Memorandum submitted by Victim Support Wales

WELSH PRISONERS IN THE PRISON ESTATE

Victim Support Wales is the umbrella organisation for the Victim Support charities in Wales. Victim Support Wales seeks to develop additional capacity to meet the needs of victims and witnesses throughout Wales. The board of Victim Support Wales consists of representatives from each of the five Areas: Dyfed, Gwent, North Wales, Powys and South Wales. Each of those Areas is an independent charity and is a member of the National Association of Victim Support Schemes.

Services to victims and witnesses in Wales are managed by each of these five area charities and are delivered by 83 staff and over 700 volunteers who are trained to help people cope with the effects of crime. Services to victims of crime are organised by the community based 'Victim Service'. This service offers information, practical help and emotional support to victims of crime, their friends and families. Support to witnesses are organised by the 'Witness Service'. Witnesses, their families and friends are helped at court by familiarising them with the court before the hearing, supporting on the day, giving information about court procedures, and arranging further help after court.

In 2004/5 in Wales 63,665 victims of crime received help from Victim Support. These included 3,798 victims of domestic violence, 568 victims of racially motivated crime, and 1,147 victims of sexual offences. .

In addition to crime victims, Victim Support's Witnesses Service supported 20,638 witnesses in Wales.

How we work.

Since 1995 all Victim Support's work has been governed by our national standards. Compliance with national standards is a requirement for every Victim Support charity and is linked to the continuation of funding from the Home office via our National Association. Compliance with these national standards is one of the criteria measured by our Quality and Standards inspections.

How victims contact Victim Support

In line with Home Office Circular 44/2001, ACPO guidelines and 'The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime', The Police are required to:

· Positively promote the services of Victim Support to victims of crime.

Explain to victims that their details will normally be passed on to Victim Support, but victims will be given a genuine opportunity to say if they do not want this to happen. Within two working days contact details and brief details of the offence are passed on to Victim Support . Victim Support's services are delivered by trained volunteers.

Victim Support and Prisons

Victim Support does not comment on individual sentencing, nor do we usually get involved in debate regarding the punishment of offenders. However in Wales, Cardiff Prison, in partnership with Victim Support Wales have developed a unique and pioneering programme of restorative justice called SORI (Supporting Offenders through Restoration Inside). This is a proven tool for reducing re-offending and increasing victim and community satisfaction in the criminal justice process. This victim-centred programme involves face-to-face work with both offenders, victims and their communities. The SORI Programme is wholly dependant on victim and community participation for its success. In order to achieve this, a higher profile is essential, thus informing and encouraging increased participation from these groups.

The programme creates very practical steps towards recovery after a crime. Victims, offenders and their communities can meet face to face. It gives victims opportunity to get answers to questions, receive an apology, and tell the offender of the impact of the crime on their life. The project gives prisoners to give something real back, to try to repair the harm done and by changing their offending behaviour.

At Cardiff prison, the victim awareness course includes the participation of victims groups and local community members to witness public apologies and statements of reparation by offenders. Victims express what their needs are in terms of reparation and offenders try to make amends by carrying out whatever work has been expressed e.g. an apology, undertake a drugs rehabilitation course, work with young or elderly people on release. Offenders are able to regain a trusting relationship with the outside, even before release. The local community practically benefits as reparative work done by an offender has a visible impact on the wider community. This shift in perception and understanding enables the resettlement and reintegration of offenders on release to be embraced more positively. The SORI program is not a soft option for prisoners. Attendance on the programme is very challenging. Part of the SORI programme requires the prisoner to think about the effects of their offending and to make a full face to face apology to the victims of crime who take part in the programme. Taking part in the scheme is not obligatory, nor is it linked to any programme of early release or parole, however we believe it can have a powerful effect on both victims and prisoners.

Restorative Justice offers victims and offenders opportunities to engage in a process to help repair the harm done by crime, enabling emotional closure for victims by answering unresolved questions, fears and issues. Victims can often feel that they are used by the criminal justice system as a means to an end to get a successful conviction, and their feelings can be ignored or marginalised. Victims can feel isolated or intimidated by their crime, living in constant fear, sometimes reliving their experience of crime through a court process, particularly where violence or abuse is involved. Unless victims can feel their feelings are acknowledged, honoured and redressed, a victim can be dominated by their experience of crime for the rest of their lives, particularly in cases of violence or abuse. Victims have often felt re-victimised and marginalized by the traditional punitive court system (only 4-5% of cases presented to the police result in a conviction). Furthermore levels of reported crime represent a tiny percentage of all crime; as a result many victims feel that justice is never done. Participation in restorative Justice based on the victims expressed needs means that long lasting emotional and practical change can happen - justice is seen to be done positively, steps are taken to help repair the harm, focussing on the future rather than the past. Victim satisfaction rates with restorative justice processes are consistently high, much higher than through traditional routes. Engaging offenders directly with victims of crime, meeting them as people with feelings, has been proven as one of the most effective restorative strategies in discouraging offenders from committing further crimes, as they are highly motivated to change - so fewer victims are created.

Restorative justice is still largely viewed as unproven and innovative and is little understood both within the mainstream Criminal Justice System in Britain and by voluntary and community agencies, although it is a long proven strategy for helping victims deal with crime (and reduces overcrowding in prisons and reduces re-offending) in many other countries such as Canada and New Zealand. There is also an understandable protective fear amongst Victim Support workers that victims could be re-victimised if their needs are not addressed centrally and throughout. However the evidence of the pilot project in Cardiff Prison shows that the vast majority of victims who took part in the project feel empowered and satisfied as a result of restorative justice. The Home Office isn't as yet directly funding the SORI programme work although it is supportive of the strategies of restorative justice Victim Support Wales' input into the pilot of this programme has been aided by funding from the Allen Lane Foundation.

Restorative justice offers all victims of crime (reported or unreported) an empowering voice, and offers a chance to participate in the justice system meaningfully on their own terms. Victims can tell offenders the full impact a crime has had on them. Satisfaction rates amongst victims with restorative justice processes are consistently high, much higher than through traditional routes. Offenders and ex-offenders are consistently labelled and stereotyped and find resettlement back into the community difficult. Mutual stereotypes between victims and offenders are also dispelled by personal contact through restorative justice. Restorative justice J focuses on personal empathy and enables offenders to no longer see victims as objects. The process also encourages victims and community representatives to see offenders as people with problems who are trying to make amends.

November 2006