‘Sarah’ – Deferred Charge for Drunk and Disorderly

Sarah was arrested for being drunk and disorderly in a local supermarket. At the time this had caused disruption to the public in the supermarket, as well as taking up police time to deal with this incident. Sarah was also expressing difficulties with her mental health at the time of the offence. Due to the having recently received a fine for a similar offence and having been arrested for a public order offence previously, Sarah was offered a Deferred Charge, as an alternative to going to court. After accepting responsibility for the offence and the Deferred Charge being explained to her by officers, Sarah accepted this.

On completing an initial assessment with her Out of Court Resolutions Key Worker, it became apparent that Sarah had previously experienced abuse her childhood, was currently at risk of domestic abuse at home by a family member and that she had issues around her alcohol use.

Using the information from the offence and Sarah’s initial assessment, she was set the following contract conditions for the next 16 weeks:

• Not to reoffend whilst on the contract
• Stay engaged with Deferred Charge Keyworker, attending regular appointments
• Not to be intoxicated and disorderly in a public place
• To be referred to and engage with services for support in getting back into employment
• To be referred to and engage with the Women’s Centre in relation to emotional wellbeing and support for experiencing domestic abuse
• To engage in an intervention delivered by Deferred Charge keyworker in relation to alcohol misuse.
• To complete a voluntary activity

Shortly after beginning the Deferred Charge, Sarah became homeless and experienced a short stay in hospital. Her mental health also declined due to this.

Sarah’s Deferred Charge Keyworker was able to support her through safeguarding processes and ensuring other agencies were involved where necessary. Throughout the 16 weeks, Sarah attended regular appointments with her Key Worker and met with other professionals. Over this time, the changes she made included:

• Sarah was able to be temporarily housed, before then engaging with a housing project where she now has a tenancy.
• She attended Job Centre appointments which led to gaining part-time employment, increasing her financial stability, confidence and improving her mental health.
• She completed alcohol intervention work with her Key Worker which helped Sarah to reflect on the impact alcohol has on her behaviour and start to decrease her alcohol use.
• Engaging with an emotional wellbeing service which supported her to feel more positive and engage in regular, structured positive activities.

Sarah successfully completed her Deferred Charge, gaining employment and suitable housing away from the domestic abuse she was experiencing, and she reported a more positive outlook and reduced mental health issues. She did not reoffend in the period of the Deferred Charge and to date has not reoffended, 19 months later.

‘Thomas’ – Deferred Charge

Thomas was offered a Deferred Charge after being arrest for Theft and Possession of a Class B drug. He had a long history of contact with criminal justice system and substance use, since being a teenager. He had also had multiple custodial sentences in the past, which were mostly theft related.

From first impressions of his history of offending, it was believed that Thomas may not be able to engage in a Deferred Charge. To support positive engagement and change, the Deferred Charge Key Worker gained consent and contacted support agencies that Thomas had previously worked with in order to identify ways to positively engage him.

Thomas agreed to a Deferred Charge and his conditions included:

• Not to re-offend for the period of 16-week contract
• Attend regular appointments with the OoCR Team
• Engage with Restorative Justice, should the victim want to pursue this avenue
• Engage with services for substance misuse support
• Engage with Family Liaison Worker around his family relationships
• Engage with Mental Health services
• Complete interventions with his Deferred Charge Key Worker to explore his offending history and patterns, decision making and thinking skills and discuss how he could break the cycle of this offending behaviour.

With robust conditions, interventions and monitoring, Thomas was able to comply with all the conditions set as part of his Deferred Charge contract. He attended all face to face appointments and phone calls with the OoCRs Team and external agencies.

In addition, he also accepted a referral for Early Help to support him and his family and engaged in ongoing family support beyond finishing his Deferred Charge. He also reduced his substance misuse and his emotional wellbeing began to improve.