Sentence planning is the process designed to help prisoners prepare for a safer release and make the best use of the prisoner’s time in custody. All adult prisoners with more than six months to serve and all young prisoners with at least one month to serve have a sentence plan drawn up. The personal officer (a prison officer who takes particular responsibility for a small group of prisoners) and the prisoner work on the sentence plan, and other professional’s opinions may also be included.

The sentence plan focuses on the risk of the prisoner committing similar crimes in the future, and highlights issues which need to be dealt with to reduce the possibility of re-offending and improve the prisoner’s chances of re-settling into the community to lead a crime-free life. Calculations of risk are made on the basis information about the sort of crime, any previous offences and the factors in the prisoner’s life which may have led to the crime being committed including the obvious stuff like drug or alcohol abuse. More detailed information about the prisoner’s lifestyle, ability to think things through reading and writing skills etc. are also included to give a good overall picture of the prisoner’s individual needs as well as the risk factors.

The sentence plan is then made according to the risks and needs identified. It includes targets for the prisoner to meet, including offending behaviour courses, and plans for education, work or training.

The prisoner is involved in giving their view of what they need to do and they are also able to see and comment on their sentence plan. The plan is reviewed regularly. It is an important document because decisions about work allocation the prison, release on temporary licence, early release on parole or on the electronic tag are all made in light of progress on the sentence plan. All prisoners who are in prison long enough to have a sentence plan are supervised by the probation service after their release, and the sentence plan is also used to let the probation officer know of remaining risks of re-offending, and about work, education and offending behaviour programmes the prisoner has been involved in while in prison.

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