A model of a specialist transitional support and liaison service within the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway in Wales: Learning from a regional pilot service

The process of transitioning from custody to the community can be a time of increased risk of reoffending and heightened anxiety brought on by uncertainty of future plans and unfamiliarity of new surroundings. This period can be particularly problematic for those experiencing complex needs or suffering with mental health difficulties. To address this concern, the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway (OPDP) in Wales established a Transitional Support Liaison service. This pilot service began with a focus on women’s criminal justice journeys and evident benefits led to service expansion to additionally address men’s transitions to the community through Approved premises. This practice note outlines the learning from these services, presenting a model of service delivery that can be adopted and expanded more widely. The paper concludes with recommendations and plans for service expansion

A more promising architecture? Commissioners’ perspectives on the reconfiguration of personality disorder services under the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway

Purpose – This paper explores the views of NHS England (NHSE) and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) commissioners about the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway. Design/methodology/approach – Thematic analysis of four semi-structured interviews with NHSE and HMPPS commissioners. Findings – Commissioners offered a cautious but confident assessment of the potential effectiveness of the OPD pathway, drawing particular attention to its potential to enhance the confidence and competency of staff, offer better value for money and provide enhanced progression routes for offenders with personality disorders. Additionally, commissioners identified a number of potential risks for the pathway including wider system flux, funding availability, multi-agency working, offender engagement and the need to evidence effectiveness. Research limitations/implications - Our analysis is based on a small number of interviews. However, there are only a limited number of commissioners involved with the OPD pathway. Practical implications - While the stronger focus on progression in the OPD pathway is a welcome departure from a narrow focus on high security DSPD services, the foundations of the OPD pathway ultimately lie with the DSPD programme and similar challenges are likely to follow. The system within which the pathway operates is subject to a great deal of flux and this inevitably poses significant challenges for pathway services, staff and offenders, as well as for those of us charged with its evaluation. Originality/value – There has been limited empirical work with commissioners in the mental health field. Our paper offers a unique insight into the perspectives of those responsible for commissioning the OPD pathway

Rolling back the prison estate: The pervasive impact of macroeconomic austerity on prisoner health in England

Prisons offer policymakers an opportunity to address the pre-existing high prevalence of physical and mental health issues among prisoners. This notion has been widely integrated into international and national prison health policies, including the Healthy Prisons Agenda, which calls for governments to address the health needs of prisoners and safeguard their health entitlement during imprisonment, and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 concerning reducing inequality among disadvantaged populations.However, the implementation of the austerity policy in the United Kingdom since the re-emergence of the global financial crisis in 2008 has impeded this aspiration. This interdisciplinary paper critically evaluates the impact of austerity on prison health. The aforementioned policy has obstructed prisoners’ access to healthcare, exacerbated the degradation of their living conditions, impeded their purposeful activities and subjected them to an increasing level of violence.This paper calls for alternatives to imprisonment, initiating a more informed economic recovery policy, and relying on transnational and national organizations to scrutinize prisoners’ entitlement to health. These systemic solutions could act as a springboard for political and policy discussions at national and international forums with regard to improving prisoners’ health and simultaneously meeting the aspirations of the Healthy Prisons Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals

'Holistic' Community Punishment and Criminal Justice Interventions for Women

Calls for ‘holistic' responses to halt the increasing imprisonment of women are continually reiterated. Solutions are sought which aim to be both ‘gender-responsive' and ‘community-based'; however, the absence of meaningful definitions of ‘community' and ‘holistic' means that superficial responses are often put in place in response to failures of the system. Taking as an example one attempt to introduce a community-based service for women in Scotland, this article examines the challenges of implementing services that are located within ‘the community' and considers the consequences for feasible attempts to reduce the number of women in prison in Scotland and internationally

‘We Call it Jail Craft’: The Erosion of the Protective Discourses Drawn on by Prison Officers Dealing with Ageing and Dying Prisoners in the Neoliberal, Carceral System

The UK prison population has doubled in the last decade, with the greatest increases among prisoners over the age of 60 years, many of whom are sex offenders imprisoned late in life for ‘historical’ offences. Occurring in a context of ‘austerity’ and the wider neoliberal project, an under-researched consequence of this increase has been the rising numbers of ‘anticipated’ prison deaths; that is, deaths that are foreseeable and that require end of life care. We focus here on ‘jail craft’; a nostalgic, multi-layered, narrative or discourse, and set of tacit practices which are drawn on by officers to manage the affective and practical challenges of working with the demands of this changed prison environment. Utilising findings from an empirical study of end of life care in prisons, we propose that the erosion of jail craft depletes protective resources and sharpens the practical consequences of neoliberal penal policies

Language difficulties and criminal justice: the need for earlier identification

Background: At least 60% of young people in the UK who are accessing youth justice services present with speech, language and communication difficulties which are largely unrecognized. The contributing reasons for this are discussed, suggesting that early language difficulty is a risk factor for other problems such as literacy difficulties and educational failure that may increasingly put the young person at risk of offending. Opportunities for identification and remediation of language difficulties before young people reach youth justice services are also outlined. Aims: To examine language skills in a sample of children in a secure children's home aged 11–17 years. Methods & Procedures: A sample of 118 males were routinely assessed on four Comprehensive Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) subtests and the British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS). Outcomes & Results: Around 30% of the participants presented with language difficulties scoring 1.5 SD (standard deviation) below the mean on the assessments. Despite them entering the home because their vulnerability was recognized, only two participants had a previous record of language difficulties. A total of 20% of the participants had a diagnosis of mental illness, 50% had a history of drug abuse and 31% had looked‐after status prior to entry to the home. Conclusions & implications: Children experiencing educational or emotional difficulties need to be routinely assessed for speech, language and communication difficulties. More population‐based approaches to supporting the development of oral language skills in children and young people are also supported

“The Others”: Sex Offenders’ Social Identities in Probation Approved Premises

Through reporting on an ethnographic study of a Probation Approved Premises, this article explores the informal social structures which shape life for sex offenders in hostels, and the significance of these in terms of social exclusion, support and the work of the institution. The findings illustrate how the practice of the hostel both demonises and reinforces the personal and social identity constructs of residents convicted of sexual offences to accord with the dominant discourse of ‘sex offender’. Of note, the article identifies how informal structural and cultural processes define sex offender residents as essentially different from other people

Through the prison gate A joint thematic review by HM Inspectorates of Prisons and Probation

Summary held at m01/39223Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m01/39222 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo