Cutting Crime: Better Community Sentences
Just after Christmas, the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee looked forward to a world of better health treatment after custody, with a stronger range of specialised services - a world which, I hope, SONAR can help to deliver.
The Committee published its report “Cutting crime: better community sentences” on 28 December. It argued that community services can succeed in reducing reoffending: “with the right investment, intensive community sentences can succeed where short prison sentences fail”. It also looked at best practice in providing rehabilitation services.
The Committee strongly emphasised the importance of health treatment after custody. As it said, “helping people on probation face their addictions or mental health issues helps reduce crime”. It drew attention to the New Chance programme, an adult diversion programme for women in the West Midlands. In this programme, after treatment, people who had mental health issues had a 37 per cent lower reoffending rate than the control group. Among those who had substance misuse, the results were 55 per cent lower. SONAR’s ability to collect and share health information pre- and post-release is highly relevant here.
The Committee also noted the success of women's centres. As part of its probation reforms in 2021, the Ministry of Justice let contracts worth around £50 million for services tailored to female offenders through women’s centres. These have provided courses, such as confidence-building; tailored support, for example for victims of domestic abuse; and mental health treatment. The Committee called for this kind of service to be expanded to male offenders as well, raising the prospect of a network of rehabilitation centres across the country. Again, SONAR's ability to join up services, and to ensure that all professionals have up-to-date health information, will strongly support initiatives of this kind:
The SONAR Secure module (holding healthcare information for prisons and other custodial environments) and the SONAR ReSet, (for people transitioning back into the community) share information seamlessly.
They comply fully with NHS and criminal justice standards on privacy.
The SONAR ReSet Hub is designed to support probation teams after release - for example, by flagging when an ex-offender has missed a medical or other appointment.
Improving health is a wonderful end in itself but, in the criminal justice system, it has the extra benefit of reducing crime too. I look forward to engaging with the House of Lords Committee as we continue to explain how SONAR can support a modern health and justice agenda.
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