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Resettlement, Reintegration and Aftercare. Troubles of Youth 16 th March 2009. Lecture Outline. Reasons for Growing Interest Factors in Resettlement Education / Life Skills Drugs Rehab Accommodation The Detention and Training Order (DTO) Effective Practice
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Resettlement, Reintegration and Aftercare Troubles of Youth 16th March 2009
Lecture Outline • Reasons for Growing Interest • Factors in Resettlement • Education / Life Skills • Drugs Rehab • Accommodation • The Detention and Training Order (DTO) • Effective Practice • Evaluation of Resettlement and Aftercare Programmes
Reasons for Interest • Context: High rates of recidivism: Incarceration growing • Pressures to Continue Incarceration • Prolonged Incapacitation / Lack of faith in rehabilitation and community alternatives • Pressures to Reduce Incarceration • Cost • Capacity • Evidence of Success • Effective resettlement programmes can help resolve these tensions • If custody made more effective, recidivism ↓ • If custody made more effective, use ↑
Research Evidence • Positive Change can be produced inside, but frequently disappears on release • Structured transition from incarceration to community can enhance positive change in young offenders • Preparation • Links to Agencies relating to risk and protective factors • Secure services and support
Education, Training and Employment • Clear evidence (already covered) that disengagement from education is associated with young people’s offending: does education offer a route out? • YJB Target of 90% of young offenders in suitable full-time ETE by March 2006 • Reality – (2004): Only 45% of the young people had access to F-T provision during the census week: 28% had no provision arranged at all • Source: YJB (2006) Barriers to engagement in education, training and employment
Barriers to Engagement in ETE (1) • Young People’s perspective • Assumed personal responsibility for lack of engagement: cited • Low educational ability; detachment; bullying criminal record and custody disrupting schooling • Youth Justice Professionals • Practical and Structural Reasons: cited • Lack of suitable provision, continuity between custody and community, and support and specialist; lack of willingness by educationalists to address causes of behavioural problems • Suggested • Greater use of “Release on Temporary License” (RoTL)
Barriers to Engagement in ETE (2) • Educationalists • Saw colleges, not schools as appropriate places to deliver educational provision: schools seen to lack knowledge, skills and time to respond to problematic attitudes and potential behaviour • A need to improve liaison between YOTs, Connexions, Local Learning and Skills Councils and LEAs • Funding rules mitigate against young people with previous low attainment and/or poor previous participation • Other Issues Identified • failure to recognise the scale and nature of the problem • lack of knowledge of the YJS within secondary and further education • conflicting objectives and targets • poor transmission of key information.
Drug Misuse • ‘The throughcare and aftercare of drug misusing prisoners is appalling - there is no other way to describe it’ (Drug Misuse in Prison, HM Prison Service, 1995) • CARAT Teams (Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare) launched in 1999 • ASSET should identify drug-related issues on arrival at institution • Healthcare info should be passed to YOTs and GPs prior to transfer to community • Non-planned release (eg. those on remand) may be more vulnerable to drug misuse on release • Overdose and drug-related death risks higher for those leaving custody
Accommodation • Housing problems associated with offending and custody (before and after) • Offending higher for those with non-stable accommodation • Often exacerbated by relationship breakdown and unemployment Source: Niven, S. and Olangundoye, J. (2002) Jobs and Homes-a survey of prisoners near release. Home Office Findings 173.
Intensive Aftercare Programme(Altschuler and Armstrong) • Surveillance AND Treatment Services • A need to address criminogenic factors in communities and peer networks • Preparation prior to release needs to address the daily concerns of offenders after release • Co-ordinated service provision spanning institution and community
Evaluation of IAPs • A need to start preparation early in the institution • Formal assessment procedures required: not every offender is suitable • Low-risk offenders: • Supervision can produce an increase in technical violations -> net-widening • Reactions against intrusive disproportionate levels of supervision
Detention and Training Order • Introduced in 2002 • 10-17 year old serious and persistent offenders • Covered majority of custodial sentences • Half sentence served in institution: half in community, supervised by YOTs • Reflected YJB commitment to the principle of continuity in work in and out of secure facilities
Evaluation of the DTO • Widespread confidence across the YJS • Perceived to represent a new approach, that aims to challenge and change behaviour • Structured aspect particularly useful for young people • Length of sentence may be increasing: chance for rehabilitation to happen increased?
Community Custody • Some problems around accommodation • Initial sense of disorientation • Length and type of supervision lower and variable • 37% in education activities • 17% in work activities • 19% in leisure activities • Limited inter-agency co-operation resulting in delays to these activities • YOIs found the transition to training more difficult that other institutions • Co-working between institutions and YOTs viewed positively • Mid-custodial transfers disruptive • Shorter DTOs not as productive as hoped: training courses inflexible • Lack of preparation for community
Non-Compliance & Re-offending • 50% of trainees failed to comply in some way • 42% re-arrested by end of community period • Arrest more likely if: • Excluded from school; younger age of first caution and first conviction; more convictions; more custodial sentences; failure to complete previous comm. sentence; moving address during community period; non-involvement in education / work
Critical Consideration of Resettlement • Is ‘resettlement’ the appropriate term? • Is resettlement always a good idea? • Criminogenic influences of family, community and peer groups