General - Glossary of Terms

Bail 

When someone is charged with an offence they have a presumed right to bail. This means that they should be released from the police station ‘on bail’ until their court appearance unless there are sufficient grounds to believe that further offences may be committed, that witnesses or victims may be interfered with or that the person may not turn up for court. 

Breach 

If an offender fails to comply with the conditions of their community order, then they face being returned to court where their sentence can made harder by adding additional elements. This process is called a ‘breach’. If the breach is serious enough the court may decide to revoke the original sentence and re-sentence the offender that may involve a prison sentence. 

Community Payback 

Community Payback is unpaid work like: 

• removing graffiti 

• clearing wasteland 

• decorating public places and buildings - for example, a community centre 

A young person can expect to complete anything from 40 to 300 hours of Community Payback, depending on the severity of the crime. 

Community Order 

Offenders sentenced to a community order serve their whole sentence in the community rather than prison. It combines punishment with changing behaviour and making amends - sometimes directly to the victim of the crime 

Community Sentence 

A young person may get a Community Sentence if they are convicted of a crime by a court but are not sent to prison. Community sentences can be given for crimes such as: damaging property, benefit fraud, assault. 

DTO 

A Detention and Training Order sentences a young person to custody and is applicable to 1217 year-olds. The length of the sentence can be between four months and two years. 

Home Detention Curfew (HDC) 

HDC, or release on tag, is the system by which offenders are released early and fitted with an electronic tag around their ankle to monitor your adherence to a specified curfew. They are be required to stay at their chosen address, normally for 12 hours each day (overnight), and a machine will be installed in the house which is able to verify whether the tag (and offender) are within range. 

Licence 

Some prisoners are released from prison ‘on licence’. This means that although they are not serving their sentence in prison they are still required to adhere to certain conditions whilst serving the remaining part of their sentence in the community. Time spent ‘on licence’ in the community is supervised by the Probation Service. 

MAPPA 

MAPPA stands for Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements. These are a set of arrangements implemented by the Police, the Probation Service and the Prison Service in order for them to assess and manage the risk posed to the public by particular violent and sexual offenders. All offenders subject to MAPPA are assessed to establish the risk of harm they pose to the general public. Risk management plans are then established for each offender in order to be able to manage the risk. 

Offender Manager 

Generally speaking the same Offender Manager should be responsible for the offender throughout the whole of their sentence whether the sentence is served in custody, in the community or a mixture of both. The Offender Manager is responsible for assessing an offender’s risks and needs, planning how their sentence should run or deciding upon necessary interventions (for example a programme that will help the offender to think and act in a different way). 

Probation 

Probation means a young person is serving their sentence but not in prison. 

A young person could be on probation because: 

• They are serving a community sentence. 

• They have been released from prison on licence or on parole. 

• While on probation, they have regular meetings with an ‘offender manager.’ 

Remand 

When a person is remanded in custody it means that they will be detained in a prison until a later date when a trial or sentencing hearing will take place. The majority of prisoners on remand have not been convicted of a criminal offence and are awaiting trial following a not guilty plea. 

Recall 

When someone is released from prison ‘on licence’ or on parole, they are supervised by an Offender Manager. On release, they will be given a copy of their licence with all the conditions they need to adhere to. If they do not keep to the conditions of their licence then they could be recalled and brought back to prison 

Youth Offending Team 

The Youth Offending Team (YOT) is a statutory multi-agency team whose objective is to "prevent offending and re-offending by young people.” 

YRO 

A Youth Rehabilitation Order will usually contain one or more requirements that must be followed by that young offender.