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Our Offender Managers are responsible for ensuring offenders are punished and undergo rehabilitation in accordance with the terms of their sentences. Wherever possible an offender will report to, and be assessed by, the same Offender Manager from the start until the end of their sentence.
When an offender is sentenced, they undergo an assessment to make sure they understand their sentence. The Offender Manager will formulate a sentence plan that aims to reduce the risk of re-offending, protect the public from harm and change attitudes and behaviour. The plan is continually reviewed and evaluated.
At the end of a community sentence, offenders are again assessed to find how they have changed and whether the sentence plan has been successful.
For those in prison, we also produce up to date Parole Assessment Reports to inform parole boards considering early release.
The skills of our staff are key in carrying out detailed interviews and identifying issues that are major causes of re-offending, such as lack of accommodation or employment, poor literacy/numeracy skills or drug misuse, so that appropriate actions can be incorporated into the sentence plans.
There are several types of sentence that involve supervision by an Offender Manager.
Community Order
A court may sentence an offender to a Community Order for a maximum of three years. These orders contain one or more of the following requirements that the offender must undertake:
- Unpaid work
- Supervision
- Specified activity (e.g. literacy or numeracy training)
- Prohibited activity (something the offender is not allowed to do)
- Exclusion (an area where the offender is not allowed to go)
- Curfew
- Accredited Programme (offending behaviour groupwork)
- Attendance centre (for young offenders only)
- Drug rehabilitation
- Mental health treatment
- Alcohol treatment
- Residence (the offender must live in a specified place)
Community Orders can be harder to complete than prison sentences because they require offenders to attend appointments, carry out requirements and address their behaviour seriously.
Latest figures show that Community Orders are a more effective method of stopping re-offending than short-term imprisonment (under 12 months), which involves no supervision when an offender is released.
Once an offender is sentenced to a community order, they are assigned to an Offender Manager. More serious offenders are assigned to an Offender Manager who is a qualified Probation Officer. Offenders that are judged to pose a lower risk may be managed by a Probation Services Officer.
The offender meets regularly with their Offender Manager, who will produce a sentence plan. The offender manager co-ordinates the different requirements of the order, which may be supervised by other colleagues within the service or by a contracted partner such as drug treatment providers or electronic tagging organisations.
The offender manager ensures that the offender attends all appointments and fulfils all the requirements. If the offender ‘breaches’ - fails to attend an appointment without good reason or does not comply with the requirements - they are returned to court where they face further requirements being added or imprisonment.
Suspended Sentence Order
Courts may also sentence offenders to Suspended Sentence Orders. This is generally ordered for offences that the courts considers so serious to merit imprisonment being considered.
An offender can be sentenced to custody for between 28-51 weeks. This can then be suspended for a period of between six and 24 months, during which the offender is supervised by an Offender Manager and is subject to requirements as per the community order.
If an offender re-offends or breaches the order they can go straight to prison.
Custody
When offenders are sentenced to custody, their Offender Manager maintains contact with them and, in some cases, attends Sentence Planning meetings in the prison to decide on interventions or treatment they should undertake in prison to address their offending behaviour.
For these cases the prison will allocate an Offender Supervisor who will ensure that the objectives in the Sentence Plan are implemented.
Indeterminate Public Protection
An Indeterminate Public Protection sentence is for serious offences that merit imprisonment of ten years or more. The court sets a tariff that will be served and release is controlled by the Parole Board based on our assessment of risk posed by the offender. On release, the offender is supervised by Probation for a minimum of ten years. Life sentences can still be imposed for relevant offences such as murder or rape.
Extended Public Protection
An Extended Public Protection sentence can be imposed for serious offences meriting a sentence of less than ten years. A total sentence will be imposed, with at least 12 months spent in prison. During the second half of the term, the Parole Board can grant early release, on licence supervised by Probation, for up to five years for violent offences or eight years for sexual offences. Requirements may be attached to the licence.
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