The number of deaths whilst on probation in England and Wales has risen by almost a third in three years.<\/p>\n
Last year there were 966 recorded deaths of ex prisoners this is compared to 756 in 2015-16. Around one in three of those deads where self-inflicted.\u00a0 In 2014-15 there were 558 deaths but that was before 40,000 extra offenders were brought under supervision following government reforms.<\/p>\n
The arrangements for managing offenders were overhauled in 2014 with the probation service split into two. The National Probation Service (NPS) was set up to supervise the high risk offenders.<\/p>\n
Frances Crook, the chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said<\/strong> homelessness and the rise of the drugs such as spice could have contributed to the rise in deaths.<\/p>\n
She added: <\/strong>“Whereas before we had a successful publicly-run probation service with qualified and trained staff who saw their mission as befriending and turning lives around, we now have a fragmented service with a tick-box culture where some people have not even met face-to-face.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In Scotland the work of the probation service is assigned to local authorities; social work departments.<\/p>\n
A Scottish Government spokesman said:<\/strong> “The death of any individual, no matter what the circumstances, while on release under supervision or licence, is regrettable, and our sympathies go to their family and friends.”<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Justice<\/strong> said it was investing \u00a322m to support offenders upon release.<\/strong><\/p>\n
A spokesman said:<\/strong> “Our probation reforms were a positive change for public safety, extending supervision and support to approximately 40,000 extra offenders each year – nearly 20% more than in 2014.<\/p>\n
“This significant increase in volume, along with the rising age of offenders and improved recording practices, means a great deal of caution is needed when trying to draw conclusions from this data.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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The number of deaths whilst on probation in England and Wales has risen by almost a third in three years. Last year there were 966 recorded deaths of ex prisoners this is compared to 756 in 2015-16. Around one in three of those deads where self-inflicted.\u00a0 In 2014-15 there were 558 deaths but that was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":12420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1052,1051],"class_list":["post-12417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk-news","tag-probation","tag-rise-in-deaths-of-offenders-on-probation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12421,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12417\/revisions\/12421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}