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Implement the Independent Sentencing Review now to improve safety, says IAPDC

Published:
Category:
Prisons

The Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody (IAPDC) welcomes the recommendations of the Sentencing Review, particularly its focus on reducing reliance on custody and strengthening community alternatives.

We strongly agree with its recommendations for particular groups of offenders who are at increased risk of death and self-harm, such as older people, women, and those with drug and alcohol dependency.

As we stated when the Review was announced last year, people in prison have a disproportionately high rate of death compared with the general population. Reducing capacity pressures is vital to keeping those in custody safe. More must be done to divert the most vulnerable away from prison to where they can best receive support. Probation services must be properly resourced to ensure those leaving custody do so safely. Independent academic research investigating the effect of these changes on public health and safety needs to be funded and facilitated.

At the same time, the Mental Health Bill will make crucial changes to end the use of prison as a ‘place of safety’ and to speed up mental health transfers from prison. But these reforms will take time to bed in and, as the Review recognises, services must be properly resourced to meet this demand. We support the Review’s recommendations to collect and publish data on individuals being held in prison as ‘places of safety’.

The Government must act now to implement these recommendations, ensuring that services are resourced to deliver safe and effective sentencing away from custody. Implementing the Sentencing Review is a vital next step to reduce pressures on prisons and ensure those who urgently need support are diverted away from custody.