Joanne Thomas
At a time when much of the noise around our criminal courts concerns cuts and closures, it is good to hear positive stories of change. This is why we are so pleased that BBC Radio 4’s Law in Action programme highlighted work taking place in Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court last week. There, the judiciary, court service and wider community have come together to develop their own response to current challenges. They have supported the establishment of a Community Advice service, delivered by Citizens Advice, focusing on the approximately 70% of people who come to court and receive fines and conditional discharges. The focus is here because many of these people will return unless the underlying problems they are facing are addressed. Latest figures show a third of people will reoffend within a year, and 40% of fines remain outstanding 18 months after they were issued.
Providing a service that is complementary to but wholly independent of the judicial process, volunteers from the service work with defendants to identify these underlying issues then provide a combination of practical support, advice and referrals into the community to help tackle them. The inspiration for the service came from a similar project being delivered in parts of the South West, CASS, which has been running for almost ten years and provides support to people who are coming to court in Plymouth, Truro and Bodmin. Our evaluation report, published today, shows that that CASS has a number of strengths. First, it is clear that CASS is addressing the significant unmet need of people who are coming to court (and who are likely to return if their needs are not addressed), especially the low level persistent offenders. Second, there is clear evidence that CASS has adopted practice which strongly suggests that it is making an impact on its overarching goals of improving compliance with and the effectiveness of court orders, and thereby helping to reduce the costs incurred by those who would otherwise return to court. Third, there is promising evidence that CASS helps clients feel like they are being treated more fairly.
These are the sorts of interim outcomes we hope to replicate in Highbury, and indeed spread more widely through the court system. There are encouraging early signs. While only operating for a few months, Community Advice in Highbury looks like it is already making a real difference to those using it. Three quarters of the nearly 400 people seen so far have reported back that their issues are either resolved or have got better and they are continuing to use external services that they have engaged with. This gives us cause to believe that the service is doing the right thing. The justice system exists to ensure justice is done, but we believe it should also seek to address the problems of those who come into contact with it in order to reduce crime and cost to the taxpayer. With the will and enthusiasm of the people working in our courts, the services in Plymouth and Highbury shows that innovation of this kind is possible and can make a difference.