One in five people leaving custody have nowhere to sleep on the night they leave prison, rising to one in three people released from short sentences.
The shocking statistic is one of several concerns highlighted by the Justice Committee in a report into government plans to move offender management services from failed Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) to the National Probation Service.
The committee has asked ministers to give an update by December 2019 on their work to address the accommodation needs of prisoners on release.
CRCs were set up under the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms, but widely acknowledged to have failed—the Justice Committee uncovered serious problems with them in a June 2018 report. Bob Neill MP, Justice Committee chair, said: ‘Last year I described the probation system as a “mess”.
‘Our conclusions were echoed by other reports from the Chief Inspector of Probation, NAO and Public Accounts Committee: they found that the system was irredeemably flawed, underfunded, fragile, and lacking the confidence of the courts. Yet the government took almost a year to respond.
‘The government has acknowledged its failure and finally done the right thing by making changes to the probation system. But the transition to the new model will be costly and risky.’
In its latest report, published last week, the committee called for greater transparency of future probation funding.
It also expressed concern about value of money for the taxpayer of any future bail-out of CRC contracts, plans to recruit and retain more probation officers, and dwindling voluntary sector involvement.
