Evaluating Agencies

• Bias


  Unfairly prejudiced for or against someone or something
• Opinion


  Someone's personal belief, that may not reflect wider or alternate views
• National Probation Service


  Part privatised, now works in partnership with other organisations or companies, known as Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs)
• Circumstance


  Questioning the situation in which something is taking place
• Rutter, 2013: 'Reoffending is a complex societal issue; offenders will muck up, they will get things wrong, but we must not give up. It is a complex thing and needs a lot of people to give it the attention it deserves.'
• Currency


  Is the information still relevant to today's society?
• Sarah Payne is the Director of the service
• National Audit Office - No way of knowing how well companies within the probation services are performing
• Accuracy


  Is the information correct and true?
• There are fears that companies are not subject to adequate oversight or scrutiny
• Crown Prosecution Service


  The CPS brings an independent element to charging and prosecution of offences. The Full Code Test provides a uniform and fair approach and allows a due process model of justice.
• The Police


  • Work in the community to prevent crime, keep the public safe and try to combat anti-social behaviour
  • Issuing notices and ordering people to cease unacceptable behaviour
  • Referring matters to a court where necessary
  • Specialist units trained to deal with issues such as terrorism or incidents involving weapons
• A joint report, in June 2017 (HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons), says that staff are focused on paperwork and targets at the expense of prisoners
• Inevitably, the media tends to report negative aspects of the police in achieving social control


  Institutional Racism and Sexism
• CPS has failed to bring about social control


  It has been affected by funding problems and criticisms that it is centralised, bureaucratic, ineffective and too close to the police.
• 'Work done by the 21 community rehabilitation companies are having a negligible impact on reducing prisoner offending rates'
• Overall, it could be argued that prison is


  not effective at achieving social control
• Sir Iain Glidewell produced a report in 1998, stating that the organisation lacked effectiveness and efficiency, and particularly referred to the number of judge-ordered acquittals of defendants being far too high.
• Police have been accused of being racist
• Too many prisoners have been released not knowing where they would sleep that night
• Statistics from the Prison Reform Trust seems to suggest there are failings in the ability of prisons to achieve social control
• Social control may not be applied fairly to all sections of the community
• The case of Sam Armstrong


  He was falsely prosecuted as a result of failures to disclose evidence by the CPS.
• In too many cases, prisoners' risk to the public has been inadequately assessed before release
• Early intervention, such as better parenting, discipline in schools and better rehabilitation, are all rated as more effective than prison in social control
• There has also been criticism of the failure to produce a successful prosecution

  Concerning the controversy over Lord Janner's prosecution.
• Issues of sexism and abuse – e.g. Wayne Couzens and David Carrick
• Despite talk about the use of mentors, they could find only one prisoner out of a sample of 98 who had been mentored
• People recalled back to custody has increased, particularly among women. 8,931 people serving a sentence of less than 12 months were recalled to prison in 2020
• At times there has been a lack of enthusiasm to take formal action against known offenders


  Such as Abu Hamza.
• News values


  Extraordinary, Impact, Unexpected
• The quality of work undertaken by the National Probation Service in the Durham area was 'good, and leadership was strong'
• In 2016, 141 prison terms were increased in England and Wales under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme. This is a 17% rise from the previous year. 41 were sex offences, 16 associated with robbery and 19 were grievous bodily harm cases.
• Scotland and England and Wales have the highest imprisonment rates in western europe
• HMIP Report (2016)
• Media are fuelled by finances – they want to sell papers!
• The prison population has risen by 70% in the last 30 years, but it has steadied in the last 6
• One aspect that may suggest a lack of effectiveness by the judiciary


  Is the increasing number of appeals alleging an unduly lenient sentence.
• Pre-sentence reports, used by courts to help decide sentencing, were not good enough
• News values


  Link to bias and opinion