Asked by: Victoria Prentis (Conservative - Banbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of (a) resettlement day release and (b) overnight release on resettlement outcomes.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The latest information available shows that in the 12 months to September 2018 there were 340,163 incidences of resettlement day release involving 7,232 individuals, and 19,107 incidences of resettlement overnight release involving 4,955 individuals.
Data on release on temporary licence is published quarterly and can be found here:
Resettlement day and overnight release are the most common forms of release on temporary licence (ROTL) and allow suitable, risk assessed prisoners to be released to undertake activities linked to the sentence plan that will ease their transition back to the community. There is promising international evidence to suggest that temporary release is associated with better post release employment outcomes, as well as lower re-arrest rates, return to custody rates, and re-imprisonment rates.
The MoJ published research in 2018 entitled ‘The reoffending impact of increased release of prisoners on temporary licence’ showed that for those given ROTL in the six month period leading up to release, increased use of it during this period was associated with reduced reoffending. After controlling for some other variables that might influence prisoner’s outcomes (such as demographic characteristics, offending history and prior ROTL failure)
- Each additional Resettlement Day Release was associated with 0.5% reduced odds of reoffending over a one-year follow-up period
- Each additional Resettlement Overnight Release was associated with 5% reduced odds of reoffending over a one-year follow-up period
Asked by: Victoria Prentis (Conservative - Banbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how often (a) resettlement day release and (b) overnight release has been used in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The latest information available shows that in the 12 months to September 2018 there were 340,163 incidences of resettlement day release involving 7,232 individuals, and 19,107 incidences of resettlement overnight release involving 4,955 individuals.
Data on release on temporary licence is published quarterly and can be found here:
Resettlement day and overnight release are the most common forms of release on temporary licence (ROTL) and allow suitable, risk assessed prisoners to be released to undertake activities linked to the sentence plan that will ease their transition back to the community. There is promising international evidence to suggest that temporary release is associated with better post release employment outcomes, as well as lower re-arrest rates, return to custody rates, and re-imprisonment rates.
The MoJ published research in 2018 entitled ‘The reoffending impact of increased release of prisoners on temporary licence’ showed that for those given ROTL in the six month period leading up to release, increased use of it during this period was associated with reduced reoffending. After controlling for some other variables that might influence prisoner’s outcomes (such as demographic characteristics, offending history and prior ROTL failure)
- Each additional Resettlement Day Release was associated with 0.5% reduced odds of reoffending over a one-year follow-up period
- Each additional Resettlement Overnight Release was associated with 5% reduced odds of reoffending over a one-year follow-up period
Asked by: Victoria Prentis (Conservative - Banbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the use of short prison sentences for women.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
In June 2018, we published the Female Offender Strategy which set out the Government’s aim to see fewer women in custody, especially on short term sentences. There is persuasive evidence that many women, particularly on short custodial sentences, can be better supported in the community on robust and effective community sentences.
The Strategy set out a new programme of work to improve outcomes for female offenders and shift our emphasis from custody to the community. This included a £5m investment in community provision for female offenders over 2018/19 and 2019/20. We awarded £3.3m to 12 organisations last November, and on 23 January we announced a further £1.6m, which will benefit 17 organisations and 83 female rape support centres.
We consider that the availability of intensive residential support packages, both at the point of sentencing and on release, is one important element in achieving the changes we want to see. We are therefore committed to working with local and national partners to develop a ‘residential women’s centre’ pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales.
The Strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/female-offender-strategy.