New supervisory orders for violent offenders

Charles Clarke announces shake-up of supervision of violent offenders

Thursday, 20, Apr 2006 12:00

Violent offenders will be placed under similar supervisory orders to sex offenders when they leave prison, under plans unveiled by the home secretary today.

Charles Clarke said the new order, breach of which would be a criminal offence, would improve protection of the public from dangerous offenders.

He is also planning to extend the time prisoners on early release can be kept on license, from the current time of up to three quarters of their original sentence, to the full period.

Combined with tighter controls for assessing the risk offenders posed to the public before releasing them, better training for parole staff and a reorganisation of the parole service, Mr Clarke said the changes were an "important step forward in protecting the public".

However, after being pressed by opposition parties in the Commons, the home secretary also acknowledged that the system of early release "does need to be reviewed".

The proposals are being introduced in the wake of a report by the chief inspector of probation into the murder of John Mockton in his home in November 2004 by a prisoner on early release.

Andrew Bridges identified serious deficiencies, amounting to "collective failure", in the system of public protection that led to Damian Hanson being able to kill the city financier and try to kill his wife.

Mr Clarke has already accepted all the report's recommendations, but following the revelation last month that four of the six-strong gang who tortured, raped and murdered 16-year-old Mary-Ann Leneghan were under supervision, he promised to do more.

"I am confident these reforms, and changes to the reoffending system…will help to improve the way in which dangerous offenders can be managed. Of course the risk can never be eliminated, but we need to do better," he told MPs this afternoon.

Shadow home secretary David Davis welcomed some of the proposals as "constructive", but warned the problem of reoffending "was of the government's own making".

Labour was increasingly using early release as a way to ease the pressure on Britain's overcrowded prisons, he said, while parole board funding cuts meant that few prisoners had the face to face interviews with probation staff required for proper assessment.

He also criticised the idea of using violent offender orders to restrain the behaviour of certain criminals after leaving jail, saying: "A criminal capable of murder is not going to be put off by some kind of super Asbo."

Mr Clarke rejected his comments as "demeaning and misleading", however, insisting there had been "major improvements" in sentencing guidelines, risk assessment and offender management since the Conservatives were in power.

Queried about how the extra supervision of offenders was going to be funded, and claims by the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo) that they were already overstretched, the home secretary insisted "change and reform" were also vital.

For his part, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said he "broadly welcomed" the changes, saying his party would support any "constructive and workable measures".

However, he too questioned the use of early release, calling for a review in particular of the government's decision under the Criminal Justice Act to take away much of the discretion for when someone should be released from the parole board.