Niacro

NIACRO works to reduce crime and its impact on people and communities

Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission: Draft Strategic Plan 2009 -2011 and Draft Equality Impact Assessment Consultation 

Introduction

NIACRO, the Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, is a voluntary organisation, working for almost 40 years to reduce crime and its impact on people and communities.  NIACRO provides services under the headings of; working with children and young people who offend; providing services to families and children of offenders; supporting offenders and ex-prisoners in the community and working with prisoners. 

NIACRO receives funding from, and works in partnership with all the main criminal justice agencies in Northern Ireland. 

We welcome the opportunity to respond to Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission: Draft Strategic Plan 2009 - 2011 and Draft Equality Impact Assessment Consultation.

 1. Please provide your views on our context and planning assumptions

Devolution of policing and criminal justice will have a significant impact on Northern Ireland. In Scotland, this created a major challenge to the human rights agenda, evidenced through a substantially increased prison population. As a result, the report of the Scottish Prison Commission (2008) detailed a series of actions required by its Scottish Prison Service and also the prosecutorial and judicial services.

Like the Scottish experience, should a Commission be replicated here, we expect increased opposition to developing a progressive human - rights based criminal justice system adhering to international standards. This is already evidenced through a hardening public and political stance on sentencing.

2. Please provide your views on our proposed vision, mission and values

As a member of the Human Rights Consortium, NIACRO also supports the proposed vision, mission and values.

3. Please provide your views on the key priorities that we have identified

We support the Commissions interest in detention and justice issues, in particular those relating to women and mental health concerns.

As the Commission is undoubtedly aware, the Prison Service has been the subject of recent inspections which have been quite negative. NIACRO is on record as arguing for a root and branch review of prisons and their role in resettlement, particularly within the context of devolved criminal justice.

The Commission will also be aware that there are plans to build a facility that will house female prisoners. NIACRO’s concern is that the emphasis will be on detention and containment as opposed to care and resettlement. NIACRO’s response to the NIO committee consultation paper on the Housing (Amendment) Bill 2009 suggested there needs to be equal emphasis placed on diverting “women who offend” from prosecution. There are common factors which bring women into conflict with the law, namely they are more likely to be victims of abuse, experience poor health, difficult economic circumstances and have experienced exploitation. We are also concerned that such a facility will reach capacity rapidly and will not deal with the underlying issues we have identified.

The mental health services available to prisoners in particular and ex offenders in general are questionable in terms of their quality and this is in the context of the lack of quality in mainstream psychiatric services as outlined in the Bamford report. NIACRO wishes to see all of the above issues to be explicitly under-pinned by a Human Rights agenda.

4. Please provide your views on each of the aims and set of objectives that have been identified

1. Building and embedding a human rights culture

The recent reports issued by the Prison Ombudsman (Colin Bell case) and the Criminal Justice Inspectorate were broadly welcomed by NIACRO. However all three reports failed to clearly articulate the human rights international standards that criminal justice bodies such as NIPS should adhere to. Accordingly, NIACRO supports the notion of building and embedding a human rights culture.

2. Challenging and seeking to prevent human rights violations

TheSafeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Prescribed Criteria and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 has been introduced and will be enacted in October.  NIACRO has and continues to make the point that effective rehabilitation and resettlement contributes to public protection. However, the new legislation could threaten this agenda due to its introduction of a potentially restrictive vetting and barring scheme. Individuals with a conviction may be automatically barred from jobs, even in cases where they are already employed in the role.

NIACRO believes that more barriers are being created particularly in the areas of employment, services and goods, which will act against successful resettlement. Those with a criminal record need legislation that actively promotes resettlement rather than increasing their marginalisation. This has to be driven by human rights principles.

3. Communicating and promoting human rights in an accessible way

NIACRO believes the understanding of human rights should be made available to everyone. As per our policy on advice from statutory agencies, we encourage and support all our partners to continue best practice dissemination of information. We support current policy of the use of Language Line and ensuring that leaflets are printed in the eight main languages prevalent in Northern Ireland. 

4. Ensuring organisational effectiveness and efficiency

As a member of the Human Rights Consortium, NIACRO supports organisational effectiveness and efficiency.