Post prison supervision

This February it will have been a year since the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 (ORA) introduced mandatory community supervision for prisoners on short sentences. In my most recent visit to a resettlement prison, it was apparent that many people still do not fully understand how the changes impact on them after they are released.

Prior to the ORA coming into force adults serving custodial sentences of under 12 months were released unconditionally after serving one half of their sentence. Under the ORA this has changed so that, following release at the halfway point, anyone serving short term custodial sentences will now be subject to a licence period for the remainder of their sentence followed by an additional ‘post-sentence supervision’ period. The ORA also adds the post sentence supervision period for those serving sentences of 12 to 24 months to ensure that they do not receive shorter periods of supervision than those serving sentences of less than 1 year. These changes apply to people whose offence was committed after 1st February 2015, sentenced to a prison term of more than one day and who will be 18 or over when released.

The post sentence supervision will top up the supervision period to 12 months in total. This can be confusing because it means that the post-sentence supervision period will vary in length depending upon the length of your sentence. For example, if you received a 2 month custodial sentence, you would serve the first month in prison, the remaining month on licence and then receive a post sentence supervision period of eleven months. In another example, an individual receiving a custodial sentence of 18 months would serve nine months of this sentence in prison, the remaining nine months of the sentence on licence in the community and a further 3 months on post sentence supervision. The licence and supervision period will always add up to 12 months in total and therefore end on the one year anniversary of the day you were released from prison.

The licence period has standard conditions much the same as those for longer sentences, with the exception that a fixed term recall lasts for a 14 day period for sentences of under 12 months compared to 28 days. If you break the conditions of your licence you may be recalled to prison to serve anything from fixed term up to the remainder of your sentence. Further information can be found in Probation Instruction 27/2014.

The post-sentence supervision period has similar conditions known as ‘supervision requirements’. These include a requirement of ‘good behaviour’, the requirement ‘not to commit any offence’ and ’to keep in touch with your supervisor in accordance with instructions’. There are also standard requirements around residing at an approved address, approval of work, and restriction of travel outside of the UK. The supervision requirements should be explained to you at the start of the licence period and again at the start of the post sentence supervision period. Prison Service Instruction 31/2014 contains more detailed information on these requirements.

If you are considered to have broken the terms of your supervision you will be returned to court. It will be up to the magistrate to decide whether you have failed to comply with the supervision requirements and if any sanctions should be imposed for a proven breach. The magistrate has a number of different options including returning you to prison for a maximum of 14 days, giving you a fine or imposing a Supervision Default Order (SDO). A SDO can either be unpaid work or an electronically monitored curfew. The magistrate can amend or remove requirements, or they may decide no action is needed.

The main emphasis of the post-sentence supervision is made clear by the The Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014, which states that ‘The purpose of the supervision period is the rehabilitation of the offender’ and this is reiterated in guidance to probation staff and prison governors when setting the supervision requirements. The focus should be on supporting you to reintegrate into the community and address factors that might lead to further offending.

It is too early to have a real picture of how effective these changes have been in reducing reoffending, what individual experiences have been in different areas, and whether it is having a significant effect on sentencing practices, but the Prison Reform Trust will continue to take a keen interest in the impact of the Offender Rehabilitation Act, including the extent to which post release supervision is or is not achieving its rehabilitative aims. .

You can contact the Prison Reform Trust’s advice team at FREEPOST ND6125 London EC1B 1PN. Our free information line is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 3.30-5.30. The number is 0808 802 0060 and does not need to be put on your pin.