The East Midlands Police Academic Collaboration has published a report about how Leicestershire Police partnership working, led by Chief Inspector Jim Heggs, has saved over £1.9 million by cutting repeat offending. The evaluative work has been carried out by Professor John Coxhead (Loughborough and Staffordshire Universities), Associate Professor Chris Campbell (Portland State University, Oregon, USA) and former prison psychologist Associate Professor Sarah Pancholi (University of Leicester).
Prison population growth is unsustainable
Prison is expensive and increasingly dangerous. The UK’s prisons have become chronically overcrowded, making them dangerous for prisoners and prison staff. The reliance on incarceration is also putting unsustainable pressure on the criminal justice system. The total prison population in the UK is around 98,000 people, which represents the highest imprisonment rate in Western Europe with an average of 141 prisoners per 100,000 of population.
Every prison place is a sign of failure to cut offending, meaning a crisis not only for the prison estate but for victims’ suffering. Seven Pathways+ is showing promise and has already realised savings of over £1.9 million during the pilot using Home Office criteria (Heeks, et al, 2018). The projected savings have been arrived at by costing previous offending capital compared to the non-offending during the pilot. This effectively has then saved the public purse the costs of indicative repeat offending.
Specifically, cohort member previously known offending rates (prior to starting on the pilot) and projected costs (based on the Home Office 2016 socio economic formulae) enable the calculation of quantifiable savings from non-incarceration of over £1.9 million during the pilot project.
Read the report here
Chief Inspector Jim Heggs is sharing the findings of the piloting of the project in order to demonstrate how new ways can be both more effective, and more sustainable financially, in reducing offending.
For more information contact Chief Inspector Jim Heggs at James.Heggs@leics.police.uk.
Read the full report here:- EMPAC 7 Pathways Report FINAL
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