tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/offenders-10430/articlesoffenders – The Conversation2023-08-11T14:14:53Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2111532023-08-11T14:14:53Z2023-08-11T14:14:53ZWhy imprisoning repeat shoplifters rarely breaks the cycle of offending – and what may work better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541706/original/file-20230808-25-1obzzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5364%2C3910&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The possibility of introducing mandatory prison sentences for prolific shoplifters has been mooted by government ministers. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/londonenglandunited-kingdomjuly-21-2019-waterloo-rail-1676652064">Neil Bussey/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK government is taking a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/action-plan-to-crack-down-on-anti-social-behaviour">harsher approach</a> to tackle criminal activity which is blighting local neighbourhoods. And recently, government ministers have been talking tough about repeat shoplifting, including <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/shoplifters-face-prison-under-crime-crackdown-ggdbv3j99">the possibility</a> of introducing new laws which would see prolific shoplifters imprisoned. This has all been against a backdrop of concern about a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jun/01/one-guy-uses-us-like-a-larder-the-british-shoplifting-crisis-as-seen-from-the-tills">rise in shoplifting</a> across the UK.</p>
<p>But there are some serious practical problems with any such measures and questions remain over whether such a policy could break the cycle of offending. Meanwhile, there is an innovative approach to this issue which may be a better way of dealing with crimes such as shoplifting called “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/integrated-offender-management-iom">integrated offender management</a>” (IOM). </p>
<p>Rolled out over the past few years, IOM is a novel criminal justice approach that is designed to break the cycle of re-offending. It is operated by 39 out of 43 police forces in England and Wales. </p>
<p>IOM involves police officers working closely with prison and probation services and criminal justice intervention teams. These are support staff who provide both clinical and therapeutic interventions for drug users involved in the criminal justice system. It is all in an effort to change or control the criminal activities of prolific offenders. </p>
<p>IOM was designed to address the underlying causes of offending. By the end of 2020, it was <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/integrated-offender-management-strategy">central</a> to the government’s neighbourhood crime strategy. In a report issued that year, former minister for crime and policing Kit Malthouse and former minister for prisons and probation, Luzy Frazer, said: </p>
<p>“We need a new approach – one with the tools to come down with full force on those responsible, but which also encourages rehabilitation and supports offenders to overcome the complex problems that we know can fuel this type of behaviour, such as substance misuse, poor mental health and issues with housing or employment.”</p>
<p>Any proposals which would see prison sentences for repeat shoplifters could risk undoing any positive progress made under IOM. </p>
<h2>The problem with prison</h2>
<p>The UK’s prison estate is running out of capacity for adult males. In November 2022, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/30/uk-government-requests-urgent-police-cells-male-prisoners">the Ministry of Justice announced</a> emergency measures that would see some offenders who would ordinarily be imprisoned (typically remand prisoners) housed in police cells. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-population-figures-2023">Figures</a> released in August 2023 show a total of just 980 available prison places.</p>
<p>The government has <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/500-million-boost-to-create-thousands-of-new-prison-places">already stated</a> that more prisons need to be built. But any criminal justice initiative that requires new prisons will take a long time to deliver. This is because, on average, new prisons take <a href="https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/proposed-new-prison-in-chorley/supporting_documents/chorleynewprisonconsultation.pdf">two to three years to build</a> and open. </p>
<p>Also, <a href="https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/CSJ-Desperate-for-a-fix-WEB-1.pdf">70% of shoplifting</a> is estimated to be carried out by people funding an addiction to class A drugs – typically heroin and crack cocaine. These people arrive in prison as addicts and likely leave as addicts and so will continue shoplifting. Custody is not a panacea for prolific shoplifting and is unlikely to break the cycle of offending. </p>
<h2>Integrated offender management</h2>
<p>IOM work is done through a mix of rehabilitative and restrictive or enforcement-orientated interventions. Here, the police take a “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10439463.2018.1547719">carrot and stick</a>” approach to the management of offenders. Plain-clothed officers, deployed as police offender managers, gather intelligence and monitor people for signs of re-offending. </p>
<p>Simultaneously, these officers attempt to draw offenders away from crime by working alongside the other agencies, facilitating access to drug services, education, employment and transitions into stable housing arrangements. This is the “carrot” approach. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A police officer wearing a yellow high visibility jacket" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542123/original/file-20230810-18-i6hwim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542123/original/file-20230810-18-i6hwim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542123/original/file-20230810-18-i6hwim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542123/original/file-20230810-18-i6hwim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542123/original/file-20230810-18-i6hwim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542123/original/file-20230810-18-i6hwim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542123/original/file-20230810-18-i6hwim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Integrated offender management involves police officers working closely with other agencies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-19th-april-2019-police-1392717764">John Gomez/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Where there is evidence that a person is failing to comply with licence conditions, or engage with IOM positively, traditional catch-and-convict policing methods are used by uniformed patrol officers. This is the “stick” approach.</p>
<p>Prolific shoplifters are the type of offenders IOM schemes should be engaging with. </p>
<p>My own <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Integrated-Offender-Management-and-the-Policing-of-Prolific-Offenders/Cram/p/book/9780367254148">research</a> has focused on how police officers contribute to IOM schemes. </p>
<p>I have also spoken with offenders who were engaged with IOM in the community. A number said that, while it was initially challenging to do so, in time they were able to form working relationships with police officers. </p>
<p>And, significantly, because of this, IOM had had a positive impact on their lives. This was particularly the case when it came to IOM helping them enter employment and tackle any drug-related issues they were experiencing. </p>
<p>Broadly, IOM seemed to have a strong motivational influence and a positive impact on those who wanted to leave their criminal lifestyle behind. </p>
<p>But IOM can only fully operate when people are able to access the relevant support services in the community. People may be able to get very limited employment and substance misuse help when in prison, but IOM offers a much deeper and enduring level of support. </p>
<p>The prospect of removing sentencing discretion for prolific shoplifters from magistrates and judges and introducing mandatory jail sentences, would risk disrupting a significant criminal justice programme. IOM may be a better and more cost effective way to deal with the pressing issue of repeated shoplifting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>My original research, on Integrated Offender Management, was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council. Grant number: EF/H011382/1.</span></em></p>Integrated offender management is a better way of dealing with shoplifters than prison.Frederick Cram, Lecturer in Law, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1256382019-11-03T18:55:12Z2019-11-03T18:55:12ZCaught red-handed: automatic cameras will spot mobile-using motorists, but at what cost?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299830/original/file-20191101-102228-2ypsrq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C9%2C920%2C820&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trials found that 5% of offending drivers used a mobile phone with both hands while the vehicle was moving. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">NSW Transport</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the years, advances in technology and transport policy have greatly impacted drivers. In the 1980s this came in the form of random breath testing, and more recently, mobile drug testing.</p>
<p>A new policing tool under consideration may have a similar effect, as the New South Wales legislature considers the camera-based detection of illegal mobile phone use. Other states have <a href="https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2019/10/australian-states-are-eyeing-nsws-phone-detection-stealth-cameras/">also indicated</a> interest in the program.</p>
<p>If the NSW rollout (scheduled for December) is enacted, within months there could be widespread detection of drivers illegally using mobile phones. This will likely receive community support, as the use of handheld phones is <a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/motoring/on-the-road/nsw-government-crack-down-on-drivers-using-mobile-phones-and-drugs/news-story/4a6d7809b3564167da44432f52c955e0">recognised as being dangerous</a>. </p>
<p>Currently, an estimated <a href="https://research.qut.edu.au/carrsq/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2017/12/Mobile-phone-distraction-email.pdf">two in three drivers (at least)</a>, are tempted to make or take a call, text, or browse the internet while driving. With these cameras, driver behaviour is likely to change radically, simply by increasing the risk of detection. </p>
<h2>How will it work?</h2>
<p>The cameras (which can be fixed or mobile) and their supporting software have been developed by Australian-Indian alliance Acusensus.</p>
<p>Known as the <a href="https://www.acusensus.com/acusensus-headsup-jr-faq">Heads-Up Distracted Driving Detection and Enforcement Solution</a>, they can be used 24/7. As with speed cameras, a sensor system records the speed of vehicles, and a specialised camera captures a high-resolution image of the vehicle, driver and registration plate. </p>
<p>Using artificial intelligence, the system examines images to detect the possibility of mobile use. While all vehicles at a site are examined, only photos that are likely to show mobile use are sent to a human reviewer (with passengers and registration plates blurred). </p>
<p>If an offence is alleged, the evidence is forwarded to authorities who can issue fines.</p>
<h2>2019 trial results</h2>
<p>A trial conducted early this year at eight sites assessed 8.5 million vehicles, and Acusensus presented some results:</p>
<p>• 104,000 evidence packages of drivers using a mobile were detected, screened and adjudicated as evidence of an offence </p>
<p>• drivers offended more in lower speed limit areas</p>
<p>• offending happened throughout day and night, with only slight variation: slightly lower from 6am-9am; slightly higher from 7pm-9pm; and highest of all between 4pm-5pm</p>
<p>• 15% of offending drivers drove a heavy vehicle </p>
<p>• 85% of offending drivers were the only person in the vehicle</p>
<p>• 5% of offending drivers used the mobile with both hands while the vehicle was moving</p>
<p>• 75% of drivers were using their left hand to operate the mobile </p>
<p>• offending drivers were generally texting or viewing the mobile screen (28%), speaking on the phone (4%), simply holding the mobile (25%), or had the mobile on their lap (43%).</p>
<p>Currently in NSW, about 40,000 traffic infringement notices are issued annually for mobile use. During the trials, a limited number of cameras detected more than 104,000 offences within months. </p>
<p>The NSW government has announced plans for at least 135 million vehicles to be screened annually. If a similar detection rate is assumed, this means 1.65 million offences can be expected to be detected each year by the cameras. </p>
<p>However, these estimates are likely at the high end, as drivers will probably change their mobile use rapidly following the rollout.</p>
<h2>The planned rollout</h2>
<p>Currently, drivers who use a mobile illegally are fined A$337 and get 5 demerit points. Novice drivers, who aren’t permitted to use a phone at all, may exceed their limit with one offence and have to serve a three-month suspension.</p>
<p>But these penalties won’t apply at the start of the program, and there will be a three-month warning letter period for drivers.</p>
<p>Signage indicating mobile phone detection cameras are being used will also be placed on roads to make drivers aware. </p>
<h2>Trouble in the courts</h2>
<p>The proposed legislation will have a significant impact on the justice system and on driver licence administration, as large numbers of drivers will experience penalties and potential licence loss, and may seek to challenge infringements.</p>
<p>There are some heavily-debated aspects of the program. Firstly, the legislation will presume an object held by a driver is a phone and place an onus on a driver to prove it isn’t. This may be problematic if the object looks similar to a mobile phone, such as a chocolate bar or wallet. Under current enforcement practice for alleged illegal mobile use, police officers must provide evidence the object was a phone. </p>
<p>Issues around privacy also arise. Camera-based mobile enforcement is invasive, as images are purposely taken of the driver and passenger compartment. While the cameras are used in public spaces, privacy concerns remain around how images are stored, accessed and disposed of. Also, who has access?</p>
<p>The form in which evidentiary images are presented must be subject to explicit safeguarding rules, which should also be audited. Also, a legal obligation to delete images where no offence is detected must be enacted.</p>
<p>Given the scale of enforcement possible with the cameras, there will also be pressure to extend the program for other surveillance purposes. </p>
<h2>Too many unknowns</h2>
<p>The decision to introduce mobile phone enforcement in NSW, while worthwhile, seems rushed. While some elements of an evaluative approach are evident, others are missing. </p>
<p>For instance, there has been:</p>
<p>• no public report of the trial released, </p>
<p>• limited modelling (at best) of the impact on the justice system,</p>
<p>• no modelling of the impact on driver licence administration and</p>
<p>• no modelling of the personal, social and economic impact of potential widespread driver licence loss.</p>
<p>This is not to say the program should not be advanced. But it seems appropriate a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_provision">sunset provision</a> is inserted into the legislation, to allow for a review of the impact of the program.</p>
<p>Especially since the new camera-based enforcement approach will likely be a game-changer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian J. Faulks MAPS is an NRMA-ACT Road Safety Trust Research Scholar, and has received funding from the Trust. He is an Adjunct Fellow with the Department of Psychology, Macquarie University. He is a member of the Australasian College of Road Safety.</span></em></p>Trials of the program found about 5% of offending drivers used their mobile phone with both hands, while the vehicle was moving.Ian J. Faulks, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University & NRMA-ACT Road Safety Trust Research Scholar, Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety (CARRS-Q),, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/897232018-01-08T15:40:22Z2018-01-08T15:40:22ZThe story of Australia’s last convicts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200997/original/file-20180105-26154-cwxaz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C0%2C846%2C450&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Swan River Colony. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jane_Eliza_Currie_-_Panorama_of_the_Swan_River_Settlement,_1831.jpg">Jane Eliza, Currie Panorama of the Swan River Settlement via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Hougoumont, the last ship to take convicts from the UK to Australia, docked in Fremantle, Western Australia, on January 9, 1868 – 150 years ago. It brought an end to a process which deposited about 168,000 convicted prisoners in Australia after it began in 1788.</p>
<p>Convicts had ceased to be sent to New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) decades earlier, but Western Australia still wanted convict labour to help with building projects. By the time the Hougoumont landed its shipment of 281 convicts, the Swan River penal colony in Western Australia had been reliant on convict labour for 18 years, and received almost 10,000 male prisoners from Britain. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"559498537789317121"}"></div></p>
<p>The convict system may have ended with the arrival of the final convicts on the Hougoumont and the disbandment of Australia’s penal settlements, but the people who were its legacy lived on. Some prisoners achieved a kind of celebrity status. Mary Reibey, who was transported to Sydney, became a successful businesswoman and charitable benefactor, and is <a href="https://banknotes.rba.gov.au/australias-banknotes/banknotes-in-circulation/twenty-dollar/">commemorated</a> on the Australian $20 note. </p>
<p>In Western Australia some of Britain’s “bad” men made also “good”. Alfred Chopin, transported for receiving stolen goods, became a famed and sought-after <a href="http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/view/action/nmets.do?DOCCHOICE=488581.xml&dvs=1515403220484%7E662&locale=en_GB&search_terms=&adjacency=&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/nmets.do?&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=4&divType=&usePid1=true&usePid2=true">photographer</a>. Embezzler John Rowland Jones became a reporter for the Western Australian government, and later editor of the West Australian newspaper. Their stories are extraordinary, but they have been used to present a generally favourable narrative which contrasts their heroism against the long-established stain that supposedly blighted those generations of Australians descended from convicts. </p>
<p>It is easy to find thousands of ex-convicts who left crime behind and forged new, ordinary, lives in Australia. Yet, while some ex-convicts became pillars of their communities, got married, and became much-loved and valued friends and neighbours, others struggled. </p>
<p>Our ongoing research shows that the impact of transportation could last a lifetime for those in Western Australia. Many convicts were left struggling with unemployment, personal relationships, and alcoholism, and drifted through both life and the colony. Many re-offended for decades after they were freed in Australia, but only committed low-level nuisance and public order offences – mainly drunkenness and vagrancy – rather than the more serious crimes for which they were initially transported. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200992/original/file-20180105-26166-avne6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200992/original/file-20180105-26166-avne6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200992/original/file-20180105-26166-avne6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200992/original/file-20180105-26166-avne6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200992/original/file-20180105-26166-avne6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200992/original/file-20180105-26166-avne6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200992/original/file-20180105-26166-avne6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fremantle Harbour in 1899.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sailing_ships_Fremantle_Harbour.jpg">Nixon & Merrilees via Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/archive-collection/collection/convict-records">Western Australian records</a> we’ve been using for our recent research and digitised for the <a href="http://www.digitalpanopticon.org">Digital Panopticon project</a> reveal the story of Samuel Speed, the last living Australian convict. He was transported to Western Australia in 1866 and died in 1938, just short of his 100th birthday.</p>
<h2>Speed’s story</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201128/original/file-20180108-142334-1mrescp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201128/original/file-20180108-142334-1mrescp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1228&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201128/original/file-20180108-142334-1mrescp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1228&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201128/original/file-20180108-142334-1mrescp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1228&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201128/original/file-20180108-142334-1mrescp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201128/original/file-20180108-142334-1mrescp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201128/original/file-20180108-142334-1mrescp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Samuel Speed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/76057785?searchTerm=%22samuel%20Speed%22&searchLimits=">The Mirror (Perth), 1938.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Speed was born in Birmingham, England in 1841. He had one brother and one sister, but little else about his family or early life is known. He was in his early twenties when he was tried in Oxfordshire in 1863 for setting fire to a haystack. Homeless and begging for food, he had committed arson in order to get arrested and spend some time in a warm cell. He was sentenced to seven years of convict transportation to Australia.</p>
<p>Speed was conditionally released in 1869 and was allowed to live outside of the prison walls and undertake employment, provided he did not commit any further offences. He found work as a general servant in Western Australia and was finally granted his certificate of freedom two years later. He went on to help build bridges across the vast Swan River, and spent the rest of his working life at various companies around the state. He was never re-convicted of any offence and went on to live a perfectly ordinary and law-abiding life, only coming to the <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/76057783?searchTerm=%22samuel%20Speed%22&searchLimits=">attention of the papers</a> a few months before his death. </p>
<p>By that time, old and frail, and dependent on the care of attendants, Speed’s memories of transportation were faded. Among the few recollections of his former life he remembered that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Among those unfortunates transported … were men of every walk of life; doctors, lawyers, shirt-soiled gentlemen, and social outcasts tipped together in the hothouse of humanity that was the Swan River Colony.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A kind of rehabilitation</h2>
<p>Speed lived long enough to see his former penal settlement become part of the federated commonwealth of Australia. He witnessed the death of an old archaic system, and the birth of a new and confident Australian nation. </p>
<p>To the early 20th-century press, his life was a gratifying confirmation that they system had worked. Western Australia had taken corrupt British convicts and turned them into productive members of society. The report of his death in Perth’s <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/58995981?searchTerm=%22samuel%20Speed%22&searchLimits=">Sunday Times confidently asserted</a> that Speed’s conduct was all that a reputable citizen should aspire to. </p>
<p>He was not by any means the only ex-convict who stayed out of trouble, however, as our research is showing, his behaviour was far better than most of his fellow ex-convicts. It was also better than the <a href="https://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-gold-rush">rumoured conduct of free settlers</a> who flooded into Western Australia after gold was discovered in the 1880s and 1890s.</p>
<p>Our preliminary research is showing that about 80% of men who arrived on the last convict ship (discounting 67 <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/our-last-convicts-were-irish-political-prisoners-sent-out-on-the-hougoumont/news-story/887663d4e45faa883a2122d81a0846e8">Irish political prisoners</a>) committed either a regulatory infraction such as absconding, possession of contraband or violent conduct, or a criminal offence during their time under sentence. Given the number of convicts who re-roffended both during and after their sentence, it’s better to think of the transportation system as encouraging enough reform for society to progress. The convicts as a cohort may not all have rehabilitated, but few committed serious offences after they were transported. </p>
<p>As for Speed, he died in Perth’s Old Men’s Home in 1938. Seventy years after the last British convict ship arrived in Australia, the convict period had finally ended.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89723/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Godfrey receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A century and a half after the last convict ship docked in Australia, new research is uncovering what happened to those who were transported.Barry Godfrey, Professor of Social Justice, University of LiverpoolLucy Williams, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Liverpool, England, U.K., University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/841432017-10-19T09:07:51Z2017-10-19T09:07:51ZWhy is it so hard for the wrongfully jailed to get justice?<p>Imagine for a moment you are wrongfully convicted of a crime. You get sent to prison, where you start to serve out your sentence – every minute of every day knowing you are innocent. Then the unthinkable happens and you are released. You are elated – this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. </p>
<p>But those feelings of elation and happiness quickly turn to fear and despair as you realise you have nowhere to go. Your old life as you knew it is gone, you have no way of supporting yourself, your relationships have broken down and you have nowhere to turn to for support. </p>
<p>Sadly, this is the reality many exonerees face when they are trying to put their lives back together. Many of these people – who have in some cases spent years behind bars – find upon release that their problems are only exacerbated. Wrongfully wrenched from their families, homes and communities, they struggle to reintegrate into society when they return.</p>
<p>And things seem to be made worse because unlike prisoners who have access to support to help them <a href="https://www.justice.gov.uk/offenders/before-after-release/resettlement">resettle when they are released from prison</a>, those who suffer a miscarriage of justice do not get this.</p>
<p>“Rightfully convicted” individuals are provided with a <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/OutforGood.pdf">plan for release</a> from prison – often starting months in advance. This involves a range of activities, all of which are aimed at helping the person to resettle back into the community. But exonerees have none of these preparations – and often receive very little notice of their release. </p>
<p>Victor Nealon, for example, served 16 years in prison after he was falsely charged with rape. He received three hours’ notice of his release, and ended up in a bed and breakfast on his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/16/wrongly-jailed-victor-nealon-free-streets-postman">first night as a free man</a> – he had nowhere else to go.</p>
<h2>An unfamiliar world</h2>
<p>The wrongfully convicted don’t receive any preparation for their release because of the way the prison system works. Prisoners have to show they are “tackling their offending behaviour” to gain parole. But if you haven’t committed the crime in the first place, this is not possible. The end result is that a person may spend longer in prison than if they had committed the offence and admitted it. </p>
<p>Upon release, the wrongfully convicted are thrust into a world they are unfamiliar with – and they have zero support or guidance. It’s common for exonerees to develop <a href="http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=clb">PTSD</a> as a result of their wrongful conviction, alongside other mental and physical health problems requiring significant support. </p>
<p>This in part happens because as soon as the conviction is quashed, these people are no one’s responsibility. They are no longer a prisoner, or an ex-offender. There is no standard programme of support which is triggered at the point of release. And while probation would be well placed to support the wrongfully convicted, they cannot as they are not ex-offenders – ex-prisoners, yes, but not ex-offenders. </p>
<h2>Say I’m innocent</h2>
<p>There are only two specific organisations that provide support to exonerees. They are the <a href="http://www.rcjadvice.org.uk/miscarriages-of-justice/">Citizens Advice Bureau</a> (CAB) based at the Royal Courts of Justice, and the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation (<a href="http://www.miscarriagesofjustice.org/">MOJO</a>). This was founded by Paddy Hill – one of the six men wrongly convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. He set it up in an attempt to provide the support to others that he was not given when released in 1991. </p>
<p>But both services are restricted by funding and staffing limitations, and while both organisations do superb work against a backdrop of austerity measures and extremely limited resources, both are at best a piecemeal response to what is, in reality, a government responsibility. </p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09542nz/fallout">BBC documentary called Fallout</a> highlights these issues. The the director of the documentary Mark Mcloughlin has launched the “<a href="http://sayiminnocent.com/">Say I’m Innocent</a>” campaign, and is now fighting for all the services that are available to guilty prisoners on release to be made available to exonerees. The campaign is also calling for a public announcement of a person’s innocence upon their release. As well as other measure including a transition centre in both the UK and Ireland to allow them time and help to reintegrate into society.</p>
<p>This is important because the key issue here is responsibility. The state assumed responsibility for these individuals when they were wrongfully convicted. It is therefore only right that the state continues to take responsibility for them once exonerated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84143/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Asquith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The long-term effects are much worse for exonerees than for guilty prisoners.Linda Asquith, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/672582016-11-14T19:09:30Z2016-11-14T19:09:30ZWhy a narrow view of restorative justice blunts its impact<p>We have all at one time or another applied the principles and practices that restorative justice is based on. These are intuitively drawn on to resolve conflicts between couples, parents and children, extended families, friends, neighbours and colleagues.</p>
<p>South Africa’s Department of Justice <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/rj/2011rj-booklet-a5-eng.pdf">states</a> that the “resurfacing of Restorative Justice Philosophy may be foreign to Roman Dutch Law but it has been part of the African indigenous justice system”. In “Restorative Justice: a road to healing” it says that, instead of viewing crime as an act against the state, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>restorative justice sees crime as an act against the victim and shifts the focus to repairing the harm that has been committed against the victim and community. It believes that the offender also needs assistance and seeks to identify what needs to change to prevent future re-offending. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mediation between victims and offenders is conducted by trained lay and professional people within and beyond the criminal justice system. </p>
<p>The principles and practices on which modern forms of restorative justice are based have deep roots in <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5033029a84ae7fae2e6a0a98/t/50efa90ae4b02cdfa2b2cfa6/1357883658343/Conflicts-as-Property-by-Nils-Christie.full.pdf">indigenous</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Future-Without-Forgiveness-Desmond-Tutu/dp/0385496907">religious</a> approaches to social harm. </p>
<p>South Africa’s Emeritus Archbishop Tutu says that, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>restorative justice is characteristic of traditional African jurisprudence that is infused with ‘the spirit of ubuntu’, which seeks to restore, heal or mend breaches, imbalances and broken relationships. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Restorative justice <a href="http://restorativejustice.org/restorative-justice/about-restorative-justice/around-the-world/">is used across the world</a>. This includes countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America, the Caribbean and the Pacific.</p>
<p>It has produced uneven results. In South Africa, the best-known example of restorative justice was the country’s qausi-judicial Truth and Reconciliation Commission <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-trc">(TRC)</a>. This has been criticised for placing racial reconciliation before economic reconciliation.</p>
<p>As a society South Africa has allowed the focus on relationships to obscure the role that historical and growing inequality plays in sabotaging these relationships.</p>
<p>Some researchers who focus on <a href="http://www.iirp.edu/pdf/RJ_full_report.pdf">the intra- and interpersonal levels</a> of restorative justice see it as effective. But “unorthodox” researchers and scholars (including my own trans-disciplinary work) make the case for <a href="http://www.prisonexp.org/book/">a more expansive approach</a>. This goes beyond an individual-level criminal justice lens to include social and economic structures that co-produce harms in society.</p>
<h2>Limits to restorative justice</h2>
<p>Theoretically, restorative justice is understood to be part of social justice and peacebuilding <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/104708186/Strategic-Peacebuilding-State-of-the-Field">at the societal level</a>. But practical application of the approach is often limited to the micro, individual level. </p>
<p>For example, current restorative justice processes are limited to individual wrongdoing. They focus on the restoration of relationships between victims and offenders. </p>
<p>The problem with this approach is that it does not focus on the causes and consequences of wrongdoing. These are rooted in inequality, particularly in societies where this has been embedded over generations. This leaves structural causes of harm and injustice intact. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="http://www.khulumani.net/">Khulumani support group</a> was initiated by victims who testified at the TRC. The support group has a growing membership in excess of 100,000. The limitations of individual-level responses are illustrated on a T-shirt worn by a survivor on their website, which reads:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No reconciliation without truth, reparation and redress.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Modern forms of restorative justice attempt to “rehabilitate” offenders and “reintegrate” them into a broken social system. Alternatively, attempts are made to “fix” the individual to make him or her more resilient, sober or responsible.</p>
<p>This leaves the cumulative psychological and material impact of injustices such as colonialism and apartheid untouched.</p>
<p>Modest applications of restorative justice are therefore inadequate. They do not challenge persistent structural inequality. They also obscure society’s role in perpetuating violence by relying on the criminal law definition of crime. This holds individuals solely responsible. </p>
<p>On the other hand, expansive applications of restorative justice have the flexibility to take into account the interaction of individual and societal factors that co-produce violence. </p>
<p>This is why unorthodox restorative justice scholars like Gregg Barak <a href="http://restorativejustice.org/rj-library/repressive-versus-restorative-and-social-justice-a-case-for-integrative-praxis/1446/">argue</a> for a more expansive approach in which both society and individuals are healed. </p>
<h2>A broader definition</h2>
<p>Recent <a href="http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10413/11840/Henkeman_Sarah_Rosaline_2012.pdf?sequence=1">research</a> shows that mediation practitioners need special training. This is to ensure that they sharpen their ability to identify patterns in their knowledge about the society they live in. They also learn to recognise new instances of these patterns in the narratives of others. </p>
<p>If practitioners are trained to “see”, “hear” and “articulate” deeper and broader patterns in the cases they mediate, they can help make different forms of violence “visible”. In turn this can raise the awareness and consciousness of society, add to the body of academic knowledge and inform policy. </p>
<p>Adopting this approach would also produce knowledge that could inform education literature for <a href="http://www.justiciarestaurativa.org/www.restorativejustice.org/articlesdb/articles/7223">“structurally responsive”</a> restorative justice training. This would be based on information sharing and awareness-raising as well as education and action to build <a href="https://www.academia.edu/29008051/Do_we_as_conflict_resolution_practitioners_really_know_what_we_are_getting_in_the_middle_of_p._10-11">critical consciousness</a>.</p>
<p>As psychologist Helena Neves Almeida suggests, practitioners can extend and deepen the effect of their work when they identify “recurring conflict between similar types of social actors”. They can then approach these conflicts</p>
<blockquote>
<p>in their structure and not just in their <a href="https://issuu.com/helena23/docs/community_mediation_as_social_inter">individuality</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If violent contexts are not taken into account, restorative justice does not serve broader society. Instead it serves as a peacemaking process within a paradigm stacked against the poor and vulnerable. They feel emotionally lighter, but remain structurally trapped after the process is completed.</p>
<p>A move to more social justice-driven peacebuilding practice will yield more data for analysis, and more accurate policies, strategies, techniques and tactics. They will also resonate at every level of society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67258/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Malotane Henkeman is affiliated with the Social Law Project, UWC; Zakheni Arts Therapy Foundation and the Centre of Criminology, UCT. </span></em></p>If violent contexts aren’t taken into account, restorative justice does not serve broader society. Instead it serves as a peacemaking process within a paradigm stacked against the poor and vulnerable.Sarah Malotane Henkeman, Independent conflict and social justice practitioner/researcher. Currently Senior Staff Associate in the Faculty of Law, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/642712016-08-26T12:33:38Z2016-08-26T12:33:38ZShould we stop sending old men to prison?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135025/original/image-20160822-18734-szzoso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The demographics of the British prison population are changing. An increasing number of ageing men are being sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment. This raises questions about how they are to be looked after while in custody and, in turn, whether prison is the best place for them at all. </p>
<p>There has been a substantial rise in the number of prisoners aged 60 years and over in England and Wales over the past two decades. An increase in life expectancy has played a part in this, as well as an increase in the longevity of criminal careers. The <a href="http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a648413/operation-yewtree-over-1400-people-including-178-from-music-tv-film-or-radio-investigated/">targeted pursuit</a> of historic sexual offenders has also had an enormous impact on the figures too.</p>
<p>But the prison environment is primarily designed for aggressive and able-bodied young men. The many stairs, poorly lit corridors and general pace of the prison regime are unmanageable for many ageing men. So it’s unsurprising that many experience grave difficulties when housed in such antiquated institutions.</p>
<p>These offenders undoubtedly need to be punished for their crimes, but the criminal justice system needs to strike a careful balance between curtailing freedom and protecting a person’s human rights; rights which are at risk from the inhumane and degrading treatment which some ageing prisoners have reported. </p>
<p>With age comes infirmity and general decline. So the greater the number of older prisoners, the more complex and costly health issues there are to deal with. The average ageing prisoner costs three times more a day to keep in prison than their younger counterpart, with an annual cost of about £115,000, compared to <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/Justice/Older-prisoners.pdf">£38,000 for prisoners under 65</a>.</p>
<p>Prison is, supposedly, a punishment reserved for the most dangerous offenders. If we remember that, then the futility of having some ageing men in prison becomes clear. How dangerous can a 90-year-old disabled man be?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the British justice system is based on “popular punitivism”. It is a system that considers prison to be the only real form of punishment. This philosophy means that the situation these ageing men face has not received the empathy and alarm which it ought to.</p>
<p>Put your ideas about criminals aside for a moment and instead imagine an elderly man, sleeping in a bunk bed from which he frequently falls out; a man suffering from dementia, who cannot remember why he is in prison let alone <a href="https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/losing-track-of-time-2013.pdf">how to get to the shower</a>. </p>
<p>Picture an elderly man who has multiple health problems that require specialist treatment. He receives no adequate level of care for them because of <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/PressPolicy/News/vw/1/ItemID/245">budget cuts</a>, staff cuts and the simple fact that he is a prisoner and, as such, is considered by many to be a second class citizen.</p>
<p>Picture a doubly incontinent man who is left lying on soiled bedding for hours before an overworked and pressured prison officer can come and assist (assist in doing a task which is not in the job description of a prison officer). Picture a man who has not showered for eight weeks because he is wheelchair bound and unable to leave his cell because the doors are not wide enough for him to get through.</p>
<p>Imagine the degradation, humiliation and fear these men experience every day and imagine that these punishments are all in addition to a loss of liberty (the one and only official aim of imprisonment). </p>
<h2>Making do</h2>
<p>Despite coming into effect in April 2015, the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/23/contents/enacted/data.htm">law</a> aimed at setting out the social care that should be provided to the prison population appears to have done very little to ease the suffering of its older members.</p>
<p>My current <a href="http://www.anglia.ac.uk/arts-law-and-social-sciences/department-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/staff/natalie-mann">research</a> suggests their needs are still only being met in an ad hoc way. Too often, the prisons have to rely on the goodwill of staff and other inmates to assist in collecting meals and medication, taking elderly people to showers and generally helping them get around.</p>
<p>The courts should be able to be more flexible when sentencing ageing defendants. It should be possible to find alternatives for people if they begin to struggle to cope in the prison system because of frailty or old age. Other, more appropriate non custodial punishments should be explored, such as age-appropriate community service or electronic tagging.</p>
<p>The problems experienced by many ageing prisoners’ should force us to question our tacit interpretation of perpetrator and victim, good and evil, right and wrong. These men may have done bad, even terrible things, but let’s not punish them by making them victims. Lets find a more appropriate and cost effective way of punishing these individuals, who simply do not fit within the remit of the prison service.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64271/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Mann has previously received funding from The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)</span></em></p>Inmates are getting older, which make us think about whether custody is the best option for this group.Natalie Mann, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.