Healthy Identity Intervention (HII)
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United Kingdom
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Name
Healthy Identity Intervention (HII) |
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Target audience
Inmates convicted of terrorism related offences |
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Organisation
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) |
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Objectives
Facilitating circumstances that promote disengagement and desistance; increase people’s personal agency; increase emotional tolerance and acceptance |
Description
In the UK, the National Offenders Management Service (NOMS) is the section responsible for extremism offending interventions, being established since the London attacks on the 7th of July 2005. It was initially set up by psychologists to help prison staff dealing with those convicted under the terrorism legislation of 2008. Understandably, due to security purposes, much of NOMS’ National Security Framework document is not publicly available. However, NOMS’ programme of work to counter extremism was summarised by the then minister, Lord Bach, in February 2009, who mentioned that this work should include four main priorities:
Hence, various types of interventions are being implemented, namely the HII and the Al Furqan programme[1]. In particular, HII (RAN, 2016) is a psychologically informed intervention which incorporates three broad approaches drawn from current models of offender rehabilitation:
This intervention is delivered on a one-to-one basis (or two facilitators – psychologists or experienced probation staff to one participant) and the programme is flexible. In terms of flexibility, it is important to underline that HII is tailored on the individual rather than on the level of risk: the team creates an overview of the inmate through information from decentralised prisons. Therefore, facilitators can decide which sessions they want to complete for each individual. The relationship between the facilitator(s) and the participant is viewed as crucial to facilitating change and disengagement.
[1] Please see page 23.
In the UK, the National Offenders Management Service (NOMS) is the section responsible for extremism offending interventions, being established since the London attacks on the 7th of July 2005. It was initially set up by psychologists to help prison staff dealing with those convicted under the terrorism legislation of 2008. Understandably, due to security purposes, much of NOMS’ National Security Framework document is not publicly available. However, NOMS’ programme of work to counter extremism was summarised by the then minister, Lord Bach, in February 2009, who mentioned that this work should include four main priorities:
- Improved intelligence gathering;
- Staff training/awareness raising;
- Support for chaplaincy teams;
- Work to research and develop appropriate interventions.
Hence, various types of interventions are being implemented, namely the HII and the Al Furqan programme[1]. In particular, HII (RAN, 2016) is a psychologically informed intervention which incorporates three broad approaches drawn from current models of offender rehabilitation:
- The Risk-Need-Responsivity Model;
- Facilitating those circumstances which are believed to contribute to desistance;
- Good Lives Model.
This intervention is delivered on a one-to-one basis (or two facilitators – psychologists or experienced probation staff to one participant) and the programme is flexible. In terms of flexibility, it is important to underline that HII is tailored on the individual rather than on the level of risk: the team creates an overview of the inmate through information from decentralised prisons. Therefore, facilitators can decide which sessions they want to complete for each individual. The relationship between the facilitator(s) and the participant is viewed as crucial to facilitating change and disengagement.
[1] Please see page 23.