Influence
Having conducted the interviews and made an assessment, it's time to try and influence the criminal justice process and this is most often by means of a Pre Sentence Report either to the Magistrates or Crown Court. Having spent many years preparing such reports, I can say that some of my best work has been as a result of being able to influence a court to take a certain course of action that both satisfies the requirement for punishment and that encourages rehabilitation. It's at this point that issues such as Learning Disability, past emotional damage or mental health can be explored and highlighted. This is to name but a few of the vast ranges of factors that serve to contribute to someone's offending and should in my view be considered by a court before passing sentence.
Traditionally it's been a priviledged position occupied by probation in being able to address sentencers directly. However, regular readers will be aware that I've been highly critical of recent changes in this vital area of our work and especially the extent to which OASys has had a detrimental effect both on the quality and effectiveness of PSR's. I believe this vital process of providing courts with good quality assessments and recommendations pre-sentence has been damaged significantly by OASys.
It still remains a mystery to me that Crown Court Judges in particular have had very little to say about the changes in style and content and one wonders if they did indeed ever pay much heed to PSR's at all? The upshot of the dreadful 'pull-through' OASys-generated reports foisted upon us by our prison-dominated NOMS management has been a massive increase in the time required to complete full PSR's, which in turn has had the knock-on effect of requiring short format Fast Delivery Reports that do not require OASys preparation. It's been a double whammy for the Probation Service with OASys requiring more time to complete a report and delivering reduced quality in one fell swoop.
Now even as I write this I'm aware that hackles will be raised in certain quarters and if anyone can be bothered it might re-ignite old arguments. But I think I've almost got past caring anymore. It's as I see it and I think the proof is in the fact that PSR's are fast becoming irrelevant to the Criminal Justice process. We did that - our management made an absolute cornerstone of the system redundant through a complete inability to fully understand what the true effects of OASys would be. We are now rapidly moving towards the notion of Post Sentence Reports, thus completely ditching one of the key aspects of our work, namely providing courts with information and informed assessments that are independent of the prosecution and defence, in order to assist in the process of arriving at sentences that are fair and just.
I suppose somewhat understandably I've dwelt upon the PSR in terms of influencing, but there are other situations such as Parole Board reports, Recall Reports, Sentence Planning reports etc, etc. In each case the author is challenged to express in written form what the situation is, move towards an assessment with reasoned argument and come up with a conclusion and recommendation. It's without doubt a skliful process and if undertaken professionally should seek to influence decision-makers whilst taking due regard to public protection and rehabilitation. It's not an easy path to tread and does not always win friends. It also means we remain much misunderstood as a profession.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this post.. as it reminds me of the enduring strengths of your person-centred approach. & the impact of the malign influence of the lean m/ment beloved of those holding sway in today's PS. you may be interested to note that the current issue of the European Journal of Probation( mandatory reading for the Commissars at Noms HQ!!).. is devoted to the very themes you have so eloquently blogged about ..viz Occupational Culture(s) in Probation across Europe..see below..
Regards
Mike
http://www.ejprob.ro/index.pl/current_issue
As a JP, I've always had a great deal of respect for the Probation service, and in particular for the valuable insights that a well written PSR provides. So don't despair too much, we still value you and your work; it's just a shame that the government and managers don't.
ReplyDelete[First time comment, although I've been reading since you first started blogging]
ReplyDeleteI always skip the OASys section in our PSRs, because it adds nothing to a well-written report (which they usually are). As DJ (above) says, the insights in a thorough report are extremely valuable.
It's a pity that the same can't be said for the FDRs which we are increasingly being given; they contain so little information that they can't really influence anyone!
Thanks for those very re-assuring comments. It's just a shame that magistrates never get to see how PSR's are written nowadays through OASys. You see it's not a section - but I can see why you might think it is - the entire report is generated by OASys software when the report
ReplyDelete'author' presses the 'create report' button.
The problem is partly the restrictive nature of the OASys format, together with the inevitable cranky results of a machine trying to create prose from the answers to numerous questions. If you were to see the process you honestly wouldn't believe it. It's akin to writing a letter by filling in a questionnaire - you can imagine that the result is unlikely to 'flow' or even make sense unless heavily edited or re-written. Well that's exactly how our reports are 'written' nowadays.
If you get the chance, ask a PO or manager to explain it to you, or better still, demonstrate it. I guarantee you will be gobsmacked that intelligent people thought this was a good idea and an improvement on the previous method of - well - actually writing a report!
As you say, FDR's are even worse, but had to be invented because OASys-generated reports now take so long to prepare.