Criminal Justice

Konnect is comprised of five interconnected work/support hubs, the first of which is:

1. Criminal Justice

The criminal justice hub operates, primarily, as a referral source for clients.  Konnect intends to support prolific offenders over the age of 19 at various points in their criminal justice experience including:

• At court
• In prison (in the form of advocate mentorship)
• During the resettlement process.

Konnect is situated in a ‘Probation hub’ in Penzance, Cornwall. This means we have regular contact with offenders and their offender managers, giving support and guidance through a SLA that we have secured.

Konnect is working towards the point where offenders receiving a community order will be referred to us and supported according to client-directed need and outcome.

There is a wealth of national research that reinforces the critical role that cohesive, sustained and comprehensive offender support plays in the transition between prison and resettlement and in reducing re-offending rates when offenders return to the community.  From a more local perspective, the Learning the Lessons (2015) research that was carried out by Konnect on behalf of the Safer Stronger Consortium (SSC) highlights the vulnerable position that offenders find themselves in upon release from prison.

We want to ensure that offenders are engaged with at point of sentence at court (usually the point they are most open to help) and that contact maintained through their criminal justice journey.

Konnect ultimately want to offer, and be considered as, a form of sentencing option within a probation order.

This process is developing in the following ways:

• We have a SLA with probation through the DDC CRC as we are present in their Penzance hub.
• We have launched a course for 12 offenders on probation funded through the job centre and being piloted in Penzance. The course focuses on health and wellbeing, job readiness, confidence building and risk assessed job suitability.
• This course will then be rolled out across the other probation hubs in the county. We are aiming deliver 10 courses in the next 6 months, benefiting over 100 offenders across Cornwall.