Two consultations which set out radical proposals to strengthen community sentences and improve probation services will close in one weeks time.
The wide ranging consultations include proposals for a new rigorous new community sentence, alcohol bans for offenders convicted of certain alcohol fuelled crimes and plans to give local probation areas more control to commission services to better cut crime locally.
The consultations close on Friday 22 June 2012. They include measure such as: :
Community Sentences:
• Intensive Community Punishment sentence – a rigorous new community order for criminals who deserve a serious penalty and who can be dealt with sensibly in the community. It will include a package of punishments including unpaid work, significant restrictions on liberty through a curfew with tagging, exclusion from certain areas, a foreign travel ban, a fine and a driving ban, where appropriate.
• At least one form of punishment element in every sentence – for the first time every community sentence will include one form of punishment from the list outlined above.
• Greater and more creative use of electronic monitoring – using technology, such as GPS, to monitor offenders’ compliance with their sentence and to track their movements.
• Seizing criminal assets – a new power for bailiffs to seize criminals’ possessions.
• Alcohol bans – new power to trial a scheme to ban offenders convicted of alcohol-fuelled crime from drinking as part of a community sentence or suspended sentences using new monitoring technology.
Probation:
• The public sector will retain control of the management of offenders who pose the highest risk, including the most serious and violent criminals to protect the public. They will continue to provide advice to court, and take public interest decisions over all offenders including initially assessing levels of risk, resolving action where sentences are breached, and decisions on the recalls of offenders to prison.
• Greater effectiveness and quality in probation services – extending competition, including for lower-risk offenders, to ensure that probation services are delivered by those best equipped to tackle crime and reoffending, and encourage the most effective rehabilitation measures, whether they are in the public, voluntary, or private sectors. Where possible we will pay providers by measured results.
• Devolving accountability and responsibility – giving Probation Trusts control of local budgets, including electronic monitoring of curfews, so they can deliver programmes targeted at local needs and reducing reoffending.
The proposals set out in two consultations build on the reforms already being taken forward in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, which include extending the maximum length of a curfew from 12 hours a day to 16 hours a day, from six months to 12 months and introducing foreign travel bans. The proposals in the probation consultation are designed to build on the intentions of the Offender Management Act 2007 to introduce a much broader range of competition across probation services.
The Community Sentences consultation can be found here and the Probation consultation can be found here
Discovering Desistance 