Reflections

We seem to be entering a very dark period in history?

I came with a compass, to advise and befriend,
To help a lost soul find a way to the end
Of a dark, tangled path, to stand by their side,
With a value of justice, a purpose, a guide.

But the compass is broken, the map is a lie,
Replaced by a screen with a blinkless red eye.
It counts my compliance, my ticks and my checks,
The weight of the data now bows down my neck.

“Assist and befriend?” A forgotten, old phrase.
The mantra is “Process,” and count down the days.
“Enforce and recall!” the new leadership cries,
While the light of true help in a deep office dies.

I’m a social worker, they gave me a caseload,
Then a lawman’s cold badge and a perilous road.
I’m told to seek risk in a handshake, a glance,
And to never, not ever, be given to chance.

My desk is a fortress of files and of fears,
Of silent goodbyes and unshed, bitter tears.
For the man who’s now homeless, the woman who’s using,
The system’s cold cogs are just brutally bruising.

I’m haunted by faces, the ones I can’t save,
From the churn of the recall, the pull of the grave.
I’m told to show compassion, to practice with care,
But the culture we have is a soul-baring snare.

They speak of “moral injury,” clinical, cold,
A wound that is sold when your conscience is sold.
It’s the chasm that grows between what’s right and the task,
The answer you know, but are too weary to ask.

So the rage and the grief find a home in this blog,
A cry from the heart, a dis-spirited log.
Of a service that’s sick, that treats people like shit,
From the client to staff, who are forced to submit.

But sometimes, a moment, a flicker of trust,
A person, not casefile, rising from dust.
A “thank you” that’s genuine, a small, hard-won start…
That flicker still beats in my professional heart.

Though the badge that they gave me feels heavy and cold,
A story of humanity, waiting, untold.

ANARCHIST PO 🇵🇸

--oo00oo--

The Line We Used to Walk

There was a time when probation in England
stood on the softer ground of hope—
a practice built on patience,
on conversation,
on the simple belief that change grows best
in the presence of trust.
Advise, assist, befriend
was more than a motto;
it was a way of meeting people
where they were,
and walking with them toward where they could be.

But the centre has shifted.
Policy, panic, and headlines have pulled the work
into colder territory—
a landscape governed by algorithms,
“risk,”
and endless demands to monitor, enforce, recall.
Clipboards now speak louder than compassion,
and the door that once opened to rehabilitation
revolves faster and faster
with unnecessary recalls and shattered confidence.

The human cost is mounting.
Two probation officers have been stabbed in recent months,
leaving colleagues stunned, grieving,
and painfully aware of the dangers
that rarely make the news.
Their empty chairs haunt the office,
quiet reminders of how exposed,
how undervalued,
frontline staff have become.

Morale is sinking—not for lack of commitment,
nor courage,
but because so many feel the soul of the job
is slipping away.
The role that once built bridges
is now asked to build barriers.
The work that once changed lives
now too often revolves around
fear of failure,
fear of scrutiny,
fear of blame.

And yet—
beneath the weight of it all,
a stubborn spark remains.
Call it belief, call it duty,
call it the memory of what probation once was
and what, one day,
it could be again.

Because the heart of this profession
was never meant to beat in time
with enforcement targets.
It was meant to beat
for people—
all their complexity,
their possibility,
their imperfect, necessary hope.

Anon

What Probation Has Become

I published this cartoon from Private Eye on October 9th:-

This came in over night:-

In all my 20 years in probation I've not heard of serious incidents from people on probation to staff....in the past 6 months I've heard of 2. There are posts above about how the recall, tick box, authoritarian, breach first and so called risk management culture leads to resentment, combative practice and poor decisions. We have poorly trained staff led by power hungry monsters. It's not scanners and bag searches we need...its properly trained staff and an overhaul of our entire approach and culture. 

This organisation is sick and unhealthy for both the people working for and using the service. I've literally had my motivation and vivacity sucked out of me by this organisation. Of course I have compassion for the employees involved and such incidents are horrific. But as a good probation officer I want to fully understand what has led two people to making such horrific choices in the past 6 months. Sadly I have no faith that this organisation has the ability to self reflect on its own potential contribution to such terrible acts and behaviour.

On October 9th I published this:-

It was an interesting discussion, I clicked on it when Jim put it up in a previous blog. Gaie Delap used the term "moral injury" to describe the trauma of the injustice she experienced. This term occurs to me whenever I read the comments section in this blog, or when I reflect on why I am still raging at the damage to my profession after retirement, or when I speak with colleagues still in work. 

Just recently one of them, talking about the terrible morale in their office, said "even the new staff, they're hating it. They just dont feel they are helping anyone" It was sort of encouraging to hear that the new recruits, who have never known any different than HMPPS, are there because they want to HELP people, not batter crap into a laptop and breach and recall. I mean, there's the poor pay, and the vicious blame culture too, but right at the centre is the yawning chasm where a solid set of values and sense of justice should be.

Anyway, back to Moral Injury, which depending on where you look for a definition, is a form of PTSD,. Collectively and individually, Probation is a traumatised organisation, and it is playing out in front of us. It plays out in this blog; the rage and the grief, the fury aimed at any and everyone who might have prevented or softened the damage. It plays out in work, the bullying and intimidation meted out by an organisation that, at least at the top, is run by people who sold their souls and they know it. 

Run by "leaders" (now that is a trigger word for our shared condition to flare) who spout guff about "trauma informed practice" but can't or wont translate that into what they do to their staff, like it doesnt tanslate into the work we are told to do. So it plays out in long term sickness and people just voting with their feet and leaving at the first viable opportunity. 

Heaven forfend Probation staff are instructed to name and shame their clientele in public. Such a stark horrible reminder of just how dismal the whole thing is, and where its heading. Question is, can anything be done to turn this tanker around? If so, what?

Cause and Effect

We have a very serious situation:-

Trainee probation officer stabbed yesterday. Circumstances being kept tight lipped. Questions raised as to why changes since Preston haven’t been implemented, being blamed on funding and all offices requesting it. Not good enough. I don’t want to work for this service anymore, we are not valued.

******
Almost 6 months after the last one. Still no security or scanners in the office. Yet Martin Davis assures us staff security is at a premium. yeah right sure it is.

*******
If things are being missed when certain behaviours mean alarm bells would be ringing loudly... then where the hell is the management leadership and oversight, and when is it going to be properly held to account rather than case managers being blamed totally and punished in isolation under the SFO procedure, leaving managers in the clear.

*******
Good on Mr Gilmore. Win, lose or draw, he should be able to clarify a situation which exists in this country too. I had issues previously about a pre-sentence report where there was a great disparity between what the quality control audit people felt and what the sentencing judge thought. I asked the question, who are we writing the report for, the probation service or the sentencer? There was much huffing and puffing and a bit of threatening before it all went away unanswered. I know from speaking to colleagues that I was not on my own.

*******
I can recall being in a parole hearing when the case manager was asked to express their opinion on how manageable was risk. The initial response was, ‘my manager says…..’ the panel quite rightly pressed the matter in line with Parole Board rules and we’re then told, ‘the area manger thinks,……’ Upon being asked a third time, they were told, ’the MAPPA committee has decided……’ This is what they have created. Supposed professionals who either don’t have, or who aren’t allowed to express an opinion.

*******
There's one seriously important & invaluable observation from Acheson, one that NOMS/MoJ/HMPPS has never understood and will never understand, as they have no concept of managing that tightrope:

"I can still remember when these organisations were different but complementary entities. As the Governor of a prison with a lifer unit, I was inclined to keep most of the risk inside the walls and my colleague, the seconded senior probation officer, had the opposite perspective. That creative tension meant good risk-based decisions happened."

This puts me in mind of the similar *necessary* tensions that existed between Pre-Sentence Report authors & sentencers, carefully crafting argument & counter-argument, balancing all facts & considerations in a bid to realise the most appropriate & effective outcome. A balance that was shattered - & shat all over - when 'the centre' decided that concordance rates (probation proposals were in alignment with sentence outcomes) were a key performance indicator. Proof positive they had no concept of what constituted meaningful risk assessment.

Again, to quote Acheson:

"It was certainly no worse than the algorithmic, push button approach that dominates today."

*******
Two stabbing in the space of five months and no actual physical changes in offices to safeguard staff. Lockers to be installed but what about weapons concealed against the person? Workloads through the roof, a culture of bullying from senior management, and a pay deal that isn’t likely to materialise this financial year leaving staff struggling against the cost of living rises. What a sh*t place to work.

*******
Unfortunately since the Damien Bendall murders in 2021 HMPPS have forced Probation to over risk, cover backs and have trained new staff (and bullied/threatened experienced staff) to see offenders as the 'enemy' and to breach and recall for any slight issue. New staff haven't been encouraged to build rapport or develop relationships but to hit targets and write Oasys. This has made offenders see us as basically police or community prison officers who aren't there to help and support but to hinder, control and punish. I'm generalising but it's how I see the situation and I don't think it's possible to turn the tanker around...

*******
Very sad and shocked to read the extraordinary staff briefing yesterday afternoon. A trainee PO stabbed in Oxfordshire Probation office. Thankfully not critical but the trauma for them and colleagues must be enormous. What is being done to protect us as this is becoming a very real threat now with the proliferation of knives.

********

Recall, breach, recall, breach, exterminate, exterminate, PQIQ Daleks

--oo00oo--

Lets just cut to the chase here. 'Probation is now seen as the enemy' fed into Google AI delivers this:-

The idea that "probation is now seen as the enemy" stems from a shift in its role from rehabilitation to a more punitive, risk-management-focused system, which can be perceived as adversarial by offenders. This change is linked to increased bureaucracy, pressure from managerialism, and a focus on "tick-box" procedures rather than social inclusion. As a result, probation officers are sometimes seen as part of the state's penal apparatus rather than as supportive "friends" who help offenders lead non-criminal lives.

Shift in focus: The original purpose of probation was to "advise, assist and befriend" offenders, but this has been increasingly overshadowed by a focus on risk management and punishment.

Increased bureaucracy: A "tick-box" culture and heavy procedures dominate the service, sometimes undermining the judgment of individual officers and causing offenders to feel that progress is being hindered.

Punitive measures: The system has become more risk-averse, making breaches of community orders and licences, which can lead to re-sentencing or prison, a default position for probation staff.

Perceived as adversarial: The more punitive and bureaucratic nature of modern probation means offenders can see their probation officers not as helpers, but as adversaries or the "enemy" who are trying to catch them out.

Cultural and structural changes: The service's integration with the prison service and its placement within the civil service have been criticized as culturally inappropriate, further contributing to this perception of a more adversarial system.

--oo00oo--

England once had a gold-standard and world-leading Probation Service that was informed by a Social Work ethos and staffed with highly skilled and well-motivated professionals able to exercise skill and judgement to 'advise, assist and befriend' in furtherance of both rehabilitation and public protection. Management, at the behest of politicians, have destroyed that over recent years and brought us to the point of utter chaos, rammed prisons, totally demoralised workforce and England having become an outlier as far as enlightened world-wide practice is concerned. This cannot go on as Acheson indicates:-

"But there’s no time and no appetite for any more change in this much abused and misunderstood service. The Government has made its choice on sentencing, and that is to load even more risk onto an agency that can’t guarantee public protection and rehabilitation with existing workloads."

The Government must bite the bullet - Probation as part of HMPPS is totally unfit for purpose and must be reformed and recast or things will get even worse.

Towards a Moral Revolution

I must be honest, I've become increasingly demoralised by the criminal justice picture emerging on a daily basis, together with no sign of hope for the Probation Service returning to something approaching the force for good it once was. Having to admit failure is never an easy thing to do and I've always had the naive belief that a blog could be part of trying to make things better. Surely the force of sound argument, evidence and testimony can change things?

Our recent discussions surrounding morality have very neatly brought us to the BBC's Reith lectures and a tantalising notion of hope in the offing. I urge readers to come along on this journey. I didn't catch the first broadcast on Tuesday, but listened to the linear repeat last night. It's good and it's promising:-

"What we need now is not just better policies or better politicians. We need a moral revolution. We need to revive an ancient idea, almost laughable in today's climate, that the purpose of power is to do good. And that is the goal of this lecture series. To argue that the most urgent transformation of our time is not technological or geopolitical or industrial, but moral. We need a new kind of ambition, not for status, or wealth, or fame, but for integrity, courage, and public service, a moral ambition. This may sound.....   And yet, it's precisely because things can get much worse that they can also get much better. History is not just a record of the declines. It's also full of astonishing turnarounds. In my next Reith Lecture, I will show how moral revolutions have shaped the past and how we can make it happen again."

The transcript indicates a missing word, so I used AI to sort it:-

"The most likely missing word is "controversial" or another word with a similar meaning, as the full sentence would be: "This may sound controversial, and yet, it's precisely because things can get much worse that they can also get much better." The statement suggests that the potential for extreme negative outcomes provides the necessary impetus for significant positive change."

The transcript can be found here and all episodes here.

Moral Bankruptcy

Continuing with our morality theme, regular contributor 'Getafix has unearthed yet another interesting contribution to the discussion here:- 

Challenging the moral bankruptcy of the criminal justice system

Justice is an interpretive process, from the investigation of alleged crimes through to trial, acquittal or conviction, punishments for past actions, deterrents and identification and prevention of potential future threats and possible rehabilitative interventions.

This represents a considerable number of interpretive acts involving a significant number of agencies and professional groupings. The criminal justice system is procedurally bureaucratic and criticised by just about everyone involved: it fails victims, the accused (including those on remand), criminals (whether on probation, in prison, on parole) and communities. It seems that no one is satisfied with the processes or outcomes of justice. Add to this the realities of institutional racism, sexism, homophobia and transgender bias, then there would appear to be a significant problem.

In terms of punishment, there is no disagreement on the facts of record imprisonment rates and their consequences including the exacerbation of existing problems – overcrowding, terrible prison conditions, addiction, mental health problems, self-harm and suicide. Once understood, this should be genuinely terrifying, but despite this knowledge, nothing changes.

The ‘tough on crime’ consensus between both the left and the right of politics is based on individualism and market economics, where – despite the rhetoric of rehabilitation – punishment and incapacitation are the sole purposes of prisons. They have become places of deliberate torture and suffering, with institutions such as the National Probation Service providing a constant conveyor belt of supply by returning people to prison often for technical breaches of orders rather than for having committed more crimes.

Build more prisons, recruit more staff, so that more people can be punished more efficiently and effectively, conflate treatment and rehabilitation with punishment to keep people employed and economies stimulated. Tough deterrent sentencing ensures that more people are imprisoned, and quite simply people are set up to fail. This circular, self-justifying rationale fails to deliver justice or healing, to victims, criminals or communities. While private companies may welcome the profits, morally the approach is bankrupt.

In Redemptive Criminology we argue that the places of justice are the places of injustice, with utilitarian justifications for punishment being stupid, banal and dangerous. People who have committed crimes become the necessary scapegoats around which we can all cohere by agreeing on their guilt and using the innocence of victims to justify harsher punishments. It seems that, in an age of global anxiety, the necessity of punishment is the only certainty that we can agree on.

Winston Churchill famously said in 1910:

“The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country. A calm and dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused against the state and even of convicted criminals against the state, a constant heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment, a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry of all those who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment, tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerating processes and an unfaltering faith that there is a treasure, if only you can find it in the heart of every person – these are the symbols which in the treatment of crime and criminals mark and measure the stored up strength of a nation, and are the sign and proof of the living virtue in it.” (Hansard, 20th July 1910).

We fail every single criterion that Churchill articulates. He was not a man renowned for compassion, his politics are not our politics, but that difference is important because despite political differences we should agree that a common humanity, an understanding of virtue, and the rights of every person are at the heart of both the meaning and the practices of criminal justice espoused in our politics. A civilised justice system expects and demands that punishments are limited by inalienable human rights. This is opposed to the open-ended approach of actuarial risk and public protection measures, and deterrent sentencing.

Institutional justice implies shared values and institutional memory and a need for the organisations involved to be learning organisations. At the heart of this process is a conformity–creativity paradox. One of the interesting things to come out of the assault on institutional justice from the populist insurrections of both Trump and Johnson is that to maintain systems of justice that have integrity, we need people who are committed to human rights and due process, are able to resist and push back.

Once we are aware, then we need to act. The authentic practitioner is a non-violent practitioner, someone who is trying to bring peace to situations of conflict, and thus transforming society from the ‘bottom up’. This firstly involves understanding the self in the light of others within the systemic context (conflict) and exploring the boundaries of professional practice in day-to-day interactions and decision making. In challenging violence and discrimination within the CJS, practitioners must develop a hermeneutical narrative to understand their own complicity in violence and discrimination. 

Hermeneutical narrative is the process of understanding our own story of how we have arrived where we are and how we take our lived experience into professional practice. Conformity requires replication, creativity, originality. Any of these can be problematically rooted in our own potential for violence. Only authentic practitioners working through their own thoughts, feelings and actions in collaboration with others can disentangle the inherent violence of institutional processes to enable working with self-organising capacities and allow new things to emerge rather than repeating the same. 

Andrea Albutt, President of the Prison Governors’ Association, has identified the ongoing commitment to increasing prison places as lunacy, and Jo Farrell, the new Chief Constable of Police Scotland has acknowledged that the force is institutionally racist. Other leaders must follow these examples of honesty by providing resources for their staff to reflect on their own practice individually and collectively to promote change in their organisations. This is most powerfully effective at team level.

Practitioners must engage with the contested concept of forgiveness. In Redemptive Criminology we develop a rereading of the Judaeo-Christian understanding of forgiveness to argue that this provides us with a dynamic energy in the systemic space between victims, criminals and communities. Forgiveness is the space of possibility that is given up front rather than the end-point reward for jumping through hoops (aka atonement). With the latter, the end point is never reached, another aspect of the moral bankruptcy of the system – people are locked in with no way out. Failure is profitable.

By being authentically human we recognise the authentically human in others, meaning that we see them as human beings first (human rights are grounded in that common humanity) before the requirements of justice or the job that we are required to do. Irrespective of the crimes committed, this embracing of the other’s humanity ensures their rights are recognised, welcomed and ensured. It acknowledges and does not forget harms caused to others, but ultimately recognises the possibility of some degree of healing so that those harms are not replicated.

Authentic practice then is that space between conformity and creativity which invites all those involved to recognise their own complicity in violence and to do things differently, trying to ensure that cycles of violence – whether personal, institutional or both – are broken, and providing a way forward for all those involved.

Aaron Pycroft PhD Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Social Complexity, University of Portsmouth, UK. Clemens Bartollas PhD Emeritus Professor of Criminology, University of Northern Iowa, USA.

--oo00oo--

This starts this morning 9.00am BBC Radio 4

BBC Reith Lectures 2025 – Moral Revolution

Bregman's 2025 Reith Lectures will reflect on moments in history, including the likes of the suffragette and abolitionist movements, which have sparked transformative moral revolutions, offering hope for a new wave of progressive change. Across four lectures, he will also consider the explosive technological progress of recent years - placing us at a moment of immense risk and possibility, and will look ahead to how we might shape the future.

Morality

Over the past week, BBC Radio 4 has delivered two very pertinent programmes that directly impinge upon probation's professional dilemma and our continuing discussion of it. To me, both raise fundamental issues that go to the very core of our work, or more correctly should, and serve to reinforce the utter folly of the path politicians have forced us down over recent decades, especially removing the requirement for social work training. Both programmes would reward the time spent locating them on BBC Sounds and I would therefore encourage readers to seek them out.

Speaking personally, each resonates with much of my professional practice over the years, my thinking, my concerns and the factors so often on my mind as I interviewed clients, read the evidence, processed the information and laboured over the pre-sentence reports. It also often spurred me on to seek expert assessment, opinion and 'treatment' that would hopefully improve outcomes, not just for society, but for the individual concerned.

How a killer turned his life around

On the night of 31 July, 2011, the lives of Jacob Dunne, David Hodgkinson and Joan Scourfield changed forever. In the midst of a face-off at a Nottingham pub, fuelled by drink and a need to impress his friends, 18-year-old Jacob threw a punch at James Hodgkinson, David and Joan’s son. James died a few days later.

Radio 4's The Punch tells the unlikely story of rehabilitation and achievement undertaken by Jacob through restorative justice and with the help and support of the parents of the young man he killed. Jacob has been on a journey that has taken him from offender to justice campaigner, but he is still getting to grips with his reformed character status.

Aged 19, Jacob Dunne was convicted of manslaughter for killing a man with a single punch. This is the story of Jacob's transformation, with help from the unlikeliest of places.

--oo00oo--

This edition of the Moral Maze makes reference to The Punch and although some exchanges are irritating and border upon the surreal, I couldn't help but feel how 20 years ago a probation officer's view would have benefitted the discourse enormously! Sadly I suspect the producer never gave it a thought and they were probably right. Oh, how we have become so irrelevant! 

I was also starkly reminded that a staggering 30% of prisoners are estimated to be within a broad category of learning difficulties and disabilities. Listening to this debate, one cannot help but feel we are paying the cost of having all-but ditched PSR's from probation's core function.  

How much should we consider the role of moral luck?

The Channel 4 documentary, ‘Hitler's DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator’ has carried out a controversial genetic analysis of the Nazi leader. The test shows "very high" scores - in the top 1% - for a predisposition to autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This not a diagnosis, however, and there have been concerns about whether such speculation stigmatises these conditions. 

While we shouldn’t seek to explain a person’s moral character and actions simply through genetics, there are many other aspects of our lives we can’t control, and which can nevertheless influence our behaviour and the judgements of others. These, include our upbringing and the circumstances we happen to be placed in (war, oppression, abuse) as well as the outcome of our actions (e.g. whether someone happens get away drink-driving, or not). If this is all a question of moral luck, how much should it be taken into consideration in our judgments of others? And where does that leave human agency, responsibility and culpability?

One view is that moral blame should be based solely on someone’s intentions and the choices they make. Moral responsibility, it’s argued, rests on rational will, and unlucky life chances should not excuse bad or criminal behaviour. However, in the criminal justice system, mitigating circumstances, while not excusing bad behaviour, are presented to reduce the severity of a person's culpability. 

How do we untangle what is in someone’s control, and what is a matter of luck, when it comes to the combinations of nature and nurture that make up the people we are? If we focus too much the things we can’t control, would we ever be able to make any moral judgments at all? Or should we think more about the presence of moral luck in our everyday lives and work harder to understand rather than blame? 

Chair: Michael Buerk Panel: Matthew Taylor, Sonia Sodha, Jonathan Sumption and Inaya, Folarin-Iman. Witnesses: Kirsty Brimelow, Peter Bleksley, Susan Blackmore and David Enoch.

--oo00oo--

Of course both the above set the scene rather nicely for the BBC's flagship Reith Lectures starting next Tuesday morning at 9am:-

"We are delighted to announce Rutger Bregman as the 2025 Reith Lecturer. Bregman has consistently challenged us to reimagine the world as he thinks it could and should be. His Reith lectures are a provocation - arguing that we are in an age of crisis, but offering hope about where we could go from here. They promise to kick off a lively and important conversation about the age we are living through and what should come next”. 

Mohit Bakaya, Director of Speech and Controller of BBC Radio 4 and 4 Extra

BBC Reith Lectures 2025 – Moral Revolution

Bregman's 2025 Reith Lectures will reflect on moments in history, including the likes of the suffragette and abolitionist movements, which have sparked transformative moral revolutions, offering hope for a new wave of progressive change. Across four lectures, he will also consider the explosive technological progress of recent years - placing us at a moment of immense risk and possibility, and will look ahead to how we might shape the future.

Bregman is an author whose works include Humankind (2020) and Utopia for Realists (2017), which were both Sunday Times and New York Times best sellers,as well as Moral Ambition which was released earlier this year and was also a Sunday Times bestseller. His work has been translated into 46 languages and has sold over two million copies. During a discussion at the Davos World Economic Forum in 2019, he also attracted international attention for holding his billionaire fellow panellists to account for not paying their taxes.

And There You Have It!

Here’s an idea? Treat people with empathy and respect, stop behaving like a communist state police force and your punters might thrive better, progress and be more respectful to you, in turn you might enjoy what you do more.

*******

You what?! Nah, too much like hard work; it's easier to issue appointments, demand respect & breach when they don't play ball. Keeps the IT police off yer back, keeps the numbers right. As long as it's on the system in the 'correct' format, no-one gives a toss. HMIP can't find fault in the audit trail. £650 in the pocket for 35 hours a week, every week, good holidays & pension. Input whatever you need to & do as you please with the rest of the time. Piece of piss. And a free degree thrown in. Why stress?

New Narrative Required?

A recent reminder from regular contributor 'Getafix pointed us in the direction of the Revolving Doors charity and the following very insightful blog post from last October which we seem to have missed. Although apparently not attributed, I feel it's quite likely to be the work of their policy manager and former Probation Officer Kelly Grehan. We've featured her work before, for example here in 2023 The Need for Probation Reform and she is clearly 'on the money'. 

Time for a change in the narrative for probation and public expectations?

Few would disagree that we are in the midst of a criminal justice system crisis for England and Wales. Years of under-investment have come home to roost, with insufficient recognition of the interdependencies between the police, probation, prison, courts, Crown Prosecution Service and other essential services. Repair work is going to be complicated, but now is the time for a new government to rebuild a comprehensive, connected system fit for the future.

A shift in the rhetoric and public expectations of what can and cannot be achieved through community supervision will be essential. Public media coverage of probation practice is preoccupied with failure. This ranges from a surprise that probation practitioners do not have immediate access to accommodation for anyone being released homeless, to missed opportunities uncovered by serious further offence investigations, which report missed information sharing and swift enforcement opportunities.

It seems timely to ask: Are public expectations of what can be achieved through community supervision realistic and are recommendations being directed to the correct service/agency provider?

‘Rehabilitation does not end at the prison gate’

I would argue that, unless there is a much wider shared community commitment to and understanding of inclusion and access to essential public services, then expectations and confidence in probation practice will remain stuck in an unrealistic and low place.

The excessive use of imprisonment may satisfy appetites for retribution, but the reality is that prisoners come from the community and, for the vast majority, return to the community. Rehabilitation does not end at the prison gate.

If we want to reduce the likelihood of reoffending then our communities need to be ready to support and improve access to providing accommodation, speedy access to mental health and substance misuse services and a readiness to accept and encourage ex-offenders into the workplace and education.

Frustration at lack of community support

Probation practitioners can signpost and support referrals to these essential services, but do they have confidence that the door will be open?

The probation service is one of the smallest and usually most invisible public services – unless something has gone wrong. The public usually shows little interest in the criminal courts and work of the probation service unless they or a member of their family work there or they have found themselves the wrong side of the law or a victim of crime.

Most who work in the criminal justice system are highly committed and passionate about their work, wanting to do all they can to prevent further harm, improve lives and develop safer communities. I don’t think in my forty plus years working in many different roles for probation I have ever met a colleague who did not think the justice system could be improved and did not remain frustrated at the lack of access to services in the community to support rehabilitation and reintegration.

Success stories for probation nearly always demonstrate examples of strong multi agency partnership work that support integration and celebrate the individuals’ efforts to move forward. The challenge has always been one of negotiating the tightrope between care and control.

I question whether we have shifted the expectations and balance too far in the direction of control, raising the bar for public protection measures so high for so many that we have lost sight of the imperative to support and nurture rehabilitation. All too often the starting point is “what is the risk assessment?” rather than “what is the risk and needs assessment”? Effective probation practice requires attention to both the management of risk of harm and reducing reoffending through well planned and delivered rehabilitation support services. If offenders get their lives back together the risk to the public generally falls.

High vs. low risk: a harmful dichotomy

The introduction of the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) at the start of the century had an impressive impact, encouraging probation to separate out those who presented the highest risk of serious harm. The mantra that resources followed risk makes sense; so that the agencies collaboratively take concerted efforts to ‘control and monitor’ those whom we have good confidence could cause further harm and victims.

However, what has followed is a polarisation of political and media reporting of high or low risk of harm. Transforming Rehabilitation, the restructuring of probation services in 2014, crystallised this dichotomy, with oversimplified explanations dividing the caseload between high-risk offenders to the public sector National Probation Service and the ‘low-risk offenders’ to the outsourced Community Rehabilitation Companies. In truth over half of the caseload is assessed as ‘medium risk of harm’. Risk of harm assessment is dynamic and can quickly change, hence the need for regular contact and engagement.

Since the further restructuring in 2021 back to one service, probation has struggled to find the balance between care and control. The direction of travel has been dominated by a mixture of juggling to achieve national consistency, offset rising prison population pressures, struggling to retain or train a sufficient skilled workforce.

We have also seen politicians who have been all too easily swayed by high-profile serious further offence investigations and the promise ‘that it will never happen again’, raising public expectations higher as to what can be managed and assured, when managing supervision of an individual in the community.

Few in the media have paused and asked what can be achieved by one probation practitioner managing a caseload in excess of fifty? How many times a month might the practitioner actually be able to meet with them to develop an influential relationship and remain on top of their needs, risks and changing circumstances? It is not like prison where you know where they are all the time. How much access is there in the community to access immediate accommodation, for instance? If someone is homeless, their preoccupation is with day-to day-survival, it is almost impossible for the probation practitioner to find space to address their ‘thinking behaviour and motivation to change’.

How can we support probation staff and those they supervise?

Probation staff need to be better supported by other services in the community to enable individuals on release from prison to access the immediate needs that bring about some basic stability.

A sizeable chunk of the caseload is assessed as ‘medium risk of serious harm’: people with complex lives that require both significant support for rehabilitation, as well as careful assessment and management of risk indicators such as domestic abuse and/or histories of previous violence. It is here that lies the knot for probation to untangle. What should be expectations and priorities for probation practitioners working with this group?

Good quality probation practice requires attention to both public protection, which involves good information sharing and the use of some controls and restrictions and good interventions and access to services to support rehabilitation. One without the other inevitably falls a long way short of effective practice.

The risk of exposure to criticism for a failure to attend to safeguarding measures now tends to overshadow attention to rehabilitation and resettlement. Low public confidence saps staff morale and motivation. This in turns contributes to turnover, poor recruitment and high vacancies. The imbalance is felt keenly by those being supervised. The supervisor – supervisee relationship becomes one of control rather than engagement and partnership. High caseloads, combined with excessive processes can result in a lack of time to develop effective, meaningful relationships that can support behaviour changes.

Moving forward it would be encouraging to see: 

• Greater public understanding of what realistically can be achieved through supervision in the community.

• Support for community ownership, collaboration and inclusion for those being released from prison, including quick access to services that provide stability.

• An improved balance between attending to risk of harm and needs to support rehabilitation.

Kelly Grehan 28th October 2024

Hopeful Messages

I know it's difficult, but despite everything, including the seemingly inexorable rise of the right, I try to keep hopeful on this site and in that vein I thought it worth highlighting the following:-

Or, instead of sleepwalking into that dystopian future, we could actually learn from what has worked before, and what still works in other countries. Probation is a brand, and a good one, but it needs realignment, investment, and political will. Prison doesn’t work as a default response. It never has and it never will, unless it’s reserved for the most serious offences with genuinely long sentences. Reduce the prison population and you immediately increase access to proper rehabilitation.

Probation could be resourced and legislatively supported to do what it’s supposed to do: rehabilitation, resettlement, and access to services. Housing, benefits, employment, mental health, substance misuse, these should be part of the package, not an afterthought or referral into the ether. Strengthen support and aftercare, allow unpaid work to lead to vocational qualifications, let probation hostels teach real life skills. There’s even a role for electronic monitoring, just not at £700 million a time.

Imagine five well-run probation hostels in the area of every probation office instead of all those intended new prisons, it would be cheaper and far more effective. As said above, abolish recalls for all but the genuinely dangerous, and instead increase support for others through voluntary supervision, including for people on remand.

And yes, pay probation officers more, give them proper social-work-grounded training again, and bring back family-focused practice instead of endless “leadership” courses or academic qualifications like theose Cambridge Criminology MAs that add little to the frontline.

The solutions aren’t difficult. They’ve been sitting there for decades. But as long as the ideas continue to come from the same managers who already failed us, a revolving door of ministers, and a handful of carefully selected academics, nothing will change. The frontline knows what works. It’s time someone listened.

Probation Officer

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It sounds good & is good in principle but how do we make it heard? How do we get someone to listen?

Forty years ago I qualified and for forty years I've been shouting & arguing & fighting against the tide of shit & the hierarchy of policymaking. I've had my head above the parapet forever. I've submitted evidence to parliament, to my MP, to the press. I've stood on picket lines, I've travelled hundreds of miles to Westminster to meet my MP (who failed to show for our appointment & has never yet apologised). I've submitted comments - positive & negative - to this blog. I've leaked documents elsewhere. I've been threatened directly & indirectly by names you would not believe.

As far as I've been able to work it out, here's my take on it:

1. Policymakers are a unique teflon-coated species who wield most of the power as they slither between the various layers of parliamentary lowlife.

2. Advisors feed on lobbyists & are very responsive to the sound of big money.

3. Politicians only listen to what their advisors tell them as they're too busy earning a meagre crust elsewhere in the City.

4. Those in 'the centre' (for probation & prisons = HMPPS) don't want to hear anything other than the words of the politicians they protect & serve & manipulate).

5. The peripatetic/regional leadership isn't interested in hearing anything but the edicts coming from 'the centre'.

6. The frontline are exhausted, tired of being crushed, abused, lied to, shouted at & bullied. The frontline usually get it from all corners of the compass: (a) from management, (b) from those they supervise, (c) from colleagues & (d) from the media. There used to be a small canopy under which they could shelter but Napo has folded & now cosplays 'good cop' to the HMPPS 'bad cop'.

It might yet need a farage government & the nuclear fallout of such a terrifying event to raze the status quo to ground zero so we can start again.

--oo00oo--

Talking of hope, I note it's nearly time for this years BBC Reith Lectures:-

The Reith Lectures Rutger Bregman - Moral Revolution Episode 1 of 4

Rutger Bregman's 2025 Reith Lectures, called "Moral Revolution", explore the moral decay and un-seriousness of today's elites, drawing historical parallels to past eras of corruption that preceded transformative movements especially the 19th Century campaign to abolish slavery. In his series, he argues that small, committed groups can spark moral revolutions, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and long-term vision.

Bregman advocates for a new "realist utopia" in the face of rapid technological change, promoting ideas like Universal Basic Income, fairer taxation and responsible tech regulation. Finally, he zooms out to reflect on humanity’s strange historical trajectory, warning of the existential risks posed by unchecked AI and urging privileged individuals to take on an active role in shaping a better future.

1. A Time of Monsters - 25th November 09:00 Radio 4

We're in a Doom Loop

So it turns out that 80% of all offending is re-offending according to a just published HoC Justice Committee report. In other shock news it seems our prisons are making the situation worse. If we reaffirm that the Probation Service is making matters even worse by simply re-calling to prison thousands of offenders each year, it's pretty clear we are in a 'doom loop' situation "a negative feedback loop where two or more factors worsen each other, leading to a spiraling crisis." 

At what point does a government grasp the nettle and admit the whole UK system is failing, in stark contrast to our European neighbours, and face the obvious reality that building more prisons and tagging everyone is just going to make the problem even bigger? 

‘Dire’ prison conditions putting rehabilitation and reoffending reduction ‘at risk’, Justice Committee warns

Prison overcrowding, staffing shortages and deteriorating infrastructure is having a ‘profound impact on the ability of prisons to deliver rehabilitation’, a new report published today (November 14) by the Justice Committee has said.

Read the report
Read the report (PDF)
Rehabilitation and Reoffending
Justice Committee

MPs on the cross-party committee called on the Government to set out how it will ensure that rehabilitation is not compromised or deprioritised, alongside how it intends to manage demand and supply. These ‘failures risk undermining the very purpose of imprisonment, to reduce reoffending’, the Committee warned.

80% of all offending in England and Wales is reoffending with ‘growing concerns about persistently high’ rates, the report cautioned, adding it is unacceptable that 50 per cent of prisoners are not involved in prison education or work, despite the high level of need across the adult estate.

Conditions
Prisons are in a ‘state of disrepair’, the report concluded, with the Committee stating it was shocked by the dire living conditions that many prisoners are living in and deeply concerning to hear that prisons may be in violation of human rights legislation. Dilapidated buildings and broken infrastructure limit access to rehabilitative spaces and contribute to poor mental health.

Despite recent capital investment, it remains unclear how the Government intends to address the scale of the £1.8 billion maintenance backlog, the report said. It called on the Government to provide a clear breakdown of how funding will be used to address this backlog, and to ensure that future investment is targeted at improving prison conditions with access to rehabilitative activities in mind.

Time out of cell
The report found a ‘widespread failure’ to meet the statutory minimum for time out of cell. Many prisoners are locked up for 22 hours or more each day, with limited access to fresh air, showers, or rehabilitative activities.

This lack of time out of cell undermines efforts to reduce reoffending and contributes to poor mental health and disengagement, it added. Purposeful activity, including education, work, and offending behaviour programmes, is central to rehabilitation, yet it is inconsistently delivered and often deprioritised – notably for IPP prisoners.

MPs called for a renewed focus on ensuring all prisoners have access to meaningful activity, and for time out of cell to be formalised, standardised, and its data to be published going forward.

HMPPS must closely monitor prisons that are failing to meet the statutory minimum and provide urgent support to enable compliance, the Committee added.

Staffing
Staffing levels, high turnover, poor recruitment processes, and limited professional development have contributed to a culture that hinders rehabilitation, the report said.

The Committee recommended prison staff should receive training at least annually, with more frequent support as they progress through their careers. Governors lack the autonomy to lead effectively, and the current staffing model is unsustainable, MPs warned.
Education

The Committee said it was ‘alarmed’ by reports of real-term cuts to prison education budgets of up to 50 per cent and urged the Government to clarify the rationale of any planned budget reductions.

It must set out how it plans to ensure that all prisons retain the funding necessary to deliver core education provision. The report concluded prison education is underfunded as is and poorly delivered, adding participation rates are low and neurodivergent prisoners are not adequately supported.

75 per cent of prisons inspected by Ofsted in 2024/25 were rated 'inadequate' or 'showing no improvement'. The Government, MPs said, must publish a clear plan to improve both participation and quality in prison education.

This should include steps to address poor Ofsted outcomes, ensure that all prisoners, including those on remand, have access to meaningful education, and improve data collection on attendance and provision across the estate.

Education on the youth estate is also in a state of decline, the report concluded. Children in Youth Offending Institutions are entitled to 15 hours of education per week, yet the Committee heard that this minimum is routinely not met.

The report called on the MoJ to set out how it will address the operational barriers to education delivery, including staffing, behaviour management, and keep apart arrangements and ensure that education is prioritised as a core component of the youth custody regime.
Remand prisoners

Despite comprising 20 per cent of the prison population, the highest level in at least 50 years, remand prisoners often spend extended periods in custody, only to be released directly from court following a conviction without any support or intervention.

This raises serious concerns about how the Government expects these individuals to avoid reoffending. Remand prisoners should have access to all parts of the regime, should they choose to participate, MPs recommended.

Contracting
Current contracting and the procurement system within HMPPS is inefficient, the report warned. Poorly designed and inflexible contracts are limiting the ability of voluntary and specialist providers to deliver effective rehabilitation services.

The system is not fit for purpose and risks undermining both prison management and rehabilitative outcomes. MPs called on the Government to provide the Committee with a clear and comprehensive overview of how HMPPS is managing its current contracts, including steps being taken to simplify procurement processes and improve contract flexibility.

Governors should receive training on procurement and contracting, the Committee added.

Well-being
Health and wellbeing services are failing to meet the needs of prisoners, the report said, adding mental health support is inconsistent, and operational pressures prevent timely access to care.

Women in prison face acute and complex health needs, yet the system is not providing even basic support. The Committee called on the Government to outline a clear plan for how it will meet the health and wellbeing needs of the women currently in its care.

Chair comment
Chair of the Justice Committee and Labour MP Andy Slaughter MP said:

“Prison rehabilitation and efforts to break the cycle of reoffending aren’t working and cannot succeed in a system which is facing critical pressures on so many fronts.

“The Committee’s report reveals an overcrowded, short staffed, crumbling prison estate where the long-term focus on rehabilitation is often lost in an over-stretched environment which is grappling day to day to function.

“Capacity issues are leading to prisoners languishing for 22 hours a day in cells as the remand population grows and reoffending rates remain stubbornly high. It cannot be right that those that do choose to engage in rehabilitative activities are worse off due to the prisons’ failure, and their limited access to time out of cell is reduced to choosing between a shower, a hot meal or fresh air.

The current conditions in youth custody settings are deplorable, and it is shameful that access to education for children has deteriorated as part of this wider decline.

“Ministers must act fast to fix the basics and give greater attention to purposeful rehabilitation programmes across jails. Continuing with a cyclical system in crisis mode which offers little real opportunity to turn around prisoners’ lives is a false economy.”