interview
Professor Meek’s recommendations to transform sport and physical activity in the criminal justice system
1. Every prison, young offenders institutions, secure training centre and secure children’s home should devise and implement an integrated physical activity and wellbeing strategy.
2. Commissioners and education providers should develop a flexible approach to delivery which enables collaborations and creative delivery
3. Prisons should offer nutritional advice as part of their physical activity and wellbeing provision, and promote a readily- available range of healthy eating options.
4. Bringing prisoners together for sport can resolve conflict. Governors should revise ‘keep apart’ list policies and establishments should include gym staff in ‘keep apart’ decision making.
5. Sport provision needs to be responsive to individual needs, with a focus on health, wellbeing and rehabilitation at the heart of practice.
a major step towards making sport and activity a central feature of policy and practice in the criminal justice system.” In 2017, the Alliance’s work received global
recognition when the organisation received the Beyond Sport award for ‘Best Partnership or Collaboration’ at a ceremony in New York. The prestigious annual awards celebrate organisations that successfully use sport to promote and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
breaking down barriers There’s no doubt that sport and physical activity can play a huge role in the criminal justice system and there are numerous programmes which testify to this. However, these remain the exception rather than the
rule and such interventions need to be deployed at scale if we are to harness the true power of sport to break the cycle of crime and rehabilitate those held in the criminal justice system.
“Sport by itself is not the solution, but it
forms the core of a wider solution for those caught up in a cycle of crime, or those who are at risk of offending,” says Coleman. “The criminal justice system is in need of a
great deal of support and there are so many different bodies in that system which creates complexity. The Alliance of Sport is there to help break down barriers and see how those different systems can work together through common aims and outcomes.”
www.allianceofsport.org
6. The Ministry of Justice should develop a physical activity strategy for women and girls in prison.
7. The Ministry of Justice should re- consider the national martial arts/boxing policy and pilot the introduction of targeted programmes which draw on boxing exercises, qualifications and associated activities.
8. Senior managers and the Ministry of Justice need to monitor physical activity participation and outcomes according to ethnicity, and ensure that any disproportionality is addressed.
9. Senior managers need to encourage partnerships between prisons, communities, sporting groups and bodies.
10. The Ministry of Justice should Release on Temporary Licence, Mobility and related policies to facilitate meaningful sports-based learning team-building activities, placements and training.
11. The Ministry of Justice, HM Prison and Probation Service and senior managers need to provide the leadership, staffing, training and facilities required to support a wide-reaching and high-quality sport and physical activity provision.
12. The Ministry of Justice should create and implement a dedicated physical activity monitoring and evaluation strategy which supplements existing Ofsted and HM Inspectorate of Prisons monitoring.
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pactfacilities.co.uk
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