Pick of the Week 46

I was a potential new recruit last summer. Potential only as I failed the absurd online situational judgement test. I believed foolishly that the test would relate to issues pertinent to criminal justice. Instead the scenarios in the test related to business, dealing with co-workers, delegating work when a co-worker calls in sick etc. Quite disgraceful, and certainly indicative of the managerialism that seems to have overtaken the probation service. Glorified admin the job seems to have become - not working with offenders, but rather working with offenders' records. I am slightly bitter. I've spent over a year preparing for the application. Their loss..

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The financial crash in 2008 was surely about big finance over extending themselves, taking positions and risks. For which, we have spent a decade and by the time it is done a generation or more paying for. Now we have a situation with Carillion where similar short - sightedness has meant we are paying again. Interserve are now faced with banks offloading their liabilities, hedge funds taking a position against the company and one hedge fund seeing an opportunity and buying up debt at 50p in the pound and mounting a rescue plan presumably with returns identified in time. The government will ultimately underwrite public service provision of Probation and other services if needs, one way or another. My question, is this really the foundation on which important public services and public finances can be placed under, at the mercy of those operating in the shadows?

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Manchester CRC are doing their bit we have no pens and photocopy on double sides. Don't they have to show their accounts by 31/3.

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No phone lines in our area and you can’t order a new toner cartridge for the printer until it commands you to hoping you get a new one In time.

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Shameful! So now it's possible to have untrained and unvetted private security guards monitoring high risk offenders. Tell me, what are the chances that you will have a profession to moan about in the not too distant? After all PO's are extremely expensive when compared with staff from OCS or Inter-fail.

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So whilst they're constantly cutting corners at the front line, making professionals unemployed & gambling with peoples' lives - Spurr's remuneration as head of NOMS/HMPPS has risen from approx £145,000 in 2010/11 to approx £190,000 in 2016/17 - an increase of more than 30%.

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Well that speech was a complete waste of time and money for everyone from Gauke through to the latest person to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. This is the trouble with appointing people with zero first hand experience of the judicial and prison system. Gauke apparently practised as a solicitor in the financial services sector before becoming an MP but that doesn't qualify him to understand the problems with the system any more than Grayling or Truss did because I doubt he even went near a court during his time as a solicitor let alone got his hands dirty in the criminal sector.

I struggle to understand why, when there are a variety of other countries with systems that work and which have been proven to reduce reoffending, our dimwit SSJ's still harp on about the tabloid stuff i.e. fiddling round the edges of the problems rather than taking on board excellent practice proven to work from elsewhere.

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"Some of them want to be in prison for a short time so as to make money" - what does that phrase tell you? People are CHOOSING to be in prison so they can make money. Thought you'd be applauding it? It shows strength in depth of capitalism, free-market thinking, the influence of market forces & monetisation of need. All Tory values. Or is the fucked up nature of such twisted thinking starting to sink home? Or, is it that you're just pissed off you can't have a slice of such a lucrative market?

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The government have the ability to control the types of drugs being used in the prison system, and because they can't stem the flow of drugs into prisons, controlling the type should be their first priority. Moving prisoners on the basis of their association with 'gangs' will make not a jot of difference to the amount of drugs in the prison system. It will just mean that people will go to different regions to get breached if they are intent on doing so to supply drugs. Get yourself caught pinching a jar of coffee in Liverpool whilst on licence you'll go to Walton, do the same in Leeds you'll go to Armley. In fact moving prisoners in that way is really a return to the old dispersal system disbanded in the late 70s. Primarily it was introduced to keep political prisoners apart in response to the troubles in Northern Ireland, but it was also used to keep the serious armed gang members responsible for the big bank robberies apart. Seven prisons were used, and those within the system were rotated constantly around those seven prisons. But such a move today really puts a nail in the coffin of any notion of TTG and resettlement prisons or locating prisoners more local to their release plans. I think the government are just wasting time and money, and not dealing with the issue at all. Fact is, there isn't any prisons in the country that isn't awash with drugs.

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Correct. Not 3 years ago I was allocated 3 out of 7 who had been supplying drugs on a vast regional scale & handed down jail terms ranging from 7 yrs to 18 yrs. All 7 were allocated to geographically diverse but same category prisons (sensible in my view) but within 6 months - despite my protestations - all were in the same jail, & 5/7 were on (some would say 'running') the same wing. Getafix, Frances Crook & many others can all see through Gawke's hopeless bullshit, his political treading water, his massaging of the facts & his fatally flawed 'fix'.

My suggestions, in no particular order:
- More prison staff - asap
- Reduce prisoner numbers - asap
- Scrap TR - asap
- Fix Probation & increase non-custodial sentences - asap
- Suspend prison penalties for cannabis use - once prison drug teams are fully resourced
- Increase prison penalties for Class A, Spice, etc
- Sort out mobile & drone signal issues in prison, i.e. jam or scramble - the technology exists, buy it & use it.

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'Gang member' = drug dealer = astute businessman? And what constitutes a "tougher jail"? Liverpool & Nottingham sounded fairly tough - is this a means of legitimising sub-standard prison environments for housing 'gang members'?

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a) what a load of absolute bollocks and b) specifically designed to appeal to the tabloids rather than addressing the actual issues in the prison system.

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"The justice secretary made clear he believed the prison population of 86,000 was too high but said he would not try to reduce it by “artificial means”. Artificial means... what the fuck does that mean? Magic? Culling? This fits just as neatly into the sentence "legislation that might be unpopular with the Daily Mail". Spineless.

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The new SOS was a number cruncher for the DWP in Wales. If they can fiddle the unemployment figures should be a doddle fiddling the numbers of actual prisoners.

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"I look forward to the reaction of the high security estate when burglars and other petty criminals serving short sentences start landing at their gates because they have been judged too troublesome by the Governor of some Cat C." Absolutely right, and a new chapter of chaos is set in motion. I find it very disturbing that the only way ever considered with the prison crisis (and social problems on the whole), is the carrot and stick model. Eat your veg or be beaten. Carrots and sticks haven't worked so far, and just changing the proportions is unlikely to achieve very much. Being under threat of sanction or punishment in my view never really achieves much. People don't stop offending because they're rehabilitated or come to the view that their way of life is wrong, if they stop offending at all it's through fear of punishment. Fear of punishment doesn't change attitudes so it might prevent some from offending, but it will never address the underlying factors or the causes of offending.

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Utterly dejected reading this. Nothing new here, bar some vague aspirations. This is just marking time when bravery is needed to tackle a humanitarian crisis. There will be no solution until the revolving doors at the top of MoJ stops spinning. In my view, no hope for anything remotely like progress until this government is voted out. This is just a holding exercise in being seen to do something whilst in fact doing b*gg*r all.

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'Capitalism has its foot in the door when it comes to law and order where it should have no place.' Agree. I am minded to give the new minister a go. He is setting out some principles, some direction regards prisons which is important. I see what he is doing as repairing damage but better than not. We can hold him and his government to the task they have set themselves so I view that as brave on his part. I am concerned that Probation is not championed at his level and I wonder why given its potential to be full partner in all aspects of his vision. But then Probation is a problem that no one is presenting a coherent vision for at this juncture. This is an opportunity that needs to be heard, soon.

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It's A Wind Up! In the spirit of the recently deceased Trevor Baylis, inventor of the wind-up radio, a spokesperson for the KSS CRC Wind Up Centre said "Inventing things is a critically important part of making things up, something we here at KSS CRC are getting very good at." It is believed they will be taking a very different approach to probation practice. Leaked details from the initial research papers suggest that, directly inspired by the work of Trevor Baylis, they may be looking to combine a clockwork mechanism with a probation Officer. A worried team manager, who wished to remain anonymous, told us: "All they need is someone who can wind them up constantly."

Editor's Note: Other CRCs are available and also very good at making things up, selling their ideas to gullible politicians who are up to their armpits in the public purse trying to keep pace with this surge of ingenuity.

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What happens when suggestions of what works hits the wall of financial imperatives and share holder value?

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Lots of other countries are in crisis on these issues as well. Although some positive noise is coming from New Zealand; to compete in the world they are cutting services and deregulating. In Canada there have been lots of issues with Canadian PO’s and Prison Officers with their T&C’s being eroded and contracts constantly up for discussion. Capitalism has its foot in the door when it comes to law and order where it should have no place. This is not just a UK problem.

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Without probation none of these ideas will work well yet no mention of us in the speech indicating that he thinks that we are unworthy of a mention and that we are lower than something he scraped off his shoe.

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"That has been done because it is not work that is traditionally done by trained probation officers, but by contracted staff." No! Mr Rory Stewart. No! It was work 'traditionally' done by employed & trained hostel staff &/or PSOs studying to be POs, or those wanting to accumulate the necessary 600 hours' experience within a probation environment in order to be eligible for a place on a CQSW or DipSW course. Please revisit your study-of-history ethics & do not confuse government-imposed practice with 'tradition'.

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PROBATION IS DEAD. Probation as a capitalised Noun no longer exists. The Tory assassins have completed their covert task.

Gawke is only the latest in a string of temps who have never mentioned 'Probation' once, let alone 'probation'. Even the other newcomer Rory Stewart - a half-decent constituency MP & an educated man who understands the importance of language in history - refuses to accept 'Probation' as a part of his job title. He knows its part of the Tory narrative to totally erase the left-leaning legacy. He is bright, and he is ambitious; so he plays ball.

The NPS is so very close to being completely absorbed into HMPPS; which will be re-branded - perhaps 'Her Majesty's Prison & Rehabilitation Service' - as Spurr's final spiteful legacy before he sails through the revolving door into a luxurious life of a gilt-edged pension, a knighthood, honorary membership of the LTA & numerous lucrative ACOBA-approved directorships.

The work that a probation service provider does is already being reinvented, diluted & ersatz academics undertaking the KSS^CRC experimental research will unveil groundbreaking revelations in the coming months.

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He mentioned the word probation once. You are correct, however, not as a capitalised noun, instead as an add-on to prisons. This shows that the low status of probation under HMPPS is the same as it was under NOMS. Perhaps worse, as David Gauke seems to think probation is an employment/careers service. Here’s what he said;

“The prison and probation service have an important role to help offenders build the skills and experience they need whilst they’re in prison so they can have the right attitude for work and get a job when they’re released.”

Clearly he’s just another tool in a long line of justice secretary’s that have no idea what Criminal Justice System is. Maybe Sonia Crozier can apologise for that too?!

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I don't think probation is dead. I think it's confused, dysfunctional, buried under layers of political IDIOTology, and means too many different things to too many different people. It's an identity crisis. I also think that some of that identity crisis is propagated from within the service itself. I personally feel the mantra of 'public protection' advances the probation cause [not] very far at all. I think probation can mitigate some of the risks people may pose to public safety, but really, is its primary function a public protection agency? If it is, should it be?

If it is and should be, then probation have to accept responsibility for everything and every time someone under their supervision offends against public safety. I certainly think probation can mitigate with regard to public safety, but I don't think that should be it's sole purpose. It's much more then that. Maybe a good blog post for the future could be, "What is the purpose of probation, discuss." I'd be very surprised if it didn't show up at least a dozen differing opinions, and legitimately held beliefs.

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I think the argument over the term Probation is arguably a red herring. The issue, for me, is what are the needs and who will meet them? If 'Probation' was absorbed into Social Care in the way that Youth Offending is, I would have no problem with that. The service could have the social work base that we have generally argued is necessary to secure change in those we work with. Call it the 'Adult Offending Service' is you want, I don't really mind. What I care about is whether what we are doing in order to secure change in the individuals we are working with is in any way effective. I feat that much of what we are currently doing is not. At best it is the efficient production of an increasingly useless product. Rather like a lot of the superficial work that takes place in prisons.

The elimination of the WORD Probation is something that should have been reasonably easy to secure. The elimination of the IDEA of Probation is something that Government will live to regret. As for 'Left leaning'; it has never ceased to amaze me how the 'Right' can completely ignore evidence of success if it offends their two dimensional sensibilities. Michael Howard said 'Prison works'. Chris Patton said 'if Probation didn't exist, we would need to invent it'. I know which one I believe.

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Prison sentences are not here to respond to society’s emotions. I like that. And how about: prison sentences are not here to compensate for society’s lack of thinking skills. Or prison sentences are not here to serve our political ends. The criminal justice system should be free from all these things and regarded as a whole, rather than taking and reforming individual parts of it in isolation from the rest of the system. This is not rocket science. What is standing in the way? We don’t love our electorate enough?

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"And seeing beyond the CRC’s extraordinary preparations for our inspection, we are in no doubt that the quality of work has improved from a very low base, and is still improving". But three years in its still crap, despite "extraordinary preparations".

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As far as I can tell, probation service provision following 7+ years of Tory policies (in essence, asset stripping to fund a terminally flawed political ideology) now has a baseline where 'Crap' is the acceptable median, 'Dangerously Crap' is indicative of a few hiccups & 'Less Crap Than Before' is grounds for financial reward & corporate bonuses all-round. Dame Glenys, Inspector of Bullshit, doesn't seem to be too concerned at this shift in politically-motivated adjustment bias:

"Public protection and rehabilitative work are still not good enough, but rehabilitative work is at least comparable in quality to the average in other CRCs we have inspected. That is not acceptable – as that average is itself unacceptable, in our view – but it is a notable improvement and achievement for this CRC and its staff. There is much more for this CRC to do, but it has made significant progress over the last year." You've All Done Very Well!!

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Load of nonsense - this is a CRC where staff are sitting on massive caseloads - POs with 70 plus cases but deemed acceptable because they strip out the "inactive " cases from that figure - custody. Tell that to the CRC PO who has 2 oral hearings in four weeks, at the prison because parole board says so, not to mention the prep time. And that is the tip of the iceberg on the inactives. No sign at all of these caseloads being reduced. 

As for local partnership working, which we know to be invaluable even if MTCNovo are only reluctantly coming to that conclusion, they are busy planning to move us out of our local areas to a hub in North West to cover a number of Boroughs in a largely industrial area. They went to their extraordinary lengths in preparation for the inspection but it's always been clear that they are not altering their stance one bit. And now SPOs have been told their next gathering is in HMP Brixton. What Probation Service?

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I have recently spoken to a colleague in the NPS and am told that the project re Unpaid Work involves 3000 unworked orders pre 1st September 2016!!! Many that have already been extended before! Add to that the unworked orders post Sept 2016 and I suspect you have an unsolvable dilemma. Quite unbelievable.

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SL10 delivery of Unpaid work fails at the 12 month point whether it's extended or not. So why the NPS involvement? Also the Order can only be extended once 3 or 6 months so why the comment extended more than once? Just a thought.

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Detached duty opportunities I'm hearing about for NPS staff make no sense to me... travel to another city, take on the work (not knowing clients or the local services) for no extra money, whilst own work stacks up back at the office. Genuinely wondering, have I missed something?