Prisoner release reforms ‘putting the public at risk’

THE public are at risk because of major flaws in a flagship scheme to tackle reoffending, a watchdog warned yesterday.

Supervision of freed criminals who pose a threat is ‘sub-standard, and much of it poor’, according to the damning report. It said 80 per cent of the part-private community rehabilitation companies that monitor 200,000 medium and low-risk offenders were inadequate.

Dame Glenys Stacey, the chief inspector of probation, said there were too few officers, over-reliance on unqualified staff, flawed IT systems and judges had lost confidence in community sentences.

The withering annual report from Dame Glenys is her last before stepping down in May. She said: ‘If pro- services are delivered well, there would be less reoffending, fewer people living on the streets, and fewer confused and lonely children, with a smaller number taken into care.

‘Men, women and children currently afraid of assault could lead happier, safer lives.’

The scathing criticisms will make embarrassing reading for the Ministry of Justice, which shook up the regime for managing criminals in the community in 2014.

Under the flagship £3.7billion ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ programme, then justice secretary Chris Grayling created a National Probation Service to deal with highrisk offenders, while the remaining work went to 21 CRCs.

Under a payment- by- results scheme, the companies check whether criminals are meeting court requirements as well as helping rehabilitate them.

But the firms claim they were given fewer offenders to supervise than they were promised, making the deals unviable. The cost of reoffending to society is £15billion a year.

Dame Glenys said: ‘Probation is a complex social service, with professional judgement at its heart, but probation contracts treat it largely as a transactional business.

‘Consequently, there has been a deplorable diminution of the probation profession and a widespread move away from good practice.’

Prisons and probation minister Rory Stewart said: ‘I am grateful for this incisive report, which redoubles my determination to continue working towards a probation service that puts public protection first, commands the confidence of the courts and breaks the cycle of reoffending.’

But Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Wera Hobhouse said last night: ‘We’ve seen many damning reports about Chris Grayling’s probation reforms, but none as excoriating as this.

‘The chief inspector is absolutely right to say that we need a whole new approach to rehabilitation.’

‘Judges have lost confidence’