Supporting children's resettlement ('reentry') after custody : beyond the risk paradigm

In response to policy concerns in England and Wales and internationally, a considerable knowledge-base has identified factors statistically associated with reduced recidivism for children leaving custody. However, despite resulting guidance on how to support resettlement (‘reentry’), practice and outcomes remain disappointing. We argue that this failure reflects weaknesses in the dominant ‘risk paradigm’, which lacks a theory of change and undermines children’s agency. We conceptualise resettlement as a pro-social identity-shift. A new practice model reinterprets existing risk-based messages accordingly, and crucially adds principles to guide a child’s desistance journey. However, successful implementation may require the model to inform culture change more broadly across youth justice

Resettlement of young people leaving custody: Lessons from the literature update: July 2013

This paper is the first in a series of quarterly updates intended to outline the latest available lessons from research about resettlement of young offenders. It provides an overview of the relevant literature published in the period since Beyond Youth Custody’s extensive review of the literature on the resettlement of young people from custody was published in April 2013. It highlights that the number of children in custody has continued to fall. While clearly welcome, this presents challenges for the secure estate especially in terms of resettlement provision. It outlines some of the proposed changes to the secure estate such as decommissioning of places in establishments, new healthcare standards and the government’s consultation around the intention to redesign the secure estate to put education at the heart of provision. It summarises the findings of a recent small-scale qualitative study with girls in a YOI, highlighting key factors that encourage girls and young women to engage with resettlement services

Australia's mandatory retirement saving policy : a view from the new millennium

Formal retirement income provision in Australia, can be traced back to occupational schemes first offered by banks, and state governments in the nineteenth century. However, the year 1909 marks the beginning of a national retirement income policy, with the introduction of means-tested age pension. Since then, retirement income provision has evolved into a multi-pillar arrangement comprising the Age Pension, occupational annuity, and other long term saving through property, shares, and managed funds. The 1990s saw the introduction of private mandatory retirement saving in the form of the"Superannuation Guarantee". With this introduction, Australia joined a growing group of countries which center their retirement income policy, on private mandatory retirement saving. This paper provides a succinct description of the current system along with an analysis of its strengths, and areas where improvement is still needed.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Business in Development,Business Environment

Choices and constraints over retirement income streams: comparing rules and regulations

The new Simplified Superannuation regulations for Australian superannuation provide tax concessions to retirement income streams which comply with legislated minimum drawdown rules. We evaluate these new drawdown rules against four alternatives, including three formula-based ‘rules of thumb’ and the previous legislated minimum drawdown limits for allocated pensions. We find that the new regulations are a substantial improvement on the previous rules for allocated pensions and, when compared with the four formula-based rules, are a good compromise in terms of simplicity, a dequacy and risk. We also find that welfare is lower for most individuals who follow the Simplified Superannuation compared with welfare under an optimal path or a simple fixed percentage drawdown rule, but that outcomes could be improved through a further simplification of the rules.

Choices and Constraints over Retirement Income Streams: Comparing Rules and Regulations

The new Simplified Superannuation regulations for Australian superannuation provide tax concessions to retirement income streams which comply with legislated minimum drawdown rules. We evaluate these new drawdown rules against four alternatives, including three formula-based ‘rules of thumb’ and the previous legislated minimum drawdown limits for allocated pensions. We find that the new regulations are a substantial improvement on the previous rules for allocated pensions and, when compared with the four formula-based rules, are a good compromise in terms of simplicity, adequacy and risk. We also find that welfare is lower for most individuals who follow the Simplified Superannuation compared with welfare under an optimal path or a simple fixed percentage drawdown rule, but that outcomes could be improved through a further simplification of the rules.

Resettlement of young people leaving custody: Lessons from the literature

This literature review aims to set out the research and practice evidence about effective resettlement services for children and young adults and can be used to inform future policy and practice to ensure service delivery is evidence based. The findings of the review will help to steer the focus of Beyond Youth Custody’s research over the duration of the programme and act as a baseline to assess how our understanding has advanced in terms of what works in facilitating the transition from youth custody to the community and beyond. In addition, the review highlights some examples of good practice, as well as the emerging key principles of effective resettlement provision

Resettlement: Lessons from the literature update November 2014

This review outlines the latest lessons from research, policy and practice in the resettlement of young offenders. It provides an overview of relevant literature and developments in the filed of youth justice since Beyond Youth Custody’s last update in August 2014. •It updates on the latest from the government’s ‘Transforming Youth Custody’ agenda, around changes to the custodial estate including the decommissioning of custodial places and highlights possible implications these changes have for the resettlement of young people. •It outlines developments in resettlement practice and interventions from both a UK and international context including mental health support, sports interventions, mentoring and post-custody drug-related interventions. •It illuminates the findings of recent research into the experiences of bereavement among young men in custody exploring how the prison context impacts on young people who have experienced recent bereavement

Resettlement of young people leaving resettlement:Lessons from the literature update: October 2013

This paper is the second in a series of quarterly updates intended to outline the latest available lessons from research about resettlement of young offenders. It provides an overview of the relevant literature published in the period since Beyond Youth Custody’s first update of the literature that was published in July 2013. It highlights that the number of children and young adults in custody has continued to fall. Such falls are welcome but also have implications for resettlement services since the residual incarcerated population is likely to have more entrenched offending behaviour and higher concentration of problems. It outlines some of the proposed changes to the secure estate including the provisions of the Offender Rehabilitation Bill and how they will affect young people in different ways. It identifies that while there is an increasing understanding of the general principles that underlie effective resettlement work, there is less concrete evidence of the impact of particular interventions, especially where these are delivered by non-statutory partner

Resettlement of young people leaving resettlement: Lessons from the literature update: August 2014

This paper is the latest in a series of regular updates intended to outline the latest available lessons from research about resettlement of young offenders. It provides an overview of the relevant literature published in the period since Beyond Youth Custody’s last update that was published in March 2013. •It highlights that the number of children and young adults in custody has continued to fall. Such falls are welcome but also have implications for resettlement services since the residual incarcerated population is likely to have more entrenched offending behaviour and higher concentration of problems. •It outlines developments of the proposed changes to the custodial estate. •It considers published reports from the Ministry of Justice’s Data Lab and their analysis of individual organisations’ impact on reoffending. •From an international perspective it considers the evaluation of different programmes of community-based re-entry programmes for prisoners leaving custody