Den Bosch, 14 th June 2019 PROFESSOR Kieran McCartan KIERAN.MCCARTAN@UWE.AC.UK

1. Prison to community Circles in South West England Den Bosch, 14th June 2019PROFESSOR Kieran McCartan KIERAN.MCCARTAN@UWE.AC.UK

2. Risk management & Prevention McCartan, Prescott & Gotch, 2019

3. Different Models…. • Through the gate • Starts in prison ends in the community (Circles South West, HMP Whatton, UK) • Community based • Traditional, community based “good will” model (Canada, California). • Paralleling criminal justice model (UK circles). • Criminal justice system run model (Vermont, Minnesota, The Netherlands).

5. Restorative Justice, reintegration & engagement • ‘Heal harms’ and enable the person who has committed a sexual offence to take responsibility for actions. • Safely reintegrate, access to positive social networks and social capital are seen as critical to supporting non offending as well as desistence behaviour . • The idea of the volunteer as the conduit to the community, to positive networks and social capital. • Engage offenders, and engage communities via willing volunteers • 3 key strands: • accountability, • safe reintegration, • behaviour change. McCartan and Kemshall, NOTA Dublin 2015

6. Circles SW 2018 - 19 Circles South West was one of 3 winners of the 2019 Robin Corbett Award for Prison Re-integration “The three winning charities stand as outstanding examples of how organisations can assist prisoners to help themselves” Lady Corbett

7. Through the gate • “Though the gate” provides services for adult males (3-6 months) pre-release, ‘through the gate’ on release, and then on into the community (for another 12 months). • The volunteers are from the community and go into the prison. • Volunteers understand the full Core Member Journey. • Focus on • Building upon treatment interventions; • Starting from a place where the Core Member is at “ease”; • pro-social modelling; • Joined up thinking around release; & • the challenges of transition and community integration.

8. TTG & Circles SW • CIRCLES South West has coordinated 18 Prison/TTG Circles working with HMPs Dartmoor, Channings Wood and Leyhill. • Reflections… • the benefits of ROTL for the CoSA in pre-release phase • Challenges of establishing and setting up TTG in prison and across prisons • Relationship to Transforming rehabilitation agenda • Safeguarding in prisons & access for volunteers • Feedback “There was a lot of praise for prison circles, which were described as ‘fantastic’ and ‘very helpful’. Feedback from probation officers described circles as ‘really positive’. There appeared to be a need and appetite for these circles, with the relationships built while the core member was still in prison providing additional support for the core member on release” (Final Evaluation Report, RIP, March 2019) • Based on a full-cost recovery model, each CoSA costs around £10,000.

9. Case study • Ran from the start of 2018 until the start of 2019 (slightly over 12 months). • From the start to the end of the Circle, there was a steady decrease in risk…

10. Case study

11. Case study

12. Case study • The Core Member was seen to have relatively low risk in many areas from the start of the circle, but with concerns about there isolation and wellbeing. • The core member self-rated these items as quite poor to begin with, however his wellbeing, social support, and loneliness greatly improved over the course of the circle. • Across multiple measures there were also early indications of risk due to poor community integration.

13. Inside the circle • SKY News – Special report: inside the circle • 15th April, 2019 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8Hdcz_fXQk&feature=youtu.be

14. Through the gate… • In addition we can see that the Through the Gate Circle provides • Desistence • Recovery Capital • The service user voice • Community engagement • Professional/multiagency working (McCartan & Kemshall, Accepted; McCartan, Harris & Prescott, 2019; McCartan, Kemshall & Hoggett, 2017; McCartan, Merdian et al, 2017)