Policy paper

Secretary of State's directions to the Parole Board, August 2004

Published 28 July 2014

This policy paper was withdrawn on 15 June 2015

The Secretary of State for Justice issued new Directions to the Parole Board in April 2015. The 2004 Directions no longer apply.

Applies to England and Wales

1. Transfer of life sentence prisoners to open conditions

1.1 Introduction

1. A period in open conditions is essential for most life sentence prisoners (lifers). It allows the testing of areas of concern in conditions that more closely resemble those that the prisoner will encounter in the community often after having spent many years in closed prisons. Lifers have the opportunity to take resettlement leave from open prisons and, more generally, open conditions require them to take more responsibility for their actions.

2. The main facilities, interventions, and resources for addressing and reducing core risk factors exist principally in the closed lifer estate. In this context, the focus in open conditions is to test the efficacy of such core risk reduction work and to address, where possible, any residual aspects of risk.

3. A move to open conditions should be based on a balanced assessment of risk and benefits. However, the Parole Board’s emphasis should be on the risk reduction aspect and, in particular, on the need for the lifer to have made significant progress in changing their attitudes and tackling behavioural problems in closed conditions, without which a move to open conditions will not generally be considered.

1.2 Directions

1. Before recommending the transfer of a lifer to open conditions, the Parole Board must consider:

2. all information before it, including any written or oral evidence obtained by the Board

3. each case on its individual merits without discrimination on any grounds.

4. The Parole Board must take the following main factors into account when evaluating the risks of transfer against the benefits:

5. the extent to which the lifer has made sufficient progress during sentence in addressing and reducing risk to a level consistent with protecting the public from harm, in circumstances where the lifer in open conditions would be in the community, unsupervised, under licensed temporary release;

6. the extent to which the lifer is likely to comply with the conditions of any such form of temporary release;

7. the extent to which the lifer is considered trustworthy enough not to abscond;

8. the extent to which the lifer is likely to derive benefit from being able to address areas of concern and to be tested in a more realistic environment, such as to suggest that a transfer to open conditions is worthwhile at that stage.

9. In assessing risk in such matters, the Parole Board shall consider the following information, where relevant and where available, before recommending the lifer’s transfer to open conditions, recognising that the weight and relevance attached to particular information may vary according to the circumstances of each case:

10. The lifer’s background, including the nature, circumstances and pattern of any previous offending;

11. the nature and circumstances of the index offence and the reasons for it, including any information provided in relation to its impact on the victim or victim’s family;

12. the trial judge’s sentencing comments or report to the Secretary of State, and any probation, medical, or other relevant reports or material prepared for the court;

13. whether the lifer has made positive and successful efforts to address the attitudes and behavioural problems which led to the commission of the index offence;

14. the nature of any offences against prison discipline committed by the lifer;

15. the lifer’s attitude and behaviour to other prisoners and staff;

16. the category of security in which the lifer is held and any reasons or reports provided by the Prison Service for such categorisation, particularly in relation to those lifers held in Category A conditions of security;

17. the lifer’s awareness of the impact of the index offence, particularly in relation to the victim or victim’s family, and the extent of any demonstrable insight into their attitudes and behavioural problems and whether they have taken steps to reduce risk through the achievement of life sentence plan targets;

18. any medical, psychiatric or psychological considerations (particularly if there is a history of mental instability);

19. the lifer’s response when placed in positions of trust, including any outside activities and any escorted absences from closed prisons;

20. any indication of predicted risk as determined by a validated actuarial risk predictor model or any other structured assessment of the lifer’s risk and treatment needs.

21. Before recommending transfer to open conditions, the Parole Board shall also consider the lifer’s relationship with the Probation Service (in particular the supervising probation officer), and other outside support such as family and friends.