Friday 19 April 2013

Every Officer's Nightmare

I think it's true to say that most officers wake up in the middle of the night at some point in their career and fret that one of their charges might have killed or raped someone. It didn't used to be like this of course. When I started and something horrific happened, you could expect nothing but concern and sympathy from both colleagues and management. 

Not any more though. It may not be said openly, but just the uttering of the dreaded phrase Serious Further Offence Enquiry will bring with it the starting assumption that you should have known. You should have supervised better. It's basically your fault.

This is utter nonsense of course because none of us has a crystal ball, we do not supervise clients 24/7 and each person has free will and must ultimately be held responsible for their actions. It's not and never can be our fault that someone commits a crime, but of course there's nowadays the small matter of OASys. 

Rest-assured that this vast, unwieldy, pain-in-the-arse, computerised assessment tool will be locked, printed out and pored over by management for some evidence of omission or lack of timeliness in completion. The suspicion is that any enquiry won't really be about serious matters of judgement, it will mostly be about bloody bureaucracy. 

Every time I read of a case like that of Opemipo Jaji, an 18 year-old just convicted at the Old Bailey of raping an 11 year-old girl whilst on probation, my thoughts turn to the poor officer as well as the traumatised victim. The press don't see it like this of course because as a society we've come to believe that someone, somewhere must be to blame, in addition to the perpetrator. 

Now I've got no problem at all in the concept of a proper examination of everything that went on prior to this tragic event, basically so that we can all learn lessons. Why was it that this young man was not made subject to Sex Offender Registration in respect of an earlier sexual offence? Were adequate reports prepared by the Youth Offending Team when they had responsibility? There were other offences involving indecent images of children, but again no registration requirement. 

I notice that the police have been quite vocal in raising the issue of why this young man was not partaking in any Sex Offender Treatment Programmes, either as part of an earlier Detention and Training Order or the later probation-supervised Community Order? A good question, but one that needs to be addressed towards the court decisions. If SOTP is not specified as a condition of any sentence, it places any supervising officer in a difficult position. Possibly such a condition wasn't requested? Possibly there were no full Pre Sentence Reports prepared? Possibly the court deviated from any recommendations made? 

All these and many other issues will hopefully be the legitimate concerns of the Enquiries just announced. I'm pleased that the judge has very sensibly decided to request full Pre Sentence and Psychiatric Reports before passing what could well be a Discretionary Life Sentence. 

Finally, a cautionary word for all intending bidders for our work. I don't know what risk level this young man was at the time he committed this horrific offence, but risk assessment is not a science, despite the deliberately-fostered implication that OASys makes it so. This guy seems to have been reporting as required, was actively engaged in training and may not have been displaying any current worrying behaviours. 

This nightmare scenario could be coming your way soon guys and you will need all the public relations news management skills you can muster in order to avoid the public opprobrium that will inevitably arise. 

Sign the No10 petition here.                    

13 comments:

  1. Jim, don't forget he wouldn't be eligible for SOTP due to his age. indeed I suspect transition between YOT and probation played a part in this.

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    1. Thanks for that, but I wasn't sure on the SOTP position. I agree entirely that the transition from YOT to probation was a factor.

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  2. Probation excels in the blame. All is predicated on perfect world assumptions: how easy to visit case records and OASys assessments and indulge in some second guessing.

    The false assumption that probation and prisons are teeming with resources, no gaps in services, no lengthy waiting lists. Too much waste on management costs.

    The prison inspectorate reported on Moorland Prison this week: a third of the population are sex offenders, but there is no sex offender programme – nothing is being done to lower risk. We are slipping back into the dark ages. Thus, one may suppose, those leaving Moorland are likely to be at higher risk of reoffending during their probation supervision.

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    1. That's a good point about SOTP not being sufficiently available in prison. It could of course be a condition of any licence, but I note a third of the sex offenders at HMP Moorland are in denial and this is not uncommon. As yet, there are no programmes felt suitable for deniers.

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  3. Just a quick point relating to his earlier sentence as a Youth. If, as I suspect, he had been dealt with at a Youth Court, he would not have been sentenced by youth court magistrates but by a District Judge. Unfortunately justices are not allowed to deal with youths who have committed sex offences such work being reserved for specially trained DJs.

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    1. Interesting - of course given the serious nature of the allegation, it could have gone to Crown?

      I wasn't aware youth sex offences are dealt with by a DJ, but then I'm not that surprised and I've never been a CDO in the Youth Court. Thanks for clarifying.

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  4. Pedants Corner - if he's 18 I think an indeterminate sentence will be Custody for Life rather than discretionary Life Imprisonment. I really must get out more.

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    1. No not at all - I rely on readers to correct my sloppiness! As soon as I wrote that I realised it could be wrong but shamefully didn't take the trouble to check. Had he been aged 17 it would have been Detention at Her Majesty's Pleasure, but as you say, between 18 and 21 it's Custody for Life.

      Cheers,
      Jim

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    2. Pedants Corner again I'm afraid. For age 10 -17 years it's Detention during Her Majesty's Pleasure (CYPA 1933 s53(1)) mandatory for murder. Detention for Life (CYPA 1933 s53 (2))maximum for everything else really bad. I'm available for criminal justice themed pub quizes at a reasonable rate.

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  5. TheUrbaneGorilla21 April 2013 at 22:35

    A few years ago, following the Hanson & White SFO, I and most of the SPOs in England & Wales were summoned to Central Methodist Hall to be addressed by Charles Clarke, the then Home Secretary and other worthies. The first act of this panel was to ask all members of the press to leave. Once the journos had gone the S of S praised Probation's work, fully accepting that risk assessment was an inexact science and that, what ever we did and how ever well we did it, bad things would occasionally happen and would continue to happen. All very nice to hear but I always thought it would have been nicer if the press had been able to stay and hear it too. Which I suppose is the heart of Probation's problem - not having enough iron in its soul to put its voice across.

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    1. TheUrbaneGorilla,

      Very interesting - I didn't know that and as you say, what a shame the message didn't get out to the press. Rowing back now is pretty difficult and utterly futile with the present Secretary of State.

      Thanks for commenting,

      Jim

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  6. I don't think probation has done enough over the years to explain the limitations of risk management and in fact there was, with the advent of OASys, a hyperbolic tendency for the service to project itself as expert in risk management. Isn't it the case that the majority of serious further offences – 80% - are committed by those under supervision who are either desiginated – mostly - low or medium risk of harm?

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    1. You're quite right! OASys is one of the biggest mistakes ever made - it was basically designed for the Prison Service, but foisted upon us by NOMS when we were taken over. It's allowed the myth to develop that risk assessment is scientific - it's not of course and as you say most SFO's are committed by low or medium risk clients. So, G4S and Serco, take note!

      Thanks for commenting.

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