PAPER PREPARED FOR THE
22nd ASIAN AND PACIFIC CONFERENCE OF
CORRECTIONAL ADMINISTRATORS
13-18 OCTOBER 2002
DENPASAR, INDONESIA
Department of Corrections
Private Box 1206
WELLINGTON
NEW ZEALAND
1 The New Zealand Department of Corrections is committed to reducing re-offending. To this end the Integrated Offender Management (IOM) model has been rolled out across all the Department’s Services (prison, probation and psychological services) in recent years. Under IOM the assessments undertaken at reception and throughout an inmates sentence lead to a sentence management plan for an offender, which in turn determines the eligibility of offenders for particular interventions. This process ensures the most effective rehabilitative programmes and activities are available to each individual. This paper will describe the assessment process and its application and will also discuss some of the implementation requirements, including staff issues.
2 IOM is a co-ordinated, consistent approach to managing offenders throughout their sentence, and ensuring sentence compliance across all corrections services. 1998/99 figures showed that 34 percent of inmates in New Zealand returned to prison within two years of their release, with over 55 percent being reconvicted of an offence of some kind within the same period. This indicates the need for an emphasis on rehabilitation, with a view to reducing re-offending.
3 IOM is based on the principles of:
· risk – interventions aimed at reducing offending are for those most at risk of re-offending;
· needs – interventions must address factors which contribute to risk or re-offending;
· responsivity – interventions must be matched with offender needs and ability.
4 These principles were reflected in the development of the assessment tools that the Department uses to determine the sentence management plan for an inmate. This plan largely determines what interventions an offender will have access to and the timing of this intervention.
5 IOM has four main components:
· induction,
· assessment,
· sentence planning and management, and
· reintegrative services.
6 At reception to prison to two initial assessments are completed. They are the New Arrival At Risk Assessment, which looks at immediate risk of self harm or suicide, and the Immediate Needs Checklist, which looks at outstanding issues an offender may need to deal with upon arrival to prison such as organising care for their children. An interim health assessment also occurs at this point to establish any urgent health needs an offender may need to have addressed.
7 Upon the completion of the initial assessments the sentence management process is also explained to the offender and the offender’s sentence plan is developed to such a point that they can be placed in an appropriate wing or unit. A Corrections Officer will then take the offender through the day to day running of their wing or unit. The offender’s immediate needs, as assessed at reception, are continually monitored throughout this time. The induction phase is to be completed within two days of arrival at prison.
8 Under IOM assessment occurs throughout an offender’s sentence. The most significant points being the pre-sentence assessment and the post-sentence assessment. Accurate assessment means that interventions and day-to-day management will be appropriate and targeted in the most effective way possible.
9 When an offender enters prison the following assessments will have been completed during the pre-sentence phase:
· Risk of Conviction/Risk of Imprisonment (RoC/RoI) – RoC/RoI assesses the statistical likelihood that an offender will be reconvicted or reimprisoned in the five years following the end of their current sentence. It uses the static risk factors of date of birth, gender, age at first offence, criminal history, type of offence and ethnicity. The RoC/RoI score is automatically generated by the Department’s offender management computer system and is therefore is available upon an offender first entering the corrections system.
· Criminogenic Needs Inventory (CNI) –This tool assesses dynamic factors (such as thoughts, feelings and behaviour) that are associated with offending and re-offending. The CNI is a tool to identify which criminogenic needs are present, their severity and how motivated the offender is to address these needs and change their offending. The list of criminogenic needs included in the CNI are offence related emotions and cognitions; violence propensity; alcohol and drug use; gambling; relationships; criminal associates; offence related sexual arousal; and offence related risk taking arousal. The basis of the CNI from which the assessments are made is a series of semi-structured interviews.
There are two parts to a CNI assessment. The first part, called the Offending Period Criminogenic Needs (OCN), focuses on the day before and the day of the offence and occurs at the pre-sentence phase.
10 Following sentence the following will be completed:
· Criminogenic Needs Inventory – following sentence the second phase of the CNI is completed. The Pre-disposing Period Criminogenic Needs (PCN) focuses on the six month period up to the offence.
Encompassed in the CNI is also a social factors assessment, which identifies those aspects of the offender’s social circumstance that will assist in supporting or detracting from changes in the offender’s behaviour. There is also a Māori Culture Related Needs assessment (MaCRN) that identifies specific and unique needs that some Māori offenders may have.
· Living Needs Assessment– this tool identifies specific needs that may require attention during the offender’s time in prison in order to ensure that the offender’s containment is safe and humane. The areas of needs it assesses are family, spiritual, language/culture, health, general coping, and employment.
· Re-integrative Needs Assessment – the purpose of this tool is to identify social and environment problems that must be addressed in order to promote the offender’s successful return to the community. It assesses reintegrative need in terms of accommodation, employment, financial, relationship and community, victim issues, and healthcare.
· Inmate Education and Employment Assessment (IEEA) – IEEA identifies education and employment needs and abilities that are relevant to the production of an offenders sentence plan. This is particularly in terms of education, literacy and numeracy, vocational training, employment skills, motivation, timekeeping, health and safety and work habits.
11 The results of the assessments both pre and post sentence, offender files, judge’s sentencing report and other documents are brought together to form the sentence plan. The first step of the plan is to classify inmates to the appropriate sentence management category.
12 The sentence management categories in New Zealand’s prisons are:
· Remand – this management category has a focus on living needs and sentence plans are developed for those who have had more than seven weeks in custody;
· Short Serving – this category has a reintegrative emphasis and is for inmates with less than 13 weeks to serve;
· Maintenance – this category is mainly about minimising the negative effects of imprisonment for those offenders with low RoC/RoI scores but more than 13 weeks to serve;
· Functional Support – the main objective for the inmates classified in this category is to improve their social functioning as they have severe behavioural problems or disability;
· Motivation – there is an emphasis on motivating these offenders to attend a criminogenic programme as they are at higher risk of reconviction but have low motivation to address their criminogenic needs;
· Intervention – these offenders are already considered motivated and therefore the emphasis is on maintaining their motivation to attend the programmes they have been scheduled to go on.
13 The management category then influences the sentence plan for each offender. The plan is deemed the most important document prepared while the inmate is in prison as it determines all the interventions and activities offered to an offender to prevent their re-offending. The plan is a living document, and as such is subject to review and can be revisited throughout an offender’s sentence.
14 Sentence plans include the needs identified in the assessments and objectives associated with those needs. The plan includes goals, interventions, a priority rating for attendance at the programmes, and timeframes for completion of various objectives. The plan is only finalised once the offender has signed it or the sentence planner’s supervisor has signed that they agree with it and note the offender’s refusal to sign. There are rules built in to the sentence planning process to ensure that activities and interventions are targeted appropriately. This is to increase the rehabilitative benefits for the offender and to ensure the right interventions occur at the right time.
15 An offenders education and employment needs are also addressed in the sentence plan. All offenders with education deficits will have access to programmes to improve their functioning in this area, and inmate employment options will be available to appropriate inmates to provide work skills.
16 Reintegrative needs, as outlined above, are assessed at the beginning of the sentence and are built into the offender’s sentence plan, thereby ensuring an offender is addressing their reintegration needs throughout their sentence. Effective reintegration is crucial to ensure that the positive changes that occur throughout the sentence are maintained upon release.
17 Reintegrative needs are those things that are likely to constitute obstacles to a non-offending lifestyle following release. The reintegrative needs to be addressed include:
· acquiring suitable accommodation
· obtaining employment
· managing finance
· managing relationship issues
· developing positive community support
· preventing victim-related problems
· achieving post-termination/post-release health care continuity.
18 Where possible offenders are encouraged to take the initiative themselves for making any necessary arrangements, such as organising accommodation upon release. Case officers are utilised to offer support and encouragement. If a higher level of support is necessary then the case officer will refer the offender on to a social worker or equivalent, or adjust the sentence plan to include appropriate interventions.
19 The Probation Service has a role in the reintegration of offenders from prison to the community. When an offender is released from prison with a community-based order to complete, a Probation Officer continues the work begun by the case officer in prison in monitoring and amending an offender’s sentence plan. The probation staff need to maintain an up to date knowledge of the key support services available in their region and how these can be utilised with the sentence management of individual offenders.
20 IOM was developed for the majority of offenders, however now that the framework has been rolled-out across the country there will be refinements necessary to ensure that IOM is responsive to defined groups such as women or Pacific peoples. These groups of offenders have needs that are different from the mainstream prison population but due to their small numbers are not the mainstream offenders in New Zealand.
21 Security classification, alongside the sentence management categorisation outlined above, has implications for rehabilitation. When an inmate is received into a prison their first security classification is formed based on a numerical assessment of such things as the offence they have committed, the length of their sentence and previous offending record. This first classification determines the institution and/or unit that an offender can be placed in and occurs within 14 days of an offender arriving at prison.
22 The assessment can be overridden and also a sliding scale can be applied to increase or decrease an offender’s rating based on the knowledge and judgement of the corrections officer.
23 Security classification can be reviewed every six months and therefore as an offender progresses through their sentence their rating should lower and their access to rehabilitative opportunities should expand. This is not to say that maximum security inmates do not have access to interventions but rather that their opportunities are more limited until they start to progress downwards in classification. For example, maximum security inmates may be able to attend motivational courses or drug and alcohol programmes, but only if those courses which are delivered within the confines of the facility in which they are housed.
24 Security rating affects rehabilitation particularly in terms of access to employment or special treatment units. For example, if an inmate has a high-medium security classification they will not be eligible for working in any occupation outside the prison boundaries, whereas low-medium inmates can, under close supervision. Access to special treatment units such as the specialist violence prevention unit and child sex offender treatment units are contingent on an offender being assessed at a low-medium rating. This is due in large part to the physical construction and placement of the units within the prison meaning that they are not able to house inmates classified at a higher security rating.
25 The IOM framework was a significant shift in direction for the Department. It required a large investment in training and developing our existing staff to work in the new environment and it also meant some new roles needed to be developed to ensure the success of IOM. The first significant shift for staff within prisons was the ‘active management’ philosophy. This approach means staff should use every contact with each offender to have a positive influence on that offenders specific risks and needs. Staff in the Department’s probation service centres are also expected to utilise the active management approach when dealing with offenders by modelling pro-social values, attitudes and behaviour for offenders.
26 Some of the new specialist roles within New Zealand prisons are:
· Sentence Planner – this position is responsible for carrying out post-sentencing assessment and writing the sentence plan. Any major review of the sentence plan has to be undertaken by the sentence planner. In addition to this they are also responsible for preparing pre-release reports.
· Schedule Co-ordinator – the schedule co-ordinator assists the sentence planner with the finalisation of sentence plans, particularly in terms of the timing and location of interventions for offenders.
· Inmate Movements Co-ordinator - the key function of this position is to ensure that the necessary interventions that an offender is assessed as needing can occur at the appropriate time and where the offender will need to be for that to occur. This can involve transferring an inmate between facilities so they can attend a programme that may only be available at a limited number of prisons.
· Case Officer – the case officers are corrections officers with additional responsibilities. The case officer is responsible for monitoring the achievement of objectives from the sentence plan and provides support and encouragement for an offender during the reintegrative phase of their sentence.
27 There are also significant changes to the Probation Officer role under IOM. The Probation Officer is responsible for developing the sentence plan for offenders on community-based sentences and orders, managing those sentence plans and the plans of inmates released from prison into the community and addressing reintegration issues. This is in addition to the existing functions of managing sentence compliance, facilitating interventions for offenders in the community and building an offenders motivation for personal change.
28 The New Zealand Department of Corrections places a great deal of emphasis on the importance of the assessment process and the classification of inmates that occurs following such assessments in order to assist the rehabilitation of offenders. Introducing the IOM framework has been a huge undertaking by the Department but we are optimistic of seeing significant gains in the near future with lower levels of reconviction and reimprisonment.