison? is an in-depth analysis of the deaths of children and young people (aged 18-24) while in the care of the state.

Juliet Lyon, director, Prison Reform Trust, said:

Every young death in custody is a tragedy made all the more harrowing when such deaths could be prevented by effective safeguarding measures and greater cooperation between health, welfare and criminal justice agencies.

After 200 deaths in ten years it is time to learn that locking up our most vulnerable children and young people in our bleakest institutions is a process that is fatally flawed.

On 5 October, Geoff Dobson, Company Secretary, and former Chief Probation Officer for Hertfordshire delivered a speech at the napo AGM, which is celebrating its centenary this year.

Commenting on the ruling by the European Court on the indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP), Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“This judgement should prompt the new Secretary of State to institute a review of the cases of over 3,500 people held beyond their indeterminate sentence tariff dates, use his discretion under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (2012) to change the release test and eradicate a stain on our justice system.

The Prison Reform Trust has recently provided evidence and a submission to the Justice Committee’s inquiry on women offenders, and the Scottish Prison Service’s consultation on women in custody.

Read our responses here

The Prison Reform Trust has welcomed the appointment of Chris Grayling as Justice Secretary and called on him to have the “strength and courage” to build on the important programme of justice reform begun by Ken Clarke.

Overcrowding and high reoffending rates are a fact of life in today’s prison system according to an analysis of recent prison population statistics by the Prison Reform Trust. Despite opening two new prisons this year with a capacity of 2,500 places, 59% of prisons in England and Wales are operating at an overcrowded level. 

Although the growth in the prison population has slowed down in recent months, prompting plans to close HMP Wellingborough, there are still 7,294 more people in the prison system than it is designed and built to hold.  On 31 July 2012, there were 77 out of 131 establishments over the Prison Service’s Certified Normal Accommodation: “the good, decent standard of accommodation that the Service aspires to provide all prisoners”.

Commenting on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons thematic review of remand prisoners, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

People held on remand awaiting trial are innocent until proven guilty but the findings of this worrying review make a mockery of that principle. It’s clear that people remanded into custody are often held in worse conditions and receive less help and support than those convicted of a crime and serving a prison sentence.

On Tuesday 22 May the European Court of Human Rights published their judgment in the case of Scoppola v. Italy (no 3). The Court has confimed the Hirst (no. 2) v. the United Kingdom judgment of October 2005 that a blanket ban on all serving prisoners losing voting rights is a breach of their human rights. 

Prison Reform Trust's company secretary Geoff Dobson has written an article on the future of probation, originally published in the Guardian's Society section on Wednesday 23 May 2012. 

Below is his article in full, and you can read the Guardian article here

What does a modern effective Probation Service look like? The closing date for two important Ministry of Justice consultations will be reached on 22 June. Proposals to reform community sentences have received publicity to date, not least because of eye catching suggestions to extend the use of electronic monitoring to track offenders and to introduce sobriety bracelets. Within that report is an important section on restorative justice, opening up the possibility for far greater use of this approach, both pre and post sentence. 

The coalition Government has abandoned plans to axe the Youth Justice Board, justice minister Lord McNally announced on 23 November 2011.The U-turn comes after Justice Secretary Ken Clarke announced that his department would not go ahead with plans to abolish the role of chief coroner.

A copy of the briefing can be viewed by clicking this link.

Too many vulnerable women are unnecessarily sent to the UK’s prisons for non-violent offences, while local women’s centres – which have had better results in reducing offending – face an uncertain future. We are calling on our supporters to help put this right. 

Click here for more information and to email your MP.

ICM survey results offer massive vote of support for community payback and restorative justice.

The results of an ICM telephone poll of 1,000 members of the public, conducted one month after the riots in England, show overwhelming popular support for constructive ways in which offenders can make amends to victims for the harm they have caused.

The Ministry of Justice today announced a new record number of people held in prisons in England and Wales.

Read the response of Geoff Dobson, Deputy Director Prison Reform Trust, here.

Community penalties are now outperforming short prison sentences, according to statistics released today from the latest edition of the Prison Reform Trust’s Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile. If government succeeds in reforming the justice system, building on the success of community measures including diversion into health treatment where appropriate, and holding prison numbers to an unavoidable minimum, it could deliver on its promise of a “rehabilitation revolution”.

Effective community sentences that command the confidence of the courts should cut women’s offending, reduce the women’s prison population and save the public purse, according to a report launched today by the independent Women’s Justice Taskforce.

The Ford riot shows warnings over alcohol have been ignored – but we should not question open prisons' role in rehabilitation

Commenting on the disturbance at HMP Ford, Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon said: "No one wins from a prison disturbance. It endangers prisoners and staff, worries families and ends in a high cost the Prison Service can ill afford."

Commenting on the government's proposals for all offenders sentenced to four years or more to be automatically barred from registering to vote, Juliet Lyon said:

Enfranchising prisoners serving sentences of under four years is an important step in the right direction.  However, it does not appear to meet the requirements of European Court judgments which state that the vast majority of prisoners should be able to vote.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons warned the government of the challenges ahead in maintaining progress in an overpopulated prison system. Dame Anne Owers urged ministers to be bold and think differently about prison in her 

valedictory lecture 

Crispin Blunt MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice addresses the annual general meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Penal Affairs Group.

People aged 60 and over are now the fastest growing age group in the prison estate. Good practice exists and can be spread but work with older people in prison is not being properly supported by government and too often depends on the goodwill and enthusiasm of individual staff, according a Prison Reform Trust report.

"The Prison Reform Trust welcomes this timely report and its recognition of the important work conducted in prisons by Muslim chaplains. Too often Muslim prisoners are seen as potential extremists in the making instead of a diverse population in need of a safe environment, individual supervision and support and proper preparation for release."

60% of short-sentenced prisoners commit another crime within a year of getting out, costing the country between £7 billion and £10 billion a year, a report by the National Audit Office said today.

The Prison Reform Trust welcomes the publication of a thematic review of sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection by the Criminal Justice Joint Inspectorate, which branded the present position in regard to these disastrous IPP sentences as “unsustainable”.  

Commenting on HM Chief Inspector of Prisons' final annual report, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, described it as "a clear warning to be ignored at any government's peril".

"This report is clear that the limited progress New Hall prison is making in meeting its enormous challenges may be put at risk if the prison merges with Askham Grange open prison, near York. New Hall deals with a range of ages, from juvenile girls to adult women, and a complex set of needs. Many of the women arriving at New Hall have serious drug, mental health and self harm problems." 

“This report is a story of a poorly performing prison getting worse. Parkhurst has for a long time now been failing in its job to provide purposeful activity for prisoners so they are equipped and prepared for release back into society after serving their sentences." 

BT has reduced the prohibitively high cost of calls from prison payphones in England and Wales following a successful super-complaint issued to the regulator Ofcom last year.  

A report published by the Prison Reform Trust provides evidence that older prisoners face isolation and discrimination because the government is failing to meet their specialist health, social and resettlement needs, with some prisoners who use wheelchairs unable to join in day-to-day prison activities.  

Consumer organisations have issued a super-complaint about the cost of telephone calls from prisons, provided by BT in England and Wales and Siemens in Scotland.  

"The record high prison population for England and Wales of 81,681 has been fuelled in recent weeks by a sharp increase in the numbers of remand and short term prisoners. Despite opening a new prison this week and extra cellblocks wherever space allowed, government attempts to build its way out of this crisis have failed. In recent weeks, the prison population is growing at a rate which even building a new medium-sized prison every week would not match."

According to figures for England and Wales released by the Ministry of Justice, there were 92 "self-inflicted" deaths in 2007, including a 15 year old boy.