Barriers and opportunities for prison services in developing reintegrative pathways for justice-involved people subjected to MSHT exploitation

Vulnerable people who are subjected to modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) exploitation and become justice-involved, face complex challenges in both recovering from their experiences and achieving ongoing protection. An evaluation of international correctional service responses to MSHT found that ‘only a handful of jurisdictions consider the issue of survivors of modern slavery in prisons and how to support them’; however, this has not been ‘…in a comprehensive or systematic way’ (p.8).1 There are opportunities to develop a comprehensive approach that can strengthen MSHT responses and align with HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) strategic priorities to reduce reoffending and protect the public, but this is within a context of significant challenges in the broader public policy arena and across the criminal justice system in England and Wales. The lack of confidence in recognising the overlap between people with experiences of victimisation and those who are convicted of MSHT offences, systemic issues including information sharing between agencies and limited coordinated responses across the criminal justice system, have contributed to a lack of effective approaches that disrupt exploitation and protect people from re-trafficking. In this paper, we sketch out the specific barriers and opportunities for prison services in developing reintegrative pathways for justice-involved people experiencing exploitation to achieve sustainable support and protection. First, we review the policy setting and what we know about MSHT victimisation and offending, subsequently we consider some of the barriers faced by prison services and justice-involved people in achieving support and protection, with a focus on the potential for trafficking and retrafficking. We then explore opportunities for developing reintegrative pathways to better support and protect people who have experienced MSHT exploitation and are under the care and management of HMPPS. Ultimately, we argue for the need to move towards a multiagency, public health approach that adopts trauma-informed principles to support justice involved people who have experienced exploitation and prevent re-trafficking.