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Joint working to reduce re-offending
29/08/2008
A commitment from Scotland's local authorities to work more closely to enhance public safety and reduce re-offending has been secured.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill recently met CoSLA representatives to discuss how the independent Prisons Commission report should be taken forward.
Ministers are already considering a detailed response to the Commission's recommendations that will be announced before the end of the year. But it is already clear that we cannot improve how we deal with offenders alone.
The meeting was a useful opportunity to review early progress on the work to deliver central and local government's shared targets of reducing re-offending and restoring public confidence in the criminal justice system.
Both CoSLA and Ministers are in agreement that:
- Prison should be for serious offenders who present the greatest threat to public safety. Prison sentences will be managed from beginning to end to help minimise risk and enhance public safety.
- A widely used, robust and effective system of community penalties that provides the appropriate balance of support for less serious offenders and payback to the communities affected by their offending is essential in delivering a coherent penal policy
- Enhanced public confidence in the criminal justice system can only be delivered through clarity in sentencing; investment in local reparative and rehabilitative services and visible offender payback.
Speaking ahead of a visit to a community service project in Kirkcaldy today, Mr MacAskill said:
"Both the Scottish Government and CoSLA believe that the Prisons Commission report - with its key themes of payback, reparation and more effective management for offenders whose offences merit imprisonment - provides us with a vision for the way forward.
"Many of the recommendations impact on the delivery of services in the community by local authorities. We must now build on our joint commitment to deliver a modern and coherent penal policy.
"We need a credible and robust package of community penalties with payback at its heart alongside a tough end-to-end sentence management regime for those offenders for whom prison will remain the appropriate disposal.
"We need to provide services which improve our arrangements for the support and resettlement of offenders, but also meet the rights of local communities to payback for the harm caused by less serious offending. Jointly with our local authority partners we will draw up further proposals to meet these common aims.
"We are making record levels of investment in the prison estate and building three new prisons - the first of which will open at Addiewell in January. And I am confident the proposed creation of a new sentencing guidelines and a sentencing council to oversee them will help deliver more consistent sentencing.
" At the end of this process we will have a more innovative and imaginative approach to the treatment of all offenders that will have reducing reoffending and public protection at its heart. Communities will be able to see the difference and benefit from the changes."
Councillor Harry McGuigan of CoSLA said:
'We look forward to working closely with the Government to deliver our shared objective - fewer short prison sentences, more people paying back to the community for the harm they have done. Local authorities, working with their strategic partners the community justice authorities, have a huge role to play in the speedy delivery and effective management of community sentences.
"Working together to deliver the outcomes sought by the report will need more than legislation - it means new approaches to service delivery and a new focus on payback tailored to the needs of the community as well as the offender. We welcome the challenge which the report represents."
Proposed highline objectives: Scottish Government and COSLA
To ensure joint working to achieve a penal policy that will contribute to delivering a safer and stronger Scotland - in particular to enhance public safety and reduce re-offending. The key delivery objectives will be:
- Prison for serious offenders who present the greatest threat to public safety where sentences are managed effectively.
- A widely used and effective system of community based sentences that provide the appropriate balance of support for offenders and payback to the communities affected by their offending.
- Enhanced public confidence in the criminal justice system through clarity in sentencing; investment in local reparative and rehabilitative services and visible offender payback.
- A robust framework to improve offender reintegration built on early intervention work already underway.