Avon and Somerset Constabulary

IMPACT - Reducing re-offending in Avon and Somerset

IMPACT logo

The key focus of everything we do is to reduce re-offending.

Rob Wakefield – Director of IMPACT

Cutting crime and bringing criminals to justice are the key objectives of organisations working in the criminal justice system such as the police, prison and probation services.

One of the most effective ways to cut crime is to focus most of our efforts on the people who are committing most of the crimes in our communities. IMPACT is helping us to achieve this across Avon and Somerset.

IMPACT is a multi-agency team who are all working together as one, including:

Police
Probation
Prison officers
Drugs workers

The team identify and manage the criminals who are committing most of the robberies, burglaries and thefts in the area. They help reduce the number of crimes being committed by these individuals by helping them to address the issues that are causing them to commit crime such as drug and alcohol misuse.

Without help to break the cycle of crime many offenders are destined to spend their lives revolving around the criminal justice system. Causing harm to themselves, their families and the communities they live in as well as costing the tax-payer huge amounts of money.

Criminals don't get to choose whether they are on the IMPACT scheme or not, but they can choose to accept the help to change their lives for the better or to continue a life of crime. If they chose the second option they will receive both enforcement and punishment.

Rob Wakefield – Director of IMPACT - "IMPACT helps offenders break the cycle of their offending. It does this by joining up all the services and offering them the support and control necessary for them to become more productive members of society. It's very important to note that IMPACT is NOT a soft option. The key focus of everything we do is to reduce re-offending."

Does it cost a lot?

IMPACT doesn't cost any extra. Probation, Police, Prisons, and the Local Authorities have come together and worked out how to get more for their money by working together to tackle the same problems.

Does it work?

IMPACT gets real results. When it was introduced to Bristol as a trial in 2008 serious acquisitive crime (which includes domestic burglary, theft from motor vehicle, theft of motor vehicle and robbery) dropped by 28.3% in just two years.

In December 2010 the IMPACT approach was nationally recognised in the Government's green paper; 'Breaking the cycle: effective punishment, rehabilitation and sentencing of offenders'

But the best way to understand how IMPACT works is to hear it from the people who have been managed under the scheme themselves.

Paul's story

Paul has been working with IMPACT since November 2008

We were just like a normal family growing up. My Dad had shops all around Bristol, but my Mum had a problem with drink and so they divorced. From there we were homeless for a while and we moved in with my Gran. Then we moved into a bed-sit. There were five of us in one bedroom and my Mum was out every night as a prostitute.

My Mum met someone and she just left home one day. I was fourteen. We had to live with neighbours and just anybody really. I was homeless for a bit. Then I met this girl, so I moved in with her and started smoking pot and taking heroin. Heroin was new to us, we didn't know what it did to you.

It was when I started smoking crack that it really got out of hand. You need hundreds of pounds a day. Or even thousands of pounds. Then car crime's not enough, working's just not enough. It was either robbing or burglary. Just knew I could get a lot of money from it. I was good at it... well not that good because I got caught!

How has IMPACT helped you?

My probation officer was brilliant. She helped me find all the support I needed. Finding organisations like drug agencies and she helped me with my accommodation so I wasn't homeless. Since my licence ended, IMPACT have also given me floating support with a drugs support worker and a housing support worker.

IMPACT has helped me because it's structure, it gives me something to do every day. They helped me out with accommodation and funding for things from charities. They can help you out with putting you on the right path, drugs agencies. Things you don't know about.

You've all been brilliant and I'm thankful for everything you've all done for me. Without your support, I think I'd be in prison now or I'd be using heroin and crack flat-out on the run for burgling. Or dead.

Lee's story

Lee has been working with IMPACT since March 2009

I was brought up in a broken family and spent most of my life in the care system. I didn't have any kind of upbringing really. Most of my life has been drugs and crime. Stealing cars, house burglaries, and a couple of street robberies because that was the only way I could get money to fund my drugs habit. Most of my life has been on the streets or in prisons, institutions, and the care system.

My first experience with IMPACT was when I was written to in prison and told that I was going to be put into scheme where I was going to be supervised when I come out of prison and it was a new thing. At first I wasn't happy about it, what was involved but after a few weeks I was up for it.

IMPACT has given me a chance really, it's kind of given me the support I needed. It's given me a lot of structure, it's given me a lot of confidence within myself, and just coming here to talk to someone in the team it's given me that little bit of motivation and the support I needed. That hand I never had before. If I didn't have that I would have been back in prison again. It's been six months I think I've been out now and I haven't offended once, which is kind of a miracle for me.

I felt safe in prison, because it's all that I know, its three meals a day, it's a bed and clean clothes. It's harder staying out because I have to deal with reality and normality you know. I'd always been off my head, under the influence of some drug or another so I wouldn't have to deal with things that come my way. I didn't have no respect for nothing, but now, in the past six months I've learned to kind of love myself really.

All I can say is positive things about IMPACT. I'm a long term offender myself so I've been through the system lots. There's a lot of confidence in this scheme and lots more people should have it. I just want to say thank you really. To the IMPACT team for giving me a chance to stay out of prison and supporting me in what I'm doing. If it weren't for that chance then who knows what? Maybe I'd be in the ground, dead or just back out there again.

Other useful websites

http://www.avonandsomersetprobation.org.uk

http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk