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- Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland, vowed the public will be better protected and crime will be cut as the new unified probation service is launched. (“Bigger, Better Probation Service to Cut Crime”, 2021)
- £300million of extra funding has since been pumped into the service.

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- In the year ending September 2022, 52% of prisons were overcrowded in the UK (Sturge, 2022).

- Local male prisons have the highest rate for overcrowding across all prison establishments (48% of prisoners who have been incarerated in here lived in an overcrowded prison) (HM Inspectorates of Prisons UK, 2017).

- In 2018 the CNA showed that 61% (72 out of 118) prisons surpass CNA's standards of how many prisoners a prison should hold (Parliament.UK, 2022).

- The Certified Prisoner Accommodation states the space and privacy requirements for each cell (e.g. privacy levels whilst using the WC). Due to overcrowding, toilets are usually of a poor condition and unscreened (HM Inspectorate of Prisons UK, 2017).

- Access and quality of healthcare (Nguyen and Nyguyen, 2012).

- Hesistant to incarcerate offenders due to limited spaces in the majority of prisons. (e.g. the 'aggressive' lorry driver in 2023) (Spirlet, 2023).

- Combining the issue of overcrowding and being understaffed, inmates are spending significantly less time out of their cells (ideally want to be spending about 10 hours on weekdays) --> impact on their mental and physical health (HM Inspectorate of Prisons UK, 2017).

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(Canton)

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- The New Labour government established "reducing re-offending" as an explicit aim of criminal justice policy - focusing on young offenders
- Recent changes within the probation service means relationship between officer and offender has been altered
- To the extent that individuals attempting to desist are likely to receive less help from their supervising officers (King, 2010)

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HMP prisons have experienced 20% cuts on funding. This reduced the amount of prison staff and funding for the prisons. Which occurred between 2009-2016 (Prison Reform trust, 2022)
- This has caused prison performance to deteriorate due to the lack of prison officers (Prison Reform Trust, 2022)
- In 2018, there was also a cut to the careers service which is provided at every prison service. This massively impacted the prisoners as they were restricted to having valuable support on employability for preparation when leaving the prison system. This could potentially lead to an increase in reoffending. (HMIP, 2019)
- Covid 19 impacts of this- massively impact their mental health.

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(Clark, 2022)

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- HM Chief Inspector of Probation stated 'staff across the NPS are committed and hard working and leadership is good at every level but high workloads and a poor facilities management services means the NPS is not performing to it's full capability' (HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2020)
- During COVID, probation partners largely delivered services remotely, which reduced the services available (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation, 2020)
- 60% of NPS staff have workloads that exceed their expected capacity (HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2020)
- Nearly three in ten have been allocated workloads of more than 120% of expected capacity (HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2020)
- Pandemic led to closure of many courts which resulted in inevitable backlogs of trials and of probation enforcement cases (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation, 2020)

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- England's probation service is at risk and higher reoffending rates are among 'real-world consequences' of failure to increase funding. (Wright, 2020)
- The probation budget per service user fell 40 percent between its peak in 2004- 2019.
- Justin Russell, the chief inspector of probation, said the system would need extra funding because of the extra work likely to come from the recruitment of 20,000 new police officers.
- The 2019 National Audit Office report said that the Ministry of Justice expect to pay providers £822million less than their contracts originally envisaged.
- Staff members have been falling in these services due to the lack of funding.
- The ministry of justice announced they will end the CRC contracts in 2020, 14 months early. (Morse, 2019)

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Recommendations for Funding:

-       Revisit the Police Allocation formula. Measures the needs of an area using lots of indicators. This helps to determine annual allocation of available funding to each force. Reform the PAF, so funding is distributed better. Forces that are underfunded gain more resources allowing for the force to have a better impact within that area (UK Parliament, 2019).

-       Tackle issues of funding by reforming how some forces use their funding. For example, police have recently been issuing warnings and fines to those subscribed to illegal streaming services. Although this is beneficial it doesn’t tackle the root cause of the problem. If funding was used to tackle the main issue using problem orientated policing, illegal streaming may be cut out more beneficially. Allowing for police funding to be used more efficiently, instead of having to revisit the problem regularly (Fact, 2023).

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- The UK has approximately spent 5.42 billion on the penal system in 2021/2022 (Clark 2022).
-  2019/2020 the average cost per prison place was £30,312 in E&W (HMIP, 2019)
- HMP Nottingham is costing taxpayers around 96 million per year (HIMP, 2019)
- PO salary- average £22,476 (HMIP, 2019)
- Senior officers- £31-762- 34,537 (HMIP, 2019)

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-       Alternatives to prison such as community orders should be relied on more, for less serious crimes. Community orders sill provide punitive justice and public protection. Community orders also cater towards rehabilitation, as convicts often undergo rehabilitation services alongside their community order – reduces reoffending so, reduces prisoners.

-       Restorative justice should be used more. It has shown to reduce reoffending, which in turn reduces prisoners. Norway heavily focuses on restorative justice and rehabilitation; it also has the lowest reoffending rate (Sterbenz, 2014). Suggesting that this method if used correctly and consistently works.

-       Focus on mental health. 71% of female and 47% of male offenders suffer from mental illness (House of Commons,2021). 41% of those in prison with mental health issues should instead be in NHS facilities This can therefore lead to higher reoffending rates as offenders are not getting the help they need. To improve overcrowding, mental health needs within prison need to be focused on to stop reoffending.

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Provide an analysis of the contemporary challenges and issues in the penal system, and then offer recommendations for how justice might be reimagined.

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Provide an analysis of the contemporary challenges and issues in the penal system, and then offer recommendations for how justice might be reimagined.

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Ball, K., Buckley, L. Moore, R., 2021. Caseloads, Workloads and Staffing Levels in Probation Services  HMP Inspectorate of Probation [online]. Available at: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2021/03/Caseloads-and-Workloads-RAB-LL-designed-RM-amends-Mar-21.pdf [Accessed 13 Feb. 2023].

“Bigger, Better Probation Service to Cut Crime.” GOV.UK, 28 June 2021, www.gov.uk/government/news/bigger-better-probation-service-to-cut-crime.

Canton, Rob. Number of Offences Committed from Age 7 to Age 70 for a Sample of Adolescent Offenders, www.unafei.or.jp/publications/pdf/RS_No99/No99_VE_Canton_1.pdf. [Accessed 22 Feb. 2023]

Clark, D., 2019. Public sector expenditure on prisons in the United Kingdom from 2009/10 to 2021/22 [online]. London: Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/298654/united-kingdom-uk-public-sector-expenditure-prisons/ [Accessed 10th Feb 2023].

Fact, 2023, Police visit homes across the UK to issue warnings to subscribers of illegal sports streaming services.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation., 2020. A thematic review of the Exceptional Delivery Model arrangements in probation services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic A review by HM Inspectorate of Probation. [online] Available at: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/11/A-thematic-review-of-the-EDM-arrangements-in-probation-services-in-response-to-the-COVID-19-pandemic.pdf [Accessed 8 Feb. 2023].

HM Inspectorate of Probation., 2020. Chief Inspector urges action on National Probation Service staffing, workloads and facilities [online]. Justice inspectorates .Available at: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/media/press-releases/2020/01/nationalnps/ [Accessed 5 Feb 2023].

HM Inspectorate of Prisons, 2017. Life in prison: Living conditions. [online] Justice inspectorates. Available at: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/10/Findings-paper-Living-conditions-FINAL-.pdf [Accessed 13 Feb 2023].

House of commons Justice Committee, 2021, Mental health in prison, Fifth report of session 2021-22, 5, 8-31.

King, Samuel. Going Straight on Probation: Desistance Transitions and the Impact of Probation. 2010. [Accessed 22 Feb. 2023]

Morse, Amyas. “Transforming Rehabilitation: Progress Review - National Audit Office (NAO) Report.” National Audit Office (NAO), 1st March 2019, www.nao.org.uk/reports/transforming-rehabilitation-progress-review/.

Nguyen, L.H. and Nguyen, M., 2012. A Comparative Study of Prison Overpopulation and its Consequences. Hepatology, 55(5), pp.1640–1640.

Parliament.UK (2022). Prison population 2022: planning for the future - Justice Committee - House of Commons. [online] publications.parliament.uk. Available at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmjust/483/report-files/48306.htm.

Pearce, R.,2014. PLACEMENT REPORT DEALING WITH BUDGET CUTS: THE IMPACT, THE REPORT CENTRE AND THE FUTURE. [online] Plymouth Law and Criminal Justice Review, p.1. Available at: https://www.plymouthlawreview.org/vol6/Rowena%20Pearce%20-%20Dealing%20With%20Budget%20Cuts%20FINAL.pdf [Accessed 13 Feb. 2023].

Prison Reform Trust., 2022. Prison the facts: Bromley Briefings Sumer 2022 [online]. Available at: Prison-the-facts-2022.pdf (prisonreformtrust.org.uk) [Accessed 10th Feb 2023].

HMIP., 2019. Annual Report 2018-19 [online]. Available at: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/07/6.5563 [Accessed 10 Feb 2023].

Spirlet, T. (2023). Judge unable to jail violent lorry driver over overcrowded prisons. [online] Express.co.uk. Available at: https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1720675/judge-prison-jail-system-overcrowded-violent-lorry-driver [Accessed 22 Feb. 2023].

Sterbenz, C., 2014. Why Norway’s prison system is so successful. Business insider, 11, 1-3.

Sturge, G., 2022. UK Prison population statistics, Parliament.uk [online]. Available at: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04334/SN04334.pdf [Accessed 10 Feb 2023].

UK Parliament, 2019, How our local police forces are funded, The process for allocating funding to police forces has long been recognised as needing reform.

Wright, Robert. “England’s Probation Service at Risk from Cash Squeeze, Watchdog Warns.” Financial Times, 28 Sept. 2020, www.ft.com/content/526fec7a-6537-4979-a45c-606d1f168372.
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