Criminal Justice Management

Supported Justice

With the prevalence of the dual problems of drug dependence and mental health issues highlighted in Lord Bradley’s recent report and the success seen in drug courts such as Salford, is the model for more intensive support and supervision for offenders with such complex issues something that could realistically be rolled out nationally?

I think the findings from the independent evaluation – done for the first two dedicated drug court pilots in London and Leeds – gave very positive indications that the increased continuity of judiciary has had quite a significant impact on court attendance, on people completing their sentence and reducing re-conviction. Now we have six new pilot sites; we will evaluate those and if they are successful then the idea would be to roll out a dedicated drug court where it is needed. It has to be in a place where there is sufficient drugs-related crime to support the need for a court.

Another issue highlighted recently is the importance of early intervention for those with potential problems such as drug abuse, mental health issues and signs of offending behaviour. How is the government hoping to support those who may become involved in drug-fuelled acquisitive crime before they become serial offenders?

As far as administrative justice is concerned, the drug court model builds on the drugs intervention programme, which is a key part of government strategy in tackling drugs and reducing crime. The point of the programme is to provide a route from crime into treatment. The drug intervention programme helps to break the destructive cycle of offending and we are trying to identify those drug misusing offenders and get them out of crime and into treatment and other support where appropriate. As a result, we would say that acquisitive crime, very often drug related, has fallen by 20% if you compare the figures between 2003 and 2008. So I think it is more than 1 in 4 and is quite significant. I think that communities will see the benefits of that.

A closer working relationship between those in the criminal justice, healthcare and social care sectors has been seen as a major component to the success of dedicated drug courts. How is the Ministry of Justice looking to strengthen this working relationship across the criminal justice system in order to better support offenders with complex needs?

You have really hit on the important part of the whole ethos behind it. That is, unless we do more work across government departments and other agencies then this will fail. The dedicated drug court is a problem-solving court and it focuses on particular issues that need separate specialist support. So, it involves all of the professionals to respond to the offenders’ needs that are very often complex. Like the dedicated drug courts, we also have the work of the specialist domestic violence courts who again work with a different range of offenders, addressing their complex needs in that sphere. We recognise that there are a wide range of issues, including alcohol misuse, contributing to offending. What we are trying to do is to mainstream the problem-solving approaches so that magistrates courts will address a wider range of the complex issues that contribute to offending. We actually set that out in a green paper called Engaging Communities in Criminal Justice.

With the National Offender Management Service drug strategy published this month how do you see drug courts playing their part in the greater focus on community sentences and care?

I do because dedicated panels of magistrates or district judges are sentencing drug addiction in adults. They provide continuity of the judiciary process from the review progress, to a community order with a drug rehabilitation requirement. That is a very effective way of addressing the risks to the public, the types of sanctions that should be used and to have a better knowledge and understanding of an offender’s progress if they have been through the process. They also build up a great deal of expertise in dealing with drug offenders and I think if you keep that continuity in the judiciary process, magistrates find this too; they feel like they are making a much bigger contribution to changing the offenders’ habits and increasing safety and stability in the community.

What sometimes happened in the past was if an offender went through one set of magistrates, and for some reason the case was adjourned, it came back through to a different set no matter how good the system is and different sets of magistrates don’t necessarily have all of the information available. Whereas if it is the team there at the beginning of the process, the offender recognises the faces and that is fundamental as they know that they have to go back to judge X, and if they have not complied then they are going to have to explain their actions. That makes a huge difference to people.

With the expansion of the drug courts, how do you see them working with local service providers such as third sector organisations to deliver services?

The third sector is crucial to the success of this. We already encourage closer working with the different criminal justice agencies such as the courts, probation officers and the police, but we also want to foster better, stronger and deeper relationships with local drugs workers and treatment providers. They are the people who make the other half of this exercise work and if they can say that person X has turned up for his treatment on a regular basis then that can make a big difference.

In the past everyone kept to themselves and didn’t really make any relationships. When I talk to judges who work in these courts they are very keen to make those relationships work. When I was in Salford, for example, the different agencies all sat around the table to discuss how to take things forward. This is excellent partnership working and is something I wish could have happened more often in the past.

Bridget Prentice, justice minister, spoke to Natalie Quinn, editor