Well well well, I'll be blown:



This does in fact seem to be quite clear that, MAPPA Level 1 offenders who are not serving over four years and haven't committed a "serious further offence" will be eligible for only 28-day recalls.

This is a small, albeit very encouraging change of stance from Government that I welcome. For far too long there has been "branding" and "tarring" groups of people with convictions, that serves no real purpose, does not contribute to "public protection", and actively goes against stated policy of allowing people to rehabilitate and move forward in their lives.

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All views, opinions & contributions are my own and do not represent the views of Unlock unless specifically stated.

The Government press release (https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/lord-chancellor-and-moj-permanent-secretary-prison-capacity-press-conference) says this:



Given how Ministers tend to think of late, my own personal reading of this was that this would exclude anyone subject to MAPPA (Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements), which would include anyone convicted of a sexual offence and also anyone convicted of a violent offence listed in Schedule 15B. However, in theory I suppose, it could only apply to those on "higher" levels of MAPPA - MAPPA Level 2+3, for example. (not to be confused with Category)

I will see over the coming weeks if I can discover any further, more concrete information, because I certainly agree with AB2014 that this statement is somewhat confusing, but is likely intentionally vague (maybe because final policy hasn't been formulated yet?). I'll update on this thread if any further information comes to light.

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All views, opinions & contributions are my own and do not represent the views of Unlock unless specifically stated.

Anyone on the SOR released from prison in this way would be managed by probation and the police, which means they are managed by mulitiple agencies. So, they're not specifically excluded, but they are still excluded if the first statement is true. As ministers in general don't understand how the system works, I can see how this would cause confusion, and how people commenting on it would interpret it differently because of that and because of their own agenda. Ministers failing to understand the whole system from start to finish is why the rehabilitation part doesn't work.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

There is a bit of confusion over this. The statement about who will be excluded from the new 28 day fixed recall rule was rather vague.

"Some offenders will be excluded from this measure…  Including any offender who has been recalled for committing a serious further offence.   

We also exclude those who are subject to higher levels of risk management by multiple agencies, where the police, prisons and probation services work together. " 

In the media it has been reported that SO and domestic abusers will NOT be excluded.  In a TV interview, one minister said.

“No, it won’t apply to sexual offenders and domestic abusers. It won’t apply to the most dangerous criminals.”

Bu they had to be told that this was in fact wrong. Only terrorists and those at highest-risk of committing serious offences are exempt from Mahmood’s rule change. 

Reading the original statement again, it seems to refer to MAPPA, but there are multiple levels of MAPPA. All SO are under MAPPA but mostly at level one. There are two higher MAPPA levels as well, which could include terrorists (level 3) and some, but not all domestic abusers (level 2).

So we do not know if MAPPA level 1 are excluded or not.