13th March 2013

WRC's response to MoJ consultation 'Transforming Rehabilitation'

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) recently consulted on its proposals to radically reform the way probation services are delivered by opening them up to competition and adopting a new commissioning model, a key element of which will be the use of payment by results. This follows on from the MoJs consultation last summer ‘Punishment and Effective Reform’ which originally set out its proposals for reform of Probation services.

Women's Resource Centre submitted a response to the MoJ last Friday.
In our submission we stated that whilst we welcome the Government’s emphasis on rehabilitation and acknowledge that support to reduce reoffending may also include a focus on agencies outside of the criminal justice sector, we also have a number of concerns about the implications of these proposals for women offenders and for the specialist services many of them currently have access to, as well as recommendations as to how these concerns can potentially be mitigated.

We also noted that there is no mention of women at risk of offending in the consultation. We pointed out that this group needs to be taken into account to maintain a focus not only on reducing reoffending but also on work to prevent it, particularly in the current economic downturn where many more women are experiencing poverty.