Reform sector strategies
Overview
Reform sector strategies: is there an alternative to the `alternatives to custody' debate?
New report available to download
Reducing the numbers in custody: looking beyond criminal justice solutions
This second paper explores a different explanation for prison numbers than that commonly considered: that of social and economic explanations for the numbers we imprison. It considers the implications of this perspective for those engaged in work to reduce the record numbers in prison in England and Wales.
Community sentences: a solution to penal excess?
This paper published in July 2011 examines the use of community sentences as a mechanism for reducing reliance on custody in England and Wales since the late 1990s. It is an up-to-date assessment of successive attempts to manage prison demands by reforming community sentences over the past two decades and an assessment of the implications and challenges for penal reformers going forward.
The project
The promotion of `alternatives to custody' has been a staple demand of criminal justice reformers in England and Wales for more than a decade. Convincing the public, sentencers, and politicians to impose a community-based sentence rather than a custodial one is the key mechanism by which, it is argued, the use of custody can be reduced.
However, the findings of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies' recent work monitoring community-based sentences in the three years up to 2008 suggests that whatever their other merits, community sentences did not appear to be performing their anticipated role of `alternative to custody' envisaged by reformers and the government only a few years ago.
If the conventional wisdom of promoting community sentences as a route out of prison expansion is out-of-kilter with the reality of our use of the penal system, what would alternative strategies be composed of?
This 18 month project is focused on engaging with everyone committed to significantly reducing the numbers of people in custody. Its starting point is the above dilemma and it intends to contribute to an open, forward-looking dialogue about the development of coherent and credible policies to halt and reverse prison growth.
We will begin by looking at penal reform strategies in England and Wales since the mid 1990's and assessing how far these efforts have taken us in moderating / diverting / reducing the use of custody. This will include a thorough review of sentencing statistics to establish the efficacy of community sentences as an `alternative to custody'. We anticipate a number of challenges facing penal reformers will emerge from this work. In spring 2011 we will produce working papers outlining these challenges and hold discussion events to share and discuss these issues with those committed to seriously reversing the growth in prison numbers.
On the basis of this, the second part of the project will look to the future and seek to identify promising ideas, alternative concepts and new ways of organising that respond to the challenges facing penal reduction and help to think through and address this aim in the longer term.
Latest news
Prior to the release of the second publication in the Reform Sector Strategies series, a roundtable seminar was held with representatives from penal reform organisations to discuss the idea of thinking beyond criminal justice improvement in strategies to tackle prison numbers. With this in mind recent socio-economic explanations for prison numbers and contributions from organisations engaging in reducing prison numbers by looking outside criminal justice reform were discussed.
The PowerPoint presentation from the day can be accessed here (MS/PowerPoint, 169KB)
In the June 2011 issue of Criminal Justice Matters, Helen Mills and Rebecca Roberts consider the opportunities and challenges for progressive penal reform followed by responses from George Mair, Jamie Bennett and Mick Ryan.
To download a copy of this article, click here.
Helen Mills and Rebecca Roberts held an event in April 2011 to share the findings from the first stage of the Reform Sector Strategies project. The project intends to generate a forward looking dialogue about the development of coherent and credible approaches to tackle penal expansion and think through the challenge of reducing the prison population in the longer term. On the event agenda was community sentences failure to reduce prison demands and why this cannot be explained simply because of poor implementation only, and the wider challenges that face devising penal reform strategies in a time of penal excess.
The PowerPoint presentations from the day can be accessed here (MS/PowerPoint, 182KB).
Join in the debate
If you are interested in participating in future discussion events, or being involved in this project please contact .
Reform sector strategies is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.