Working with Offenders
'When the carrot meets the stick...'
Contents
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Introduction
Project Description
Recommendations
Current Profile
Background Notes
Awards & Further Information
A synopsis of the evaluation research carried out by the Department of Criminology, Keele University, and further local policy developments, on the Newcastle-under-Lyme Prolific Offenders Project - November 1998 – March 2001
Dr. Anne Worral, from the Department of Criminology at Keele University says:
"The Newcastle-under-Lyme Prolific Offenders Project has been a very worthwhile experiment and there is clear evidence of benefit both to participants and the community. We are cautiously optimistic that the intensive supervision and monitoring offered by the police and probation project can make a real contribution towards participants’ choosing not to re-offend."
David Walton, Chief Officer, Staffordshire Probation Area who commissioned the research, says:
"We are very heartened by the research findings as these hard core offenders are usually extremely difficult to work with on a constructive and socially inclusive basis. But ‘success’ for prolific offenders’ projects can be double-edged as offenders can opt for positive change if they are prepared to make the commitment and stop offending. If not, then they run the risk of detection at a much earlier stage than they have previously experienced, and either way crimes will have been prevented."
University of Keele, Department of Criminology
Staffordshire Probation Area
Staffordshire Police
Newcastle Western Urban Villages Community Programme*
Chesterton Community Programme*
(*SRB funded – Single Regeneration Budget)
May 2001
The Newcastle-under-Lyme Prolific Offenders Project
Research just published from Keele University shows that persistent offenders on an intensive surveillance and supervision scheme run by police and probation officers, are 53% on average less likely to be re-convicted when compared to a similar group not on the scheme.
Offering fast access to services and support to help them ‘go straight’ alongside swift action & penalties for non-compliance, offenders come onto the project, referred by courts, probation, prisons, police, solicitors and other services.
One of the participants had previously committed 155 offences and had 25 previous convictions, another 100 offences and had 17 previous convictions, another had committed 8 offences and had 3 convictions. Many are accustomed to prison life and being seen as a ‘failure’ in rehabilitative terms.
The 30 month-long evaluative research project studied
details of the 29 participants on the Prolific Offenders
Project based in the estates of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
The two Project Co-ordinators for the scheme, a
Probation Officer and Detective Constable, are based
together at Newcastle-under-Lyme Probation Office.
With a small number of prolific offenders responsible for committing a large number of crimes in the target neighbourhoods, all of the offenders will have committed six or more crimes in a 12-month period (one of which must be a serious indictable offence) before coming onto the project. They will all be at high risk of committing more crimes.
The participants ‘contract’ to meet the conditions laid down by the project – knowing that failure to comply is breachable and they face being fast-tracked back to court or in many cases into custody. They also know that information about their progress is shared between the police and probation and other services – especially from the NHS clinical drug misuse staff.
The research team found that despite nearly all the participants having a serious drug misuse problem when they started the project many positive changes were reported:
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All their offences were acquisitive crime to fund their habit, such as shop theft or burglary. Other areas related to their criminal behaviour were low self image, employment, training and accommodation issues.
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They all showed little awareness of the impact of their crimes on other people – such as victims, the community or even themselves. However due to their drug use, despite being high-risk acquisitive offenders, their risk of physical harm to others is assessed as being low.
"..he has got himself a job, runs a football team…there is loads of difference…if he goes out I know he isn’t going to take drugs…You can trust him with money and that whereas before he would try and take money from my purse" (partner of participant)
"I go into a shop now, instead of walking out with the trolley I go through the check out and pay for what I’ve got" (participant interviewed)
"I know (the Police Officer) quite well - he has locked me up before. For years he has been locking me up and that...I’ve seen a different side of him now" (participant interviewed)
"The way they treat you and they turn my life around from what I was before, stealing every day to what I am now" (participant interviewed).
"if people have had periods of being offence free, drug free, then that must be something, even if there is a lapse and relapse, that they can look back on and say well yes I did manage for that time. I mean it must be beneficial in some way and it maybe something that people will go back to in some future stage and that might be a powerful motivation for them" (a local probation officer interviewed)
The Project Co-ordinators jointly assess the offenders on the first day of referral or release from prison on licence (where possible with the Specialist Drugs Nurse) and clearly spell out the conditions of the scheme.
The research team stress that the strong multi-agency working arrangements developed, and particularly the close co-operation established between the police and probation services, has been a very strong factor in the success of the project.
Compared to other offenders under supervision, the offenders on the prolific offending project have much more serious physical health, social skills, thinking/reasoning skills, drugs and learning abilities.
Good working links exist between the Staffordshire Police’s Intelligence Officer, the Investigative Analyst and the police Project Co-ordinator. Offenders know and agree that they will be marked for special attention by the police and that any information regarding stop and search, arrests, questioning and detention will immediately be fed back to the project and action taken. This is in accordance with Section 115 of the Crime & Disorder Act (1998) which allows for the safe exchange of information between agencies with offenders’ knowledge.
An NHS Specialist Drugs Nurse assesses participants within 48 hours of coming onto the project.
To become drug free and maintain some stability, major changes are needed relating to a drug user’s lifestyle such as developing support networks, developing interests and also diminishing influences through a change in peer networks.
"We said from a nursing point of view you have got to find ... these people something to do to replace their drug use ... to get them involved; like the Newcastle College and like all those other things ... something that they want to do. It’s pointless us telling people what to do, they won’t do it." (Specialist Drugs Nurse interviewed)
Effects of the programmes are also felt in families.
"... in one family the school was concerned about the behaviour of the oldest child. They were looking at child psychiatry or psychology, but once his dad had got on to the methadone programme and we got involved with the quality of life in the household, that child improved at school. No problems now" (Specialist Drugs Nurse interviewed).
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Failure to attend an appointment with the Specialist Drugs Nurse for a drug test is breachable - as is failure to attend appointments made at the local college for training schemes, exercise classes at the leisure centre or participation in projects such as gardening/allotment work.
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Random weekly urine testing for drug use prevents cheating
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Participants’ supervision contact with the probation officer aims to be as high as a maximum of four sessions a week (including a home visit) with a minimum of more than two weekly sessions. Whereas the statutory minimum requirement of a Community Rehabilitation Order (formerly known as a Probation Order) supervision would be once a week for the first three months of the order.
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Participants get quick access to drug misuse services – for NHS drug assessment & treatment.
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The Beth Johnson Housing Association provides advice about accommodation and seven participants have obtained flat accommodation. However two tenancies were reclaimed following re-offending. A significant level of trust was reported by the Housing Association with the quality of information about the offenders provided by the project co-ordinators giving ‘the full picture’. “We have a lot more information from the prolific offender unit, we can make a decision and we know that they have told us everything…we need to know about their risk basically and where we are putting them” (Housing Worker interviewed)
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Many of the offenders have been unemployed for long periods of time and are low achievers lacking in confidence. So initial work is needed before they become ‘job ready’ and the project’s close relationship with Newcastle College help facilitate this. As a result some of the projects are now subject to accreditation and certification. The two Project Co-ordinators are able to refer offenders to the job search worker who is based in the probation office for a day a week and is available to other probation users.
Four participants were returned to prison for re-offending while on the project. The research team revealed that two of these interviewed acknowledged personal responsibility for their mistakes and their failure to take up the support on offer. They were also extremely positive about the project and reported positive relationships with the two project co-ordinators valuing the genuine help and support offered to them.
Many of the participants coming on the project have come via Probation Orders (since renamed Community Rehabilitation Orders) made by the courts. So Judges and Magistrates have had to seriously consider the difficult decisions they are making in allowing an offender at high-risk of re-offending to receive a community order: "When I first looked at your record I thought you had to go to prison. However I’ve listened to what has been said and have read the PSR’s* I’m prepared to take a risk in your case." (sentencer interviewed)
(*Pre Sentence Report - a report prepared by probation staff to help inform the judges/magistrates on passing the most suitable and effective sentence)
The sentencers acknowledge that if it were possible for a participant to be rehabilitated then referral to the project would be in the public interest. They appreciate that risk to the community is minimised by the intensive contact and the strict approach taken by the police and probation staff if the order is breached.
Taking on board the research team’s recommendations.
The research states:- "Similar projects should be encouraged elsewhere so that lessons learnt from this project in Newcastle-under-Lyme can be applied and the results tested in different geographical areas. The multi-agency partnerships which have formed the basis of the project have demonstrated that such work is both possible and effective in preventing crime."
A second prolific offender’s project was set up in September 2000 in Stoke-on-Trent, funded by the Targeted Policing Initiative and is also being evaluated by Keele University.
This took on board many of the research team’s interim findings and recommendations from the Newcastle under Lyme project. Notably this included developing improved systems for the screening of suitable participants via increased liaison between the police and probation services. Probation staff are based with police officers and a Crime Information Analyst in the Hanley police station.
Referrals are prioritised through the pooling of local multi-agency information via a specially designed computerised system that flags up local offenders who would be most suitable for the scheme. Close multi-agency working is an essential as successfully demonstrated by the Newcastle under Lyme project.
Improvements have also been made to the formalising of referral systems for both projects as well as systems for review and feedback to other colleagues - also suggested by the research team’s interim and final evaluation report.
Tackling drug misuse was an area identified by the research team as requiring increased resources, which became apparent to staff soon after the Newcastle-under-Lyme project was set up. Funds have since been forthcoming for additional NHS drugs misuse services supporting the Stoke-on-Trent project and Newcastle-under-Lyme Council have provided funding for additional specialist drugs misuse services for the Newcastle project.
Further attention is being given to the ‘fast tracking’ of participants into treatment services to reduce the five-six weeks waiting period from initial assessment which the introduction of the new Drug Treatment and Testing Orders goes part way towards.
The ‘carrot’ of rehabilitation measures combined with the ‘stick’ of rapid re-arrests and imprisonment is acknowledged by the Keele research team. However they issue a word of warning to policy makers against simplifying this mixture of care and control:
"The Newcastle-under-Lyme project seems to fit this model well but the analogy is an over-simplified one. The complexities of holding in balance genuine concern for individual offenders and commitment to community safety and public protection result in difficult professional deliberations on a daily basis, requiring skill and integrity from all those working on the project."
The Final Evaluation Report For ‘The Newcastle Prolific Offenders Project - October 1998-March 2001’ was undertaken by Keele University’s Department of Criminology and commissioned by Staffordshire Probation Area.
Members of the research team were:
Professor Tim Hope
Dr. Anne Worrall
Leigh Dunkerton
Dr. Vivian Leacock
The Project Co-ordinators are:
Steve Stockall, Probation Officer
John Harvey, Detective Constable
The current profile (May 2002)
Currently there are 31 offenders on the project. Of these 17 (57%) have been crime free or have shown a very marked reduction in their offending.
All the individuals who have re-offended have been taken back to court. Because their offending was less serious and less frequent they were allowed to continue under community supervision.
9 (30%) offenders re-offended and the courts decided to imprison them again. The police and probation services believe that these individuals were arrested and returned to custody faster than might previously been the case – so some crime has been prevented.
4 (13%) offenders were assessed for entry onto the project while in prison but they declined to participate. However they do know that they have come to the attention of the police as prolific offenders.
Background notes
History, Set Up & Aims
The project started in November 1998, it developed when sources of crime intelligence were considered by the local Crime and Community Safety Topic Group of the Newcastle Western Urban Villages Partnership Programme – funded by the Government’s Single Regeneration Budget (SRB). The SRB programme promotes urban regeneration in the former coal mining communities of Newcastle-under-Lyme. Chesterton SRB Partnership also supported the project.
Revealing that 4% of offenders were committing 40% of local crime on the former coal-mining estates the SRB partner agencies were faced with a pressing need to substantially reduce the burglaries, thefts and car crime. A natural logic dictated that for this group of offenders, any degree of reduction of re-offending could provide a significant pay-off and impact on local crime figures.
The project objectives are to:
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monitor offenders in the community and reduce the incidence of crime
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confront attitudes about offending and victims
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deal with problems relating to offending
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provide offenders with strategies to live law-abiding lives
All offenders on the project must live in, or have committed crimes in, the localities covered by the two SRB* programmes. (*Newcastle Western Urban Villages Community Programme – Silverdale, Cross Heath, Knutton, Parksite and Meadows or the Chesterton areas of Newcastle-under-Lyme).
The SRB projects funded the Probation Officer post and Staffordshire Police funded the Detective Constable post. Staffordshire Probation Area met the administration & management costs and commissioned the evaluation project from Keele University.
Notes on Methods & Findings
A control group of offenders who were not exposed to the Prolific Offending Project was established to attempt to measure the influence that other factors, external to the project, might have on the reduction of offending amongst the participants taking part in the project. For instance rates of offending reduce with age, therefore an observed reduction might be due to ‘maturation’ out of crime – or other experiences in their lives that have little or nothing to do with the project.
Perfect matching clearly was not possible however a comparison group did serve to highlight project outcomes with some measure of reliability. On this basis with respect to the project it would seem possible to claim that the project has had a positive effect on the participants (when compared to the non-participants) that is less than 10% likely to be a matter of chance.
The research project team is 90% confident that the project has had an effect in the direction of reducing re-offending rates of participants by over 50% when compared with similar non-participants.
In comparing the offenders on the Newcastle-under-Lyme Prolific Offenders Project with a control group of other offenders in this locality the researchers noted some very large differences in a number of the offending categories – which reinforces that this project is working with a ‘top core’ of offenders.
Compared to the control group the offenders on the prolific offending project have much more serious physical health, social skills, thinking/reasoning skills, drugs and learning abilities. In addition their prevalence is more serious.
The reconviction rates of the project participants before and after admission to the project were compared to that of the control group – with the average number of convictions for the control group showing at twice that of the participants after admission to the Newcastle-under-Lyme Prolific Offenders Project.
In addition the researchers are confident that the initial results remain robust when discounting the ‘extreme’ cases that might have a disproportionate effect on the average results – with the most successful and the ‘worst’ cases being removed from the analysis. So, for the average participant there again seems to have been an encouraging effect.
Furthermore questions could be raised about the inclusion of participants who were returned to custody while they are on the project. When the cases returned to custody were removed from the analysis then the effectiveness did become less significant. However the ultimate goal of the project is to prevent further offending in the community so the researchers believe it is legitimate to include them in the effectiveness scoring.
Finally a test was carried out to check whether participants age, gender or their age at first conviction (known to be a risk factor associated with prolific offending) none of these, together or individually, had any significance on effectiveness.
The researchers do recommend that the scheme be replicated on a wider scale or in other areas to check for the vulnerability of results to the contributions of certain individuals.
Information on Participants
Since it’s set up in November 1998 to June 2000, 29 offenders had been accepted onto the scheme:
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52% were aged 20-25 years (15 participants)
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24% aged 26-30 years (7 participants)
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21% aged 30-40 years (6 participants)
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3% aged 40 plus (one participant)
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93% were male (27 participants)
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7% were female (2 participants)
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59% of participants admitted to committing crime in their home area – and a condition of entry onto the project is that offenders live or commit crime in the geographical locality of the two SRB programme areas* which have substantially contributed financially to the project.
When these findings were collated (June 2000), approximately 18 offenders are being worked with in the community at any one time.
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12 offenders were involved via a, then, Probation Order, (recently renamed as a Community Rehabilitation Order)
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11 offenders were involved via throughcare (preparation for release through the prisons).
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One licence case has been completed.
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Four offenders were returned to custody.
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One case had been deferred.
Research Information Sources
These included:
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individuals’ criminal records
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police intelligence (detection & conviction data)
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monitoring and compliance (ACE - Assessment, Case recording & Evaluation System, a computerised probation case record system)
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profiles of participants (via probation assessment forms)
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case file information
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professional agencies perceptions and relations – including sentencers
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participants experiences and perceptions
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recorded crime figures
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Offender Group Reconviction Score (OGRS – a statistical risk scoring system used by the probation service)
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participant observation
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interviews with those involved in the project
31 interviews were conducted – 11 with project participants, one with a partner of a participant, 7 with probation officers, 6 with police personnel, 4 with workers from other agencies and both project co-ordinators.
Effects on Local Crime Rate
Due to a range of factors it has not been possible for researchers to estimate precisely whether the project has had an impact on local crime rates. The study did not have the resources or the data to measure all the multi-factoral issues that are known to influence levels of crime – such as changes in: victims willingness to report crime; how crimes are recorded by the police; the categorisations of offences; seasonal variations. There are also changes in the other parts of the criminal justice system where changes could affect the offenders’ behaviour and the project. Also there are more prolific offenders at large at any one time who are free to offend and this will continue to affect the local crime rates, as well as other offenders who do not fall into the prolific offenders category.
Further Information
The Newcastle-under-Lyme Prolific Offenders Project was on of the winners of the 2001 Crime Concern / Securicor Community Safety Awards, and was selected to represent the UK at the 2001 European Community Safety Awards, where it was a runner-up.
For further information please contact: David Walton, Chief Officer, Staffordshire Probation Area, Head Office, Staffordshire Technology Park, Beaconside, Stafford ST18 OGE
Tel: 01785 223416
Fax: 01785 223108
Email: staffs.probation@staffordshire.gov.uk
Last update: 16/09/03