£3.7billion f lop: Damning verdict on Cameron-era bid to cut crime

A FLAGSHIP £3.7billion programme drawn up by David Cameron’s government to slash reoffending by criminals has been a catastrophic failure, say two watchdogs.

A damning report published today says reforms introduced in 2015 have ‘no real prospect’ of preventing ex- prisoners returning to a life of crime.

The cost of reoffending to society is £15billion a year and the

‘Not making any difference’ ‘Assessment of risk inadequate’

measures were intended to rehabilitate inmates.

A total of 21 partly-privatised Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) were set up to help around 200,000 medium and lowrisk offenders by tackling criminal behaviour, drug and alcohol problems, and help them with housing, employment, finances and debts.

But a devastating study of the programme – called Through The Gate – found it was ‘not making any difference’. Some 32 per cent of prisoners sentenced to 12 months or more behind bars reoffended within a year of release.

In some instances, staff were putting the public in danger because risk assessments for some violent and sex offenders were not carried out correctly before they were released on to the streets.

The findings, by HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons, will be embarrassing to the beleaguered Ministry of Justice.

Publishing the scathing report, Chief Inspector of Probation Dame Glenys Stacey said: ‘There were great hopes for Through the Gate, but none of these have been realised. They are making little real difference to people’s life chances as they leave prison. The gap between the Government’s aspirations and reality is so great. There is no real prospect that these services as they are will reduce reoffending. There needs to be a renewed focus and effort.’

Inspectors found that CRCs were focusing most of their efforts on meeting their contractual targets to produce written resettlement plans, and not giving enough attention to prisoners’ needs.

The overhaul led to the creation of a National Probation Service to deal with high- risk offenders, while remaining work was assigned to the CRCs.

Under a payment- by- results system, they became responsible for helping prisoners to prepare for release. But firms claim they were given fewer offenders to supervise than they were promised, making the deals – worth £3.7billion in total – unviable.

The watchdogs looked at resettlement services for a sample of criminals serving sentences of at least 12 months and found one in seven was released not knowing where they would sleep that night. Not a single prisoner was helped to get education, training or a job.

Except for some prisons setting up bank accounts for offenders, work on finance, benefits and debt was not being delivered to any great extent, and the use of mentors had not been developed as anticipated, the report found.

Last month the Mail revealed how ten criminals a week are committing serious violent and sexual offences while supposedly being monitored by the authorities. Assessment of prisoners’ potential to cause harm to the public was ‘inadequate’ in too many cases, with too little done to mitigate these risks.

A shocking 1,021 serious further offence reviews have been triggered since February 2015 after the Government introduced its flawed probation revolution. A review is carried out when a prisoner is charged with a major crime while being watched by the struggling probation services.

An MoJ spokesman said: ‘Public protection is our top priority and we will take all necessary action to make sure the probation system is reducing reoffending and preventing future victims.’

Ministers have vowed to undertake a review of services.