Something's Got To Change

Absolutely nobody wanted CRISSA from the outset, except the 2 people that created it. They pushed and push and pushed, until it was made mandatory. That’s how probation works nowadays, no evidence base, no collaboration, Just Effing Do It because the HMIP might give us a gold star.

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Agree CRISSA is for automatons! Probation over assesses and over records but massively under delivers meaningful work with offenders. I genuinely believe that Probation has no identity now and bends to the will of others like a tree in the wind. The offenders know this and don't trust Probation any more than they trust any other professionals. Sigh. It was not always like this. Sigh

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A quick google bought up this shite. I feel sorry for the offenders having to go through this scripted conveyor belt every week and for the POs that buy in to this drivel then type it all up.

“During the session, we will also talk about the offence and explore deeper into why it happened and how we can help them to not be in a situation again. The session framework that I, and most other officers use is the CRISSA model. In English this means, Check in, Review, Implement/ intervention, Summarise, Set tasks, appointments.

This basically means, I check in with them, see if any circumstances have changed since the last session, and go through their general engagement with the order. I review the previous session and any learning, and tasks set from the last time. We sit down and implement and come up with interventions that focus on a criminogenic need, linked to the sentence plan, for example thinking skills and attitudes. We then summarise the session we have had, set tasks if necessary that will be reviewed in the next session and finally set an appointment for the next session, whether is either weekly, fortnightly or monthly.”

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Absolutely agree. HMIP have indicated for years now that our work with offenders in supervision sessions is piss poor, but they stop short at exploring why. The organisation has focussed so much on case recording and completing OASYS under impossibly exacting QA standards, that it has forgotten who we are working for. Think back to the last time you had training on skills associated with meaningful engagement and delivery of supervision sessions, versus training in risk and OASYS completion.

The organisation has lost its way and reinforces matters by bringing in recording initiatives like CRISSA, officer diary, risk registers, constant pressure to update OASYS, constant pressure to complete this against standards which talk about meticulous completion of evidence boxes, assessor comments....and then the senior leaders scratch their heads and say "we just can't understand why employees say we don't listen, we offer a TEAMS meeting once a month, we don't get it??"

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"come up with interventions that focus on a criminogenic need, linked to the sentence plan, for example thinking skills and attitudes." Linked to a sentence plan from an OASys system built on the premise that the client needs to be "fixed", it demeans both the professional and the client. Both of us insulted in a stroke.

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I do love how corporate bullshit tells us how we need to more reflect the community we serve. Well if that really were the case, the service would employ 95% men!! Which is clearly ridiculous and not required!! What is required is to start thinking about why we are unsuccessful at working with about 50% of our users, and I'm suggested tailoring services around what men actually need is one of many ways to achieve this...or we simply be more honest as a service that we are here to punish and enforce and that is our end goal.

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Probation is unsuccessful because it doesn’t reflect the community we serve. This doesn’t just mean more male POs, but more difference across all probation jobs;

More men
More Black, Asian and ethnic people, especially men..
More working class people who didn’t go to university.
More people with criminal records.
More people that have overcome addictions.
More people that have migrated from other countries.
More people that have lived life.