Justice Reinvestment in the United Kingdom 30 th September 2013 Kevin Wong Deputy Director, Hallam Centre for Community Justice
Apr 01, 2015
Justice Reinvestment in the United Kingdom
30th September 2013
Kevin Wong Deputy Director, Hallam Centre for Community Justice
Things can only get better…
“…being efficient on crime, being efficient on the causes of crime”
Fox, Albertson and Wong 2013
"A good society"
• “Delivering more for less”• Curing social problems rather than “just treating them”(David Cameron 2009)
Its about prisons…
Localism – locally determined delivery of CJS• Increased trust by the public in CJS more likely
• Co-operation more likely between stakeholders at a local level rather than at a national level – police, probation, local authorities, health and Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) agencies
• Allow holistic consideration of criminality – alternative interventions inside and outside the CJS – localised benefits and cost
Do Better, Do Less, the Commission on English Prisons Today (2009)
A data driven process• Justice mapping – analysis of the prison population and spend
in the communities where prisoners come from
• Options for savings and increases in public safety
• Implementation – quantification of savings and reinvestment in high risk communities
• Measurement of impact and evaluation
(UK Parliamentary Justice Committee 2009 based on approach of US Council of States Government)
Models of JR
Justice Reinvestment as a continuum
Fox, Albertson and Wong 2013
‘Social Justice’ model
“…approaches which channel resources on a geographically-targeted basis to reduce crimes which bring people into the criminal justice system and into prison” (UK Justice Committee 2010)
“Million dollar blocks” (Tucker and Cadora 2003)
‘Criminal justice system redesign’ model
Criminal justice system re-design at: arrest, pre-trial, case processing; sentencing, re-entry (prison release) community supervision
(La Vigne et al 2010)
Local Justice Reinvestment Pilot - Greater Manchester model (Transforming Justice)
To reduce demand at key transition points in the criminal justice system for youths and adults and divert individuals to more cost effective options
•Point of arrest – Restorative Justice, Conditional cautioning•Point of sentence – Intensive alternatives to custody•Point of release – Resettlement projects (Choose change)•Transition between youth and adult CJS
Greater Manchester – Whole Place Community Budget pilot principles
1. Designing and implementing new delivery models (rigorously evaluated)
2. Track outcomes and financial benefits
3. Negotiate investment from partners to scale up interventions
4. Decommissioning ineffective services and recycling cashable savings through an investment agreement
Greater Manchester – Transforming Justice as part of the Community Budget pilot
(Report to the Greater Manchester Public Protection Commission April 2012)
Who shot JR ?
Overtaken by events…• None of the MoJ and non-MoJ JR pilots have yet proven
themselves to be a success: o poor implementation; o limited incentive to do anything different; o theory of change didn’t make sense; o insufficient scale; o limited cashability; o no disinvestment
• Payment by Results (PbR) commissioning and marketization of CJS have become the policy vehicles for efficiency and effectiveness
Local Justice Reinvestment - Cashable savings V Cost
Cashable/realisable ‘saving’ made through reducing by one month a custodial sentence of under twelve months = £360
Estimated average monthly cost of a custodial sentence of under twelve months = £2,553*
(*Based on £30,637, the annual resource expenditure cost per prisoner in a Category C prison -Ministry of Justice 2012)
JR as a change project?