Identifying personality disturbance in a London probation sample

Abstract: This article considers the implications for anti‐racist practice2 in probation and prisons of the development of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). The development of anti‐racist work is considered in the context of an increasingly managerialist approach to criminal justice. Essentially, it is argued that the histories of racism and anti‐racist work in the prison and probation services, and the underpinnings of such work – that is, the individual and organisational characteristics that have influenced the respective identities of those agencies – are critical and undervalued factors in the current change process. This in turn has concerning implications for the development of an anti‐racist identity for NOMS.

This article explores the development of an offender personality disorder strategy for the Department of Health (DH) and National Offender Management Service (NOMS). The strategy has two strands: offenders who present a high risk of serious harm to others, and workforce development. This article primarily considers the first of these. The strategy builds upon the learning so far from the Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder (DSPD) programme and democratic therapeutic communities in prisons. This indicates the need for NOMS and the NHS to take joint responsibility for the assessment, treatment and management of this population and to deliver services, where appropriate, through joint operations. A greater focus is required on the early identification of personality disordered offenders who present a high risk of serious harm to others, leading to an active pathway of intervention predominately based in the criminal justice system (CJS).

In this piece about the future role of the probation service the author follows the Churchillian adage of looking back in order to go forward. He considers the experience of the service under the Labour Government, in particular the impact of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) ‘project’, before going on to examine the intentions — good and bad — of the Coalition Government. Inevitably, it is necessary to ponder the likely substantial cuts to the probation service in line with the broader cuts to the public sector promised in the budget announcements but the author concludes by focusing on the potential opportunity for the service if a more progressive sentencing policy is pursued.

The period for this analysis is primarily from 2010 to 2015. Initially, though, it is necessary to reiterate thematic continuities with previous bouts of privatisation in the 1980s,1 followed by the National Offender Management Service on contestability. Next, in 2005, the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, moved in the direction of market testing probation, before the Offender Management Act 2007 normalised competition. Consequently, the first task produces a documentary review from 2008 when the conservative party was in opposition. This review exposes criminal justice transformations to the paradox of frantic activity conducted in moral silence. Second, Payment by Results constitutes a material signifier of reconstruction which provokes moral questions. Third, it is pertinent to embed criminal justice revolutionary activity within a broader historical, politico-economic context.

‘What on earth can this possibly mean’? French reentry courts and experts' risk assessment

This article draws on an evaluation of a large-scale programme in London, ‘From Dependency to Work’ (D2W), to discuss the obstacles to effective work with offenders with multiple needs. D2W, a five-year programme funded through the Single Regeneration Budget, aimed to support offenders with a range of multiple needs including drug dependence, mental health issues, employment problems and illiteracy. It was an ambitious programme that sought to co-ordinate the work of statutory and voluntary agencies in a similar way to the ‘mixed economy’ model envisaged for the National Offender Management Service (NOMS); that met with implementation problems, which limited its overall impact. These related in part to problems in finding ways of effectively assessing those with multiple needs, and planning a rational sequence of interventions; but the way in which the programme was performance-managed also destabilized the partnership to a considerable degree. The study carries important lessons for NOMS, both in relation to approaches to offender management and to contract management.

The increasingly complex power grid structure and the volatility caused by the high proportion of renewable energy have brought great challenges to the traditional static security assessment of power grids. To solve this problem, a multi-source data-driven power grid static security risk assessment method is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the historical operation data of the power grid, including the grid structure of the system, load power, generator power and weather information, are used to build a multi-source data set. Then, a static security assessment model is constructed using long-term and short-term memory neural network and deep neural networks, and the multi-source data sets are used for off-line training. According to the output results of the assessment model, a three-level static security risk assessment index system is then developed. Finally, the proposed method is tested through a provincial 500kV power grid. The example results show that the method proposed in this paper can effectively realize the assessment of power grid static security risks, which can be used to assist the system operators for future intelligent dispatch and control.

Without in any way minimising the continuing gaps in provision and the potential to do more, it is important to recognise that the Prison Service has made enormous progress with resettlement work in recent years. My predecessor renamed the Directorate of Regimes, transforming it into the Directorate of Resettlement, a change which signalled a new focus on outcomes and outward connections rather than process and internal procedures. We have been working ever more closely with colleagues in Probation and an increasingly wide range of other departments, agencies and voluntary and community organisations. The establishment of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) will bring structural changes, as the centre of the developing organisation takes responsibility for strategic policy. Quite when and how those changes will happen is not yet clear. But the establishment of NOMS is an important affirmation of the work we have been doing and an opportunity to take it to another level, through stronger and wi...

The formerly named "Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder" (DSPD) units are no longer standalone services within the criminal justice system in England and Wales. These sites now provide personality disorder treatment services in the high-security prison estate as part of the new national Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway Strategy. The OPD Pathway intends to take responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and management of offenders who are likely to have a personality disorder and who present a high risk of re-offending (men and women) and serious harm to others (men). Further PD treatment and progression services are being commissioned in lower security prisons and in the community as part of the new PD Strategy. While the suitability criteria for the two male high-security PD treatment sites are the same, the individual units have their own assessment and treatment methods. This article aims to communicate the referral, assessment, and treatment methods employed within the prison-based Westgate Personality Disorder Treatment Service, HMP Frankland.

Due to the lack of the support from the main grid, the islanded hybrid ac/dc microgrid will more likely cause the power flow severe fluctuation and even the microgrid to be split once a serious contingency occurs. To maintain the security and stability of the system under such a condition, this paper proposes a new static security risk assessment of the islanded hybrid ac/dc microgrid considering that the hybrid ac/dc microgrid was split. First, this paper presents a static security analysis criterion to determine the post-contingencies splitting scheme and a new load-shedding strategy to achieve power balance of subsystems. On this basis, a probabilistic power flow calculation method based on Levenberg-Marquardt with a nonmonotone line search (LMNL) algorithm is applied to calculate the probabilistic power flow of the islanded subsystems. Finally, the probability distribution of static security risk assessment indexes, including the dc loss load risk, ac loss load risk, and interlinking converter (ILC) active power limit violation risk, are obtained. The simulation results on the test system demonstrate the necessity of considering the hybrid ac/dc microgrid was split, and prove the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

People involved in the criminal justice system are one of the population target cohorts of Core20PLUS5, a national National Health Service (NHS) England approach to support reduction of healthcare inequalities....

Individuals with serious mental illness often are unable to access consumer- and family-oriented community care, resulting in repeated hospitalizations, incarceration, and homelessness. The "medical home" concept was developed in primary care to provide accessible and accountable services for individuals with chronic medical conditions. Building on the work done in primary care, the authors propose a "mental health home." The model of care incorporates medical home characteristics, such as access to and coordination of services, integration of primary and preventive care, adoption of recovery orientation and evidence-based practices, and family and community outreach. Barriers to and strategies for implementation of mental health homes are discussed.

A New Kind of Homelessness for Individuals With Serious Mental Illness? The Need for a "Mental Health Home"

Victim-offender mediation (hereafter VOM) is not yet a significant feature of the Irish criminal justice system for either adult or juvenile cases. Until recent years, victims tended to be kept largely on the margins of the criminal justice system, with little direct involvement in proceedings apart from giving testament as witnesses when required. Various reforms have taken place aimed at improving the position of victims but these have not included generalised provision of opportunities for mediation. As at mid-2004, VOM based on a formal structure of referrals from one agency to another was confined to one local programme in Dublin. It deals predominantly with adult cases referred from court at the pre-sentence stage. Two other programmes, one in Dublin and one in a rural area, can be said to have a mediation element. They involve court referrals to a community reparation panel. They deal mainly with adult cases, often without victims, but a small number of cases have involved juveniles and victims. Mediation between juvenile offenders and their victims is much more likely to occur under provisions in the Children Act 2001. These allow for Restorative Justice (RJ) interventions by the national police and probation services.

'Tough on probation': probation practice under the National Offender Management Service