Labour is undertaking bold and potentially transformational reviews into sentencing and court capacity that have awoken the sector after years of governmental neglect.
Former Lord Chancellor, David Gauke and retired judge, Sir Brian Leveson are cumulatively predicted to recommend measures that (a) decrease the trend of sentencing inflation and (b) increase the number of cases dealt with outside of the Crown Court. If these recommendations are enacted, it will be a marked change from years of politicians promising more people in more prisons for more time.
However, one of the main political problems with implementing such evidence-based and cost-effective approaches to criminal justice system reform is that it does not ‘generate clicks’.
Since entering Westminster, the Reform Party has been very active in highlighting issues of crime including accusing the Prime Minister of presiding over a “two-tier policing and a two-tier justice system” in the UK following the release of hundreds of inmates from prisons to ease overcrowding. Whilst a cursory analysis of the party’s current policy document ‘Our Contract with You’ shows a relatively superficial level of understanding, Farage et al prominently assert themselves on issues such as grooming gangs or the Southport murders, which often shape public debate on crime. The insurgent political strategy is not of course about evidence-based policy-making but about capturing public sentiment quickly.
The Tony Blair Institute of Global Change recently analysed the key policy demands that voters want delivered (by voting coalition) as part of a survey conducted by Deltapoll of 12,000 voters in six large democracies: the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Australia and the United States. They found that rising crime was a top priority for the traditional centre, established right and insurgent right – at least 30 per cent of these voters said this was an important issue, making it the third biggest issue for all three groups.
The TBI calls for ‘disruptive delivery’ and a rejection of the old paradigms of left and right, both in identifying problems and solutions. The disruptive element is the embrace of the new and the innovative to deliver transformative rather than slow, incremental change.
At my law firm, Commons, we agree with the need for ‘disruptive delivery’ and for the Ministry of Justice to embrace bold policy positions. As such, we have been pioneering a model called ‘holistic defence’ in the UK – borrowing from the example of the Bronx Defenders Service in New York.
We employ a Crisis Navigator (akin to an in-house social worker) to work alongside our legal team who supports our clients to secure housing, employment and training, health care and much more. This approach ensures we are not allowing clients to be ‘processed’ through the criminal justice system - which often exacerbates problems such as mental health or housing - but we engage some of the issues driving their behaviour. It enables clients to access vital support services and can have positive outcomes on their cases.
Evidence from a variety of jurisdictions demonstrates that there are vast efficiencies and societal benefits to looking at criminal cases holistically. Our recent report titled, Justice+, evidences how this model of ‘holistic defence’ can:
- Prevent people in crisis from being criminalised by addressing their underlying needs
- Reduce incarceration costs
- Avoid wrongful convictions
- Reduce recidivism, and
- Increase efficiency and productivity in the criminal litigation process
An integrated model of legal and social support could be crucial to the success of reform to the criminal justice system which is far reaching and permanent. Especially as we know that the cross-party political experiment of increased rhetoric and decreased resources on criminal justice has abjectly failed.
The Labour party has introduced integrated ways of working in the past, such as the Sure Start network of children’s centres, which showed that disruptive delivery can yield effective outcomes. Only innovation will turn the corner away from crisis and towards delivering public confidence in the criminal justice system to its highest levels.
We believe tackling the causes of crime, through initiatives such as holistic defence, will make people feel safer rather than just perpetually angrier at headlines on crime.
