08/09/2006

Report criticises prisoner checks

Four out of ten offenders are released without proper checks being conducted to assess whether they pose a risk to the public, a report has claimed.

The report, which was written by prisons watchdog Anne Owers, chief probation inspector Andrew Bridges and Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Ronnie Flanagan, was commissioned after the Probation Service was criticised for failing to keep a proper check on offenders who went on to commit other serious crimes after being released.

These included Anthony Rice, who murdered mother-of-one Naomi Bryant, nine months after he was freed from a 16-year jail sentence; Damien Hanson, who was on probation when he stabbed financier John Monckton to death at his home in Chelsea in 2004.

The report said that there needed to be a improvement in co-operation between the police, prisons and probation service. Police were not always informed about the release of inmates, the report said, while prisons often failed to refer to other agencies regarding the supervision of offenders.

Mr Bridges said: "While it may never be possible to eliminate risk when an offender is being managed in the community, it is right to expect the work to be done to a consistently high standard."

A spokesperson for the Home Office said that harm assessments and checks on high-risk offenders had improved since the inspection was carried out a year ago.

(KMcA)

Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

26 March 2012
CRB Checks Show 4,000 Offenders Applying To Be Teachers
Information revealed by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has shown that over 4,000 offenders, including rapists, paedophiles and drug dealers, applied to become teachers last year.
14 June 2011
Tougher Checks For Sex Offenders
Proposals to introduce tougher checks on known sex offenders have been published today. Currently, sex offenders are required to notify the police of personal details such as address and national insurance number annually and whenever details change.
22 September 2011
Business Records Checks Programme Extended
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced an extension of its Business Records Checks programme. Business Records Checks were piloted earlier this year in eight key areas, and involve checks on the adequacy of small and medium-sized enterprises' business records.
20 June 2006
Schools criticised on teacher vetting records
Schools have been criticised for failing to keep records on whether their staff are safe to work with children in a report by the government's education watchdog.
15 September 2003
Multi-agency approach to dangerous criminals hailed
Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) have made a "significant difference" to the way police and probation officers protect the public from the risks posed by dangerous offenders in the community, the Home Office has claimed today.