I suspect I'm probably no different to most bloggers in that from time to time I'm curious to see how easy it is to locate my own blog from a 'google' search. I have no idea how it works, but imagine my surprise when recently, despite frantic efforts, I couldn't locate it at all. However, I did come across a lot of stuff that had passed me by on other peoples blogs, including this gem from the Bolton News of Jaunuary 18th and identified by the Justice of the Peace blog.
I had to read it twice to check that it wasn't a sort of April Fool spoof, but no it seems that
"A special helpdesk has been set up at Bolton Magistrates Court to help criminals get back on the straight and narrow." The scheme is aimed at low-level offenders who sometimes “slip through the net” and then become involved in more serious crime. Legal adviser David Lawrence, who is spearheading the initiative, said: “When defendants are dealt with for sentence, other issues might come to light that the magistrates are not able to deal with. They might have problems with alcohol, drugs, housing or debt. The idea behind it is if we can try to get people some help, they might not become involved in criminal activity.”
This is precisely how the Probation Service began over 100 years ago with the motivated middle classes in courts as Police Court Missionaries. The wheel has indeed turned a full 360 degrees and we are back where we started with volunteers doing the work of probation officers. What is remarkable about this story is that there is no mention of probation at all. It's as if we didn't exist and seems to be an initiative by Her Majesty's Court Service. I don't think there could be a better illustration of the journey this profession has been on from motivated amateur, through qualified prefessionalism, enlightened innovation, standardisation, managerialism, nationalisation, complete bureaucratisation and ultimately to dysfunctionality and irrelevance it would seem.
Up until three years ago when I was doing my stint as a Court Duty Officer, giving the sort of help and advice discussed in this article was just part and parcel of what I thought the job was about. The ushers knew where to find me and steered likely persons in my direction if I hadn't already noticed them. I know that resources are limited and PO's have been replaced with PSO's in court, but traditionally there was always a place for volunteers in the Probation Service. Unfortunately they were unceremoniously booted out by my management a few years back for reasons that have always remained unclear to me. Here we have a clear example that there's still a useful job to be done, but seemingly in spite of the Probation Service, not as part of it. What a sad state of affairs indeed.
Jim
ReplyDeleteit's a bit like PCSOs doing youth work with kids on't estates. Reinventing the wheel?
Just found your blog. Enjoying and will follow.
I have always had a soft spot for Victorian (and earlier) philanthropist who spent money on trying to go good for the benefit of those needing sympathy. Guardian readers now sneer at noted names such as Rowntree and Cadbury as being patronising and demanding, but I see these as being at the forefront of old fashioned philanthropy and I would like to see this sort of thing in the present day. I suppose in the current climate, this sort of action would be seen as ‘elitist’ or some other witless claptrap, rather than an initiative to help. Bring back some common sense and try to help those falling by the wayside in a straightforward fashion, throwing out cheap political dogma. If we can afford million pound bombs to help Libyan residents, surely we can afford something somewhere to help our own.
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