Sex offenders released to budget hotels
Chronic lack of secure accommodation is making rehabilitation difficult, inspectors’ report warns
An investigation has warned that children and families are being put at risk, with sex offenders being housed in budget hotels on their release from prison. Officials from HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons said there was an “indefensible” lack of close monitoring, leading to a “greater risk of someone being sexually assaulted” as a result of the failure to rehabilitate sex offenders or to put safeguards in place to protect the public.
CONVICTED sex offenders are being housed in budget hotels and temporary community accommodation, putting families and children at risk, according to an official investigation.
In a joint report, HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons said the lack of close monitoring of sex offenders released from jail was “indefensible”.
Inspectors warned that there was a “greater risk of someone being sexually assaulted” as a result of the failure to rehabilitate sex offenders and of failing to put safeguards in place to protect the public.
They revealed that four in 10 sex offenders received no help to reduce their reoffending after their release from prison, while during their time in jail they found “little, if anything, was done to reduce the likelihood of reoffending”.
Checks to establish the risks they posed were inadequate in a third of cases and a third of offenders had no home visits by probation officers.
Dame Glenys Stacey, the chief inspector of probation, said the system was not working “anywhere near well enough from start to finish”.
She said: “It’s not acceptable to put a convicted sex offender in a budget hotel or other accommodation which will be shared by the general public.
“These are convicted sexual offenders in accommodation where families, women, children, are sleeping or staying and they are not being supervised. It’s a desperately uncomfortable mix.
“On the first night of this individual’s freedom, when they are most at risk of reverting to their former behaviour, they are in accommodation where opportunities are present – as opposed to approved premises where they would be under curfew and locked in.”
Her report said there were insufficient places in approved hostels as numbers on the sex offenders’ register had risen 60 per cent since 2010 to 58,637. Nearly 14,000 prisoners are currently in jail for sexual offences.
Of 120 probation cases analysed in
‘There needs to be a renewed effort to ensure all reasonable steps are taken to protect the public’
detail, only 17 offenders had started a programme to reduce the risk of reoffending eight months after release – less than half of the 42 who had been ordered by a court or as part of their licence conditions to complete one.
Dame Glenys said: “There needs to be a renewed effort to ensure all reasonable steps are taken to protect the public. Prison and probation staff need better training and support, and the opportunity to work with offenders in ways known to reduce the risks.”
The Ministry of Justice said the use of hotels was “absolutely not standard practice”. Rory Stewart, the prisons minister, said the Government was committed to protecting the public. “The inspectors raise very serious concerns,” he said. “We will get to the bottom of the problems this report raises and tackle them one by one.”