Re-Offending
Prolific and Priority Offenders (PPOs) are estimated to be responsible for a disproportionate amount of offences in the city, including burglary, theft and vehicle crime. There are clear links between re-offending behaviour and substance misuse.
Around 1,000 young people aged 10–17 in Sheffield enter the criminal justice system every year. Those young offenders who re-offend after a first offence are more likely to become involved in serious crime and the Safer Communities Partnership targets these individuals to support them to change their behaviour.
Offender Management
The Prolific and Priority Offender Scheme is run by the Police, Probation Service and the Youth Offending Service. The scheme can deal with around 120 offenders at any one time and is split into 3 strands:
• Catch and convict
• Resettle and rehabilitate
• Prevent and deter
In addition, the Drugs Intervention Programme works with substance misusing offenders. The rate at which PPOs are registered into the scheme, engaged and deregistered from the scheme is increasing, meaning that we are dealing with more offenders in total. The Sabre process is the enforcement tool used to engage with prolific offenders.
The aims of the Sabre process are to:
• Establish a weekly case management
• Implement a daily case review
• Produce a priority offender list
• Produce Red, Amber, Green assessment of offenders
• Lead to same day arrest
• Produce Safer Neighbourhood Area based target disruption list and plans
Research suggests that we have reduced re-offending by 25% nationally. In Sheffield in the period 2006–08 we reduced re-offending by PPOs on the scheme by 37%.
Over the previous strategy period, we have worked to
• Address problematic offenders
• Deliver an improved focus on identification
What do we plan to do over the next strategy period?
• Improve the model of end to end offender management of PPOs
• Improve the PPO scheme delivery and the range of interventions available
• Improve how we monitor the success of the schemes locally to assess the impact on victims and on neighbourhoods
• Tackle key factors that can lead to re-offending such as lack of employment and accommodation
Youth Offending
The Youth Offending Service (YOS) is a multi-agency team made up of representatives from four statutory partners; South Yorkshire Police, the Probation Service, Sheffield City Council and the Primary Care Trust.
These representatives work alongside staff from a range of other agencies, including those from the voluntary sector.
The key objectives of Sheffield YOS are:
• Reduce the number of first time entrants (FTEs) to the Youth Justice System in Sheffield
• Confront offenders with the consequences of their behaviour
• Reduce the risks associated with youth crime
• Encourage the participation of victims
• Promote parental responsibility
• Ensure prompt and appropriate sentencing
• Help ensure that young people are dealt with proportionately In Sheffield, around 1,000 young people aged between 10 and 17 enter the criminal justice system every year and we are working to reduce this. Around 85% of young people going through the criminal justice system are male, and most are aged 16 to 17 years. In 2006–07, 37% of those young people who received a Final Warning by the Police had previously received a Police Reprimand.
How we will measure our success in tackling reoffending
Sheffield First Agreement indicators:
• Reduce re-offending rate of prolific and priority offenders
• Reduce the number of first time entrants to the criminal justice system aged 10–17 years Contributing indicators:
• Increase the proportion of offenders under probation supervision living in settled accommodation at the end of their order or licence
• Increase the % of offenders under supervision in employment at the end of supervision
• Decrease adult re-offending rates for those under supervision
• Increase number of young people involved in positive activities (note: 0–19+ Children and Young People’s Partnership will be responsible for this indicator)
• Increase young offenders access to suitable accommodation
• Increase young offenders engagement in suitable education, employment or training