No Great Surprise

Although I'm still enjoying my break with the blog on 'autopilot' for most of the time, I feel I ought to say something about Ken Clarke's plan to privatise Community Service. This seems to have been rumoured and expected for so long that it really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. I can remember it being talked about more than 10 years ago as an obviously discrete aspect of the job that could be farmed out. It now seems inevitable that for all sorts of reasons it will finally come to pass, not least in order to put the 'frighteners' on the unions involved. It's always sad in my view when politics gets involved in any aspect of criminal justice policy as it almost invariably ends up being a dogs breakfast with loads of unintended consequences. 

From what I gather the idea is not just to get a cheaper service, but also one that satisfies what I would call the 'Casey test' - can the whole thing be made more punitive in order to keep her happy and by extension of course the wider public. I think I've heard ideas being mooted such as offenders working five days a week, presumably if unemployed, and having benefit reduced or stopped for any non-compliance. Like many such ideas, it might sound good in theory but with it will come a whole host of other potential problems. 

I guess it will not be a great surprise that I'm against the wholesale privatisation of this area of our work, not least because I gather Probation Trusts will be barred from bidding - and that can only be for political not operational reasons - and because it moves CS even further away from the rehabilitation ethos, as originally intended, to one of punishment only. This is a grave mistake in my opinion and will set the cause of rehabilitating offenders back years - and thus will be in direct conflict with the new governments explicit aim of reducing the prison population. I will expand on this further when I've had the chance to read exactly what is being proposed.