Judge-supervised drug treatment sentences expanded
Prisons Minister Lord Timpson told the BBC: "This is often tougher than going to prison."They're having to work every day to prove that they're not taking drugs, they're not drinking, and they are going through all the courses that we're putting them through."Pilot schemes of the system were introduced by the last Conservative government, but are seen by the Labour government as an important part of the future of sentencing. Lord Timpson said he was "clear that it's working, so we want to roll it out".Crown Court judges will be tasked with meeting the offenders under the new sentence.BBC News was allowed to sit in on a hearing, which would normally be in private, taking place at one of the pilot schemes in Bristol.At Bristol Crown Court, Judge Moira Macmillan was reviewing the case of 28-year-old Kane Lawrenson. Lawrenson narrowly avoided prison in April after pleading guilty to using violence to secure entry. Instead, he was sentenced to a two-year intensive programme designed to stop him using drugs.He has to see the judge regularly so she can check on his progress with his probation officer and his drugs worker.This time, he had received a very positive report and the judge was full of praise for him.
"It's incredibly impressive," Judge Macmillan told him. "It's brilliant to see you looking so well."Much of the hearing was a one-to-one conversation between the judge and Lawrenson in which they maintained eye contact and often smiled.Lawrenson said he had occasionally slipped up in the last month but had managed 14 days completely clean. He added: "I'm feeling the most positive I have for years."The judge, who did not wear a wig for the relatively informal hearing, said "everyone has bumps in the road" and encouraged him to start thinking about his future. She said she did not need to see him again for four weeks.It is all in stark contrast to Lawrenson's last seven years, in which he has been sent to prison four times. All of his offences - from reckless driving to supplying class A drugs - were linked to his own drug use.
After his Intensive Supervision Court hearing, Lawrenson said he was in a "10 times better" place now than he was just a few months ago - when he was "pretty much using every single day"."I'm really excited for the future, to be honest."No longer am I waking up looking to see if there's a plate with residue on it, looking to see who can I get more off, or whatever. "Now I'm waking up thinking, right, let's have me protein shake. Let's have me bowl of oats. What gym am I going to?"Every day I can go to sleep and think, 'you've actually made something productive out of the day'. Like, 'you ain't just sat there sniffing line after line after line.'"A recent evaluation of the pilot schemes in Liverpool, Teeside and Birmingham found that convicted criminals with significant addiction issues on the schemes were receiving a clean drug test two-thirds of the time. The Ministry of Justice says this is "clear evidence that the model is working. "Asked about the extra money that the pilot schemes had cost, Lord Timpson said this had to be considered against "£53,000 a year for someone to be in prison". "That's an awful lot of money. "What we need to do is to make sure we can invest in certain offenders now, to make sure they don't spend years in prison and create further victims in the future."Zara McKee, who is Lawrenson's advanced recovery practitioner, said there was real evidence that people were offending less while on the scheme."Whether that be because they do feel there's more people kind of keeping a close kind of eye on them, so be it. "But I do think more of that is because they feel supported, and they are more genuinely inclined to want to make changes."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
This hollowing out of politics could see the death of the centre
Voting in the Green Party leadership election opened on Friday, with the result to be declared on 2 September. The contest between Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay, running on a joint ticket, and Zack Polanski has focused to an unusual extent on electoral tactics and the hopes of winning a large number of Commons seats from Labour. Meanwhile, the Corbyn-Sultana party is still taxiing towards the runway for take-off, its passengers talking excitedly about replacing Labour as the main party of the left, either on its own or in alliance with the Greens. There are plenty of reasons for being sceptical of both parties' ambitions, which I will come to in a moment. But there is also a real possibility that Labour support will collapse. I wrote last week about Keir Starmer's 'Macron strategy', by which he presents himself as the alternative to Nigel Farage as prime minister. Thus he would seek to rally disaffected Labour voters tempted to stay at home or defect to other parties, plus Greens, Corbynites, Liberal Democrats and soft Conservatives, by presenting them with a binary choice. But what if that isn't the choice by the time of the next election? What if, just as Reform has overtaken the Tories in the opinion polls, a Green-Corbynite combination overtakes Labour? Peter Kellner, the polling guru, has commissioned research from YouGov into party loyalty. He says the figures 'should terrify both Labour and the Conservatives'. He found that people who intend to vote Reform and Green are much more likely to give a positive reason for their support, such as 'it has the best policy on the issue I feel most strongly about', whereas Labour and Tory voters are more likely to give a negative reason, such as 'it isn't great but it's better than the alternatives'. He concludes: 'The two pillars of the old Labour-Conservative duopoly, family influence and social class, have crumbled, and nothing has replaced them. Stalled living standards add to their plight.' Every day provides more evidence of the gap between the old duopoly and the new parties in enthusiasm and commitment. The trickle of former Tory MPs defecting to Reform could become a flood if Farage, who caught the Ming vase that Starmer dropped, can carry it over the slippery floor for another couple of years. Defections to the Corbyn-Sultana party are not on quite the same scale yet. Six former Labour councillors in Hastings and one Labour councillor in Coventry said on Friday that they will join the new party. But more will follow if the party can gain credibility. As I said, there are reasons to doubt that this will happen. The party's launch has been chaotic. The temporary name, Your Party, does not work at all. Any discussion of the party begins in confusion. 'Your Party…' 'It's not my party…' The 600,000 sign-ups expressing interest make up a relatively small number compared to, say, the six million who signed the 2019 petition to revoke Article 50 and stay in the EU. There are doubts about the wisdom of re-running Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership campaign outside the Labour Party. James Matthewson, who was a Labour spokesperson under Corbyn, wrote for the i paper on Friday: 'My warning to the left, especially those young lefties who are still unjaded and have the energy we need to change the world, is: don't be lured into another vanity project.' He thought the idea of Zarah Sultana as a fresh face that would mean a fresh approach was 'far from the truth'. As for the Greens, there is an air of unreality that hangs over the leadership election debate, which has become bitter and personal, at least between Ramsay and Polanski. (Ramsay refused to say he 'liked' Polanski in a radio debate between the two.) Ramsay and Chowns claim to be focused on electoral success, having delivered the quadrupling of seats from one to four last year, while Polanski claims to be more ambitious, calling his approach eco-populism and being willing to do pre-election deals with the Corbyn-Sultana outfit. It may be that climate change – 'the issue I feel most strongly about' – and idealistic disillusionment with a Labour Party governing in bleak times will be enough to break through, but the red-green alliance has nothing yet to match the power of the issue of immigration combined with the charisma of Farage. Of course, Reform's success may not last. Farage may drop the Ming vase. He was forced today to deny speculation about his health, telling The Times that his Tory and Labour rivals were 'spreading these rumours' because 'it's the last card they've got'. But the untrue rumours nevertheless draw attention to the extent to which Reform's advance depends on a single individual. It may be, even if Farage is the leader of the real opposition by the time of the next election, that Starmer's Macron strategy will work. Or it could be, if the Labour vote does collapse, that the Lib Dems prove to be the saviours of pragmatic moderation. Ed Davey's inoffensive army, rather than the Green Corbynites, could fill more of the gap left by Labour's retreat. But I think a Labour collapse is an underestimated possibility.
BBC News
9 minutes ago
- BBC News
Arrest after man seriously injured in Ripley town centre fight
Several people were injured in a large fight in Ripley town centre, Derbyshire Police have were called to Church Street after the fight broke out near Association nightclub at 03:50 BST on force said one man was seriously hurt but that his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening or man, aged 21, has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm and remains in police custody. Nottingham Road remains closed between Church Street and Grosvenor Road while investigations with information about the fight is urged to call police.
Daily Mail
9 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Prince Andrew should testify to US lawmakers under oath over his ties to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, says top lawyer
A top lawyer representing Jeffrey Epstein 's victims has demanded Prince Andrew testifies about his links to the infamous paedophile socialite. Famed lawyer Gloria Allred, 84, said the Duke of York should volunteer to speak under oath before Congress. The 65-year-old has maintained his denial of ever sleeping with Virginia Giuffre, the Epstein victim Andrew was pictured with when she was 17, with the pair standing next to jailed predator Ghislaine Maxwell. Andrew's lawyers have denied that he has refused to cooperate with US Epstein investigators. Allred told The Daily Mirror: 'Now more than ever, he should come forward. He could volunteer to testify publicly. 'Is he willing to testify before Congress? Is he willing to give more information to the Justice Department? And if not, why not? 'His silence is a statement that he's not willing to help for some reason.' It came as a bombshell book called Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, by Andrew Lownie, revealed Jeffrey Epstein said of Prince Andrew: 'We are both serial sex addicts. He's the only person I have met who is more obsessed with p***y than me. 'From the reports I've got back from the women we've shared, he's the most perverted animal in the bedroom. He likes to engage in stuff that's even kinky to me – and I'm the king of kink!' The book, which the Duke and Duchess of York tried to ban, explores how the couple 'fell from grace because of the flaws in their own characters and how they were allowed to leverage their privileged position as royals for personal gain with the connivance of the institution itself.' The book also details claims of Prince Andrew's infidelity and bedroom antics - from sleeping with scores of women while on ambassador trips to making lewd comments to women he met during everyday life as the late Queen's favourite son. It said the nickname 'Randy Andy' was given to Prince Andrew while he was at Gordonstoun public school. He allegedly earned the name because he was already sexually experienced, good looking and girls were attracted to him. While he has never had trouble picking up women, a family friend said: 'He's not a hunter of women. He rather expects them to come to him. But when they do, he shows himself to be bone idle and not very socially adept at chatting them up.' The Duke of York has long faced criticism for his friendship with Epstein (pictured in 2011), which carried on even after the socialite's imprisonment for sex offences in 2008 One woman he propositioned said: 'He's about as subtle as a hand grenade. His favourite trick is to rub your knee under the table. It's pathetic.' At a wedding he was said to have asked a woman he'd not met before for a dance. When she declined, he responded, 'I suppose a b*** j** is out of the question, then?' Another of his lovers said: 'He is not a Casanova. In the bedroom department he is a bit of a let-down. He has been dumped by most of the girls linked to him because he is a bore.' Andrew is also said to have certain juvenile characteristics, such as taking advantage of his position to humiliate others who may not be able to respond. At a society event in 1992 he reportedly unzipped broadcaster Tania Bryer's evening dress the full length of her back. Then at a dinner party he allegedly sniffed the pâté served as a first course and turned to his right, saying, 'This pâté smells. What do you think?' His female companion leaned forward to smell it and he promptly pushed her face into the dish. One of his dates recalled how he always introduced himself to her friends as the Duke of York, 'even when we were dancing on tables at two in the morning at Momo.' After a house party in Dorset, one young woman complained: 'One minute you're having your bum pinched and the next minute he's reminding you he's Your Royal Highness.' The controversial prince even left an impression on former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Andrew asked to have lunch with Johnson when he was Mayor of London, turning up with a list of things he wanted to talk about. He wanted to redesign traffic lights with 'fewer red lights', thought the whole of Battersea Power Station should be demolished, including the listed towers and felt the Queen Elizabeth II Centre was too small and not fit for purpose. Johnson responded: 'Well, if it's too small, it's your mum's fault.' Andrew reportedly stuck his tongue out. Afterwards, Boris said: 'I'm the last person to be a republican but, f***, if I ever have to spend another lunch like that, I soon will be.' Before her death by suicide in April, Virginia Giuffre said she was approached by Maxwell in 2000 and eventually was hired by her as a masseuse for Epstein, who took his own life in prison aged 66 in 2019. But the couple effectively made her a sexual servant, she said, pressuring her into gratifying not only Epstein but his friends and associates. Donald Trump and his then-girlfriend Melania Knauss with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, on February 12, 2000 Giuffre said she was flown around the world for appointments with men including Prince Andrew while she was 17 and 18 years old. The men, including Andrew, denied that and questioned Giuffre's credibility. The prince settled with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, agreeing to make a 'substantial donation' to her survivors' organisation. While Andrew has long been criticised on both sides of the Atlantic, Allred, the attorney for some of Epstein's victims, also said she believes Andrew's name appears in files on Epstein held by the US government that many are asking to be made public. President Trump, who was close friends with Epstein for decades, suggested while campaigning for the last election that he would release the files. His campaign team wrote on X: 'President Trump says he will DECLASSIFY the 9/11 Files, JFK Files, and Epstein Files.' However, since his election he has backtracked. His former pal Elon Musk has criticised the Trump administration for not releasing the files. This year, Trump claimed the files were a 'hoax' and a 'scam' by Democrats who had peddled 'bulls***' to former MAGA supporters. Musk responded on X by saying: 'Wow, amazing that Epstein '' killed himself'' and Ghislaine is in federal prison for a hoax.' Then on July 15, Trump said: 'It's pretty boring stuff. It's sordid, but it's boring, and I don't understand why it keeps going. 'I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going.' He later admitted the US attorney general had not told him the files were a hoax, but said he (Trump) 'knew' it was.
