The government has announced £9m funding to more than double the number of intensive supervision courts, which aim to cut reoffending by tackling the ‘root causes’ of crime.
The intensive supervision court model sees low-level offenders attend weekly sessions and regularly appear before the same judge, in recognition that ‘factors like addiction and trauma can be the root causes’ of repeat offending, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) states. However, people who refuse to engage in mandatory treatment or attend hearings – or continue to use substances – can then face tagging or prison time.
The model, which has ‘reduced reoffending across the world’, has already been successfully piloted in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Teeside, with a second Liverpool court to open later this year. The government has also pledged to increase probation funding by up to £700m by 2028-29, including the recruitment of at least 1,300 probation officers.
‘We know that custody alone does little to rehabilitate offenders, particularly those whose crimes are driven by addiction or mental health issues,’ said mental health minister Baroness Gillian Merron. ‘This initiative will help them turn their lives around by unpacking these issues and giving them the support they need to turn their backs on crime for good. Through this we can cut reoffending and make communities safer, while getting those often left behind back on their feet and contributing to society again.’
Meanwhile, analysis of drug diversion schemes across 13 English police forces found that people were a third less likely to reoffend than those who were prosecuted for drug possession, according to the Guardian. The study, which was led by the University of Sheffield’s Centre for Criminological Research, concluded that diversion was being used far less than it could be – even in those forces with well established schemes in place. Â
The government has also announced a £35m programme to fit 13,000 cell windows across 17 high-risk prisons with steel grilles to stop drones delivering drugs, weapons and mobile phones. Drone sightings around prisons increased by nearly 800 per cent between 2019 and 2023, with the age, design and condition of many prisons making them extremely vulnerable to drug smuggling.
‘Drone smuggling fuels violence, debt and disorder in our prisons,’ said deputy prime minister David Lammy. ‘It wrecks rehabilitation and puts lives at risk. This new investment will further bolster prison defences against drones, building on our work with police to catch and prosecute the criminal gangs responsible.’
A number of damning recent reports have highlighted the impact that drugs are having on the country’s prisons. The annual report from the Independent Monitoring Boards last week stated that drugs were the ‘single most destabilising factor’ across the entire prison estate, with long standing failures to address the increasingly ‘normalised’ issues of medical emergencies and debt-driven violence and intimidation. HM Inspectorate of Prisons, meanwhile, warned that drugs were now undermining every aspect of prison life – including the  rehabilitative work that cuts reoffending – while the National Audit Office said the prison service had been too slow in responding to the ‘substantial, increasing and rapidly changing’ threat.