Overview

• The UK government has launched a pilot program to use medication for managing sexual arousal among sex offenders in 20 prisons, with plans to evaluate making it mandatory.
• Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood emphasized the program's potential to reduce reoffending by up to 60%, citing studies supporting its effectiveness.
• Probation officers have been instructed to avoid using the term 'chemical castration' when discussing the treatment to avoid upsetting offenders, instead referring to it as 'medication to manage problematic sexual arousal.'
• The reforms are part of a £700 million annual investment in the probation service to enhance rehabilitation efforts and address the prison system's near-capacity crisis.
• The prison population in England and Wales has doubled over the past three decades to nearly 90,000, prompting comprehensive sentencing and prison management reforms.