Justice
Performance pressures 18 January 2010 In a time when funding squeezes mean every budget line will come under scrutiny, can the Community Justice Authorities justify their existence? As the grim reality of the scale of budget cuts that is going to occur, whether we like it or not, over the next few years sinks in, it is easy to look around and see government programmes and initiatives that bear the hallmarks of having been dreamed up in a more prosperous time. Some programmes, like free personal care, are looking increasingly like well-intentioned luxuries that we simply can’t afford but would love to reinstate if and when things get better. Others, like free prescriptions across the board, was an aspiration which in reality, could never be really met. And there are other bodies that increasingly seem to be expressions of governments with almost too much money and not that clear an idea of what to do with it. The Labour/Lib Dem Executive that governed from 1999 to 2007 saw its budget effectively double. It also faced criticism for over-legislating, especially in the area of criminal justice and there have been claims that these two factors combined to create the Community Justice Authorities, a layer of bureaucracy that was never really needed and now cannot be afforded. Is the criticism fair? Or do the CJAs provide a vital tool in helping to reduce reoffending? Are they a classic example of investing to save? There were eight CJAs created under the Management of Offenders etc (Scotland) Act in 2005, all of which apart from Glasgow combine a number of local authority areas. They are made up of councillors nominated by the local authorities in their areas and their remit is to work with those LAs, the Scottish Prison Services, the police and other partners to “prepare local joint plans focused on tackling reoffending, which will require to be submitted to the minister for approval.” The Justice Minister at the time the CJAs were born was Cathy Jamieson and she stands by the intention of her creation. She says: “The idea of the CJAs was to adopt a slightly different approach, try to get the best of both worlds in effect, where there would be closer links between what was happening in the community justice side and also on the prison side. My vision at that stage had been that rather than have the two organisations being completely separate, we would have much more of a joined-up approach, planning, for example, in terms of through care for when people come out of prison and back into the community. Also, that there could be a greater interchange of staff, for example, and I thought that ultimately what I’d hoped was that it could lead on to a better set of options for community sentences, much more rooted in the justice system rather than purely being about social work. “I tried to bring all the sides together. From the prison service point, it was very much about them having to make the links with the local communities and ensuring that people didn’t just simply disappear off into a prison that was miles away from home and end up getting turfed out again.” But the – rather inconvenient for Jamieson – result of the 2007 election meant that a new administration took over just as the CJAs were beginning to bed in. Does she think this may have damaged the ability of the CJAs to reach their full efficacy? “I think that there has possibly been something lost in the transition and again, I am a bit more detached from that but I think it is the kind of thing that needs or needed someone in the driving seat. I think there’s also a number of changes. Some people came into post in the CJAs and there was a bit of a turnover and I think that in retrospect, it is a bit unfortunate that the set-up time of those coincided with the election and the changeover. “I hope that it is not a question of, this is something that belonged to a previous government and therefore we are just going to let them wither on the vine or whatever, I genuinely hope that is not the case because this was really trying to deliver community justice. The idea was that all of the key players had a role in that,” she says. So what does a CJA do on a day-to-day basis? Councillor Peter McNamara is the convener of the Southwest of Scotland CJA, which encompasses the East, North and South Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway local authority areas. McNamara says that the key to a CJA working effectively is all the relevant organisations and personalities having trust in one another, and identifies concrete outcomes as the best way of nurturing that trust and cooperation. He describes how one such outcome fulfils the original remit of the authorities to provide local plans to tackle reoffending: “The way that partners are convinced is when you see actual outcomes of our work. For example, we have identified that women offenders are a priority for the Southwest Scotland CJA and if you think about it, women from our area in custody, coming from this area, what we wanted to do was when women are given community sentences, they tend to fail to meet the demands of these due to childcare. As a consequence, they are then incarcerated. “So what we have done is put in a system where we can support women with childcare in order that they can carry out the disposal which is saving a great deal of money for the taxpayer. It is actually beneficial but more importantly, it’s important that the individuals carry out their sentence within the community and not be broken up from their family who are seen by us as victims.” Interestingly, McNamara, himself a Labour councillor, says that party affiliation among the different members on his CJA has not been an issue, with all members seeking to get the best possible result rather than push political barrows. “One of the best aspects of this, and you have to remember that the CJA is run by the political membership across the four local authorities, I have to say that I did not know the political colour of these other individuals until quite recently because it didn’t matter. “From the outset when I was elected to chair, I wanted to make sure that the most important thing was that the CJA worked and worked well and to that effect, we sat down, all four of us and thought how best we could do that and as an outcome from that, we are the only CJA which has offered portfolios to each of our members to take responsibility for, for example, domestic abuse or youth crime,” he says. But many would argue, however admirable such developments as the childcare provision for female offenders may be, they are the kind of ideas that social work departments, police and even the prison service could be expected to come up with. As for the role of personalities in ensuring CJAs work effectively, something alluded to by Jamieson as well, surely when taxpayers’ pounds are being spent and the issue is public safety, we can expect cooperation as a matter of course? There remains the sneaking suspicion that the CJAs, while producing some good work, are another layer of bureaucracy. Reoffending rates have not come down in the two and a half years they have been in operation. But then, to judge them on less than three years may be premature. Conservative justice spokesman Bill Aitken sums up the position of the CJAs nicely. He says: “There was always a danger that yet another quango-type organisation would add a layer of bureaucracy to what we are all trying to do. What I have to say is that we are two and a half years down the road and it would be harsh to criticise CJAs on the basis of this limited lifespan. “However, we do have to recognise that we are going to go through an unprecedented period of cost cutting in every aspect of government activity and we now have to look at the operation of CJAs just as we will look at every other aspect of the justice and indeed other accounts.” We may yet look back on the CJAs as an unaffordable luxury of the Noughties. Holyrood Magazine - issue 226 | Previous article | Next article Related articles: Sealing the gaps 25 June 2010 New boy on the block 25 June 2010 More with less 11 June 2010 Seeking justice 11 June 2010 New man 11 June 2010 See all articles in this category Submit a comment |
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