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National Objectives for Social Work Services in the Criminal Justice System: Standards - General Issues
CHAPTER 2: OBJECTIVES
13. Social work practice in the criminal justice system has the following objectives:
13. 1to enable a reduction in the incidence of custody, whether on remand, at sentence, or in default of a financial penalty, where it is used for lack of a suitable, available community based social work disposal;
13.2 to promote and enhance the range and quality of community based social work disposals available to the courts and ensure that they are managed and supervised in such a manner that they have the confidence of courts, the police and the public at large;
13.3 to ensure that the social work disposals are provided to the courts or other agencies in such a way that the full range of disposals is available when required to that the most appropriate one can be used, particularly with the persistent offender;
13.4 to give priority to the development of community based social work disposals and other services to young adult offenders;
13.5 to promote the development of schemes to enable the courts to grant bail in an increased number of cases;
13.6 to provide and facilitate services for prisoners, and their families, to help them prepare for release from custody and to assist them resettle in the community on release within the law;
13.7 to help offenders tackle their offending behaviour, assist them to live socially responsible lives within the law, and, whenever appropriate, further their social integration through the involvement and support of their families, friends and other resources in their community;
13.8 to assist families of offenders where family life suffers as a consequence of offending behaviour;
13.9 to promote, provide and facilitate the development of schemes for diverting accused persons from prosecution to social work in those cases where there is sufficient evidence to prosecute but it is not deemed necessary to do so in the public interest;
13.10 to promote and assist the development of services to the victims of crime;
13.11 to promote and assist action to reduce and prevent crime.
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