Participants

Dr Hannah Randolph (Economist, FAI)

Prof Mairi Spowage (Director, FAI)

Jack Evans (Senior Policy Advisor, JRF)

Time stamps

(0:22) Who wants to work across Scotland

(3:24) Child poverty and supporting parents into work

(8:09) Why focus on "people who want to work"?

(13:29) How we talk about labour market status

(19:26) Surveys and other sources of labour market information

(26:55) What's next?

00:00:08 – 00:00:35
Introduction to podcast, guests, and research topic (community supervision & re-offending).

00:00:35 – 00:01:24
Overview of pressures on the criminal justice system: court backlogs and causes.

00:01:24 – 00:02:20
Prison overcrowding explained and current capacity issues.

00:02:20 – 00:03:14
Early release schemes and their limited long-term impact on prison population.

00:03:14 – 00:04:00
Future outlook and policy pressure (Institute for Government concerns).

00:03:36 – 00:04:27
New sentencing bill: shift toward community supervision and reduced prison time.

00:04:27 – 00:05:22
Lack of evidence on effectiveness of community supervision and motivation for study.

00:05:22 – 00:06:28
Data challenges and introduction to MoJ “Data First” initiative and linked datasets.

00:06:28 – 00:07:02
Scale and capability of the linked offender dataset.

00:07:02 – 00:08:25
Why older data is used and need for causal evidence (bias in simple comparisons).

00:08:25 – 00:10:20
Explanation of natural experiments vs randomized experiments.

00:10:20 – 00:11:13
Introduction to the 2015 Offender Rehabilitation Act (ORA).

00:11:13 – 00:13:02
Natural experiment setup: cutoff date creates comparable supervised vs unsupervised groups.

00:13:02 – 00:14:21
Method: comparing re-offending outcomes across groups using linked data.

00:14:21 – 00:15:46
What community supervision involves (probation, restrictions, rehabilitation focus).

00:16:02 – 00:17:09
Main findings: supervision reduces re-offending (short-term impact).

00:17:09 – 00:17:30
Long-term effects: persistent reduction in re-offending even after supervision ends.

00:17:30 – 00:18:44
Who benefits most: stronger effects for first-time prisoners.

00:18:44 – 00:19:27
Why effects fade over time and importance of supervision duration.

00:19:27 – 00:21:00
Effects for repeat/prolific offenders and role of recall to prison (incapacitation effect).

00:21:00 – 00:22:18
Behavioural mechanisms and role of recall threat.

00:22:18 – 00:23:34
Context: high baseline re-offending rates; supervision helps but isn’t a silver bullet.

00:23:34 – 00:25:37
Policy implications: supervision vs prison and impact on overcrowding.

00:25:37 – 00:26:05
Long-term benefits via preventing repeat offending among first-timers.

00:26:05 – 00:27:37
Where to find research outputs (ADR UK, blog, dashboard).