Former Prisons Chief Unveils Radical Plan To Cut Reoffending
21 Jun 2007
Clive Fairweather, the former chief inspector of prisons in Scotland, has called for a greater role for families in the rehabilitation of offenders.
In a paper for the Policy Institute, published today, Fairweather sets out new ideas to cut Scotland’s prisoner reoffending rate, currently around 65%.
In the paper, “Prison and the Family”, Fairweather praises the introduction in the mid 1990s of Family Contact Development Officers (FCDOs) but stresses that due to budget pressures their use is, at best, patchy. Meanwhile there has never been a conscious effort to engage with families with the precise purpose of reducing reoffending. He calls for a new initiative that will place families at the centre of rehabilitation programmes.
Fairweather’s plan involves four key steps:
1) Induction and Early Visits - All prisoners families, subject to the prisoner’s agreement, would have an enhanced and extended visit to the prison shortly after initial incarceration. They would be briefed by prison staff on what the basic prison regime involves. Then, in the course of further visits, they would learn what the establishment is able to offer in the way of rehabilitation programmes, ranging from ‘Anger Management’ to ‘Cognitive Therapy’ and ‘Drug Detoxification’. Subsequently, this might enable prisoners’ families to take part in discussions about the way ahead for their son, daughter, husband or wife. In effect they would be taking an active part in the sentence management process, and taking on the role as a prime encourager for the offender’s cooperation and eventual change. Where the risk of suicide and self harm is thought to be high, they might participate in early case management studies. Their closer involvement could prove, literally, to be a life saver.
2) Reviews - At much later stages, strictly limited and nominated relatives could become involved more directly, contributing to sentence and parole reviews.
3) Specialist Programmes - Those with a family member imprisoned for sex offences might gradually become involved in the later stages of the accredited STOP programme, though this might involve some element of risk- and would have to be very sensitively handled. Attendance on such programmes is entirely voluntary for every prisoner, but given more information about what the programme involves, families might be able to help them reach a more positive decision about participation.
4) Pre-Release Arrangements - Over the last five years or so, some SPS establishments have begun to develop pre-release arrangements (more commonly known as “throughcare”). These are designed to bridge the considerable gap that exists between stepping out the prison gate and getting a permanent roof over the head, starting a job, or being put in direct contact with an alcohol or drug counsellor for ongoing work. These are areas which are also ripe for much more direct family involvement.
Fairweather estimates an extra £6-£8 million pounds a year would be needed to deploy additional staff and expand the role of FCDOs. The funding would be ring fenced so that prison governors would not come under pressure to divert funds to short term expediencies.
Clive Fairweather said: “The prime purpose of prison is to protect the public from criminals. Recent trends in prisoner numbers and sentencing show that policy in Scotland is increasingly tough. In some cases this also has a deterrent effect. But another function of prison is to rehabilitate offenders so that they do not return to crime on release. Currently a steady 65% of prisoners reoffend within two years of release.
“Tentative steps to involve prisoners’ families, who have an inbuilt incentive to prevent reoffending, in reformative programmes for those in custody have shown promise. We need a more determined, extensive and consistent effort in this regard. One which would be inexpensive to implement, but might have powerful benefits for potential future victims of crime, society as a whole and the families of prisoners.”