Resettlement Reintegration and Aftercare Troubles of Youth 16

Resettlement, Reintegration and Aftercare Troubles of Youth 16 th March 2009

Lecture Outline • Reasons for Growing Interest • Factors in Resettlement – Education / Life Skills – Drugs Rehab – Accommodation • The Detention and Training Order (DTO) • Effective Practice • Evaluation of Resettlement and Aftercare Programmes

Reasons for Interest • Context: High rates of recidivism: Incarceration growing • Pressures to Continue Incarceration – Prolonged Incapacitation / Lack of faith in rehabilitation and community alternatives • Pressures to Reduce Incarceration – Cost – Capacity – Evidence of Success • Effective resettlement programmes can help resolve these tensions • If custody made more effective, recidivism ↓ • If custody made more effective, use ↑

Research Evidence • Positive Change can be produced inside, but frequently disappears on release • Structured transition from incarceration to community can enhance positive change in young offenders – Preparation – Links to Agencies relating to risk and protective factors – Secure services and support

Education, Training and Employment • Clear evidence (already covered) that disengagement from education is associated with young people’s offending: does education offer a route out? • YJB Target of 90% of young offenders in suitable full-time ETE by March 2006 • Reality – (2004): Only 45% of the young people had access to F-T provision during the census week: 28% had no provision arranged at all – Source: YJB (2006) Barriers to engagement in education, training and employment

Barriers to Engagement in ETE (1) • Young People’s perspective – Assumed personal responsibility for lack of engagement: cited • Low educational ability; detachment; bullying criminal record and custody disrupting schooling • Youth Justice Professionals – Practical and Structural Reasons: cited • Lack of suitable provision, continuity between custody and community, and support and specialist; lack of willingness by educationalists to address causes of behavioural problems – Suggested • Greater use of “Release on Temporary License” (Ro. TL)

Barriers to Engagement in ETE (2) • Educationalists – Saw colleges, not schools as appropriate places to deliver educational provision: schools seen to lack knowledge, skills and time to respond to problematic attitudes and potential behaviour – A need to improve liaison between YOTs, Connexions, Local Learning and Skills Councils and LEAs – Funding rules mitigate against young people with previous low attainment and/or poor previous participation • Other Issues Identified – failure to recognise the scale and nature of the problem – lack of knowledge of the YJS within secondary and further education – conflicting objectives and targets – poor transmission of key information.

Drug Misuse • ‘The throughcare and aftercare of drug misusing prisoners is appalling - there is no other way to describe it’ (Drug Misuse in Prison, HM Prison Service, 1995) • CARAT Teams (Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare) launched in 1999 • ASSET should identify drug-related issues on arrival at institution • Healthcare info should be passed to YOTs and GPs prior to transfer to community • Non-planned release (eg. those on remand) may be more vulnerable to drug misuse on release • Overdose and drug-related death risks higher for those leaving custody

Accommodation • Housing problems associated with offending and custody (before and after) • Offending higher for those with non-stable accommodation • Often exacerbated by relationship breakdown and unemployment Accommodation on Release (Young male offenders) Rented /owned 11 With parents 46 With Friends 6 Probation/bail/DSS Hostel 3 No accommodation 23 Source: Niven, S. and Olangundoye, J. (2002) Jobs and Homes-a survey of prisoners near release. Home Office Findings 173.

Intensive Aftercare Programme (Altschuler and Armstrong) • Surveillance AND Treatment Services – A need to address criminogenic factors in communities and peer networks – Preparation prior to release needs to address the daily concerns of offenders after release – Co-ordinated service provision spanning institution and community

Evaluation of IAPs • A need to start preparation early in the institution • Formal assessment procedures required: not every offender is suitable • Low-risk offenders: – Supervision can produce an increase in technical violations -> net-widening – Reactions against intrusive disproportionate levels of supervision

Detention and Training Order • Introduced in 2002 • 10 -17 year old serious and persistent offenders • Covered majority of custodial sentences • Half sentence served in institution: half in community, supervised by YOTs • Reflected YJB commitment to the principle of continuity in work in and out of secure facilities

Did the DTO Increase Custody? Average Monthly DTO Sentences 2002 1, 854 2003 1, 657 2004 1, 645 2005 1, 626 2006 1, 767 2007 1, 820

Evaluation of the DTO • Widespread confidence across the YJS – Perceived to represent a new approach, that aims to challenge and change behaviour – Structured aspect particularly useful for young people – Length of sentence may be increasing: chance for rehabilitation to happen increased?

Custody • YOIs found the transition to training more difficult that other institutions • Co-working between institutions and YOTs viewed positively • Mid-custodial transfers disruptive • Shorter DTOs not as productive as hoped: training courses inflexible • Lack of preparation for community Community • Some problems around accommodation • Initial sense of disorientation • Length and type of supervision lower and variable – 37% in education activities – 17% in work activities – 19% in leisure activities • Limited inter-agency cooperation resulting in delays to these activities

Non-Compliance & Re-offending • 50% of trainees failed to comply in some way • 42% re-arrested by end of community period • Arrest more likely if: Type of 1 st Non-compliance Non-attendance at supervision 76% Re-offending 18% Failure to live at specified address 4% Other 2% – Excluded from school; younger age of first caution and first conviction; more convictions; more custodial sentences; failure to complete previous comm. sentence; moving address during community period; non-involvement in education / work

Critical Consideration of Resettlement • Is ‘resettlement’ the appropriate term? • Is resettlement always a good idea? – Criminogenic influences of family, community and peer groups