Issue:

Stafford and Dovegate Prisons wanted to improve the information-flow and communication between themselves and Staffordshire’s IOM Team.

Approach:

Their usual process was to provide verbal updates over the telephone about IOM managed offenders but they wanted a more effective way to securely share and log information about the offenders and to also improve the way they assess their needs.

Current Situation: 

Stafford Prison (HMP) and Dovegate Prison (Serco) have been signed up to the ECINS IOM Programme. Staffordshire’s IOM Team already had strong links with both of these Staffordshire Prisons but working together through E-CINS has enabled a more seamless and joined-up approach to offender and risk management. When an offender is received the prisons can anticipate their likely behaviour and start to plan their Resettlement and Re-hab requirements immediately so that they can be supported throughout their time in custody more effectively and release plans can be individually moulded around any issues highlighted. Stafford has around 20 IOM Managed prisoners whilst Dovegate has around 50 – Single Points of Contact at each prison are in the process of adding a ‘Prison History’ report to ECINS that records information about prisoners such as general attitude to rehabilitation, adjudications, drug test results and anxieties. This means that on release IOM Officers have a springboard on which to base their initial risk assessment of that individual and tailor their approach to community supervision, and importantly address any anxieties that offender may have. In a reciprocal agreement IOM Officers are beginning to provide prisons with a ‘Review’ of the prisoner’s behaviour prior to sentence again putting officers in prisons in a much stronger place when it comes to assessing the needs of new prisoners. Whereas previously a verbal update used to be given over the phone, a final pre-release report is now added to ECINS to enable more comprehensive information to be logged and securely shared.

Future:

Work is ongoing with the prison service to get many more Staffordshire IOM inmates accommodated in Staffordshire Prisons. The prison service will continue to use ECINS to pass on vital information to its partner agencies whilst offenders are in custody which helps them plan any necessary interventions after release. This new way of working together will contribute to a common goal of reducing reoffending and risk to the public, improve how offenders are managed and continue to help in reducing crime across Staffordshire.