As some know and the astute will have gathered, I've been somewhat distracted by personal things of late and hence the blog has received very little attention. Having said that, there doesn't seem to be much going on of great note in the probation world at the moment. That could change at any moment of course and who knows, someone might suddenly decide to send me a guest blog on something. In the meantime, thanks go to the reader for pointing me in the direction of this book published last November and which looks quite promising.
Probation: Butter Side Up
Reviews
Positive but not Polyanna : A gripping tale of growth 29th January 2022
This is the tale of Wally’s first two years as a probation officer in the London Borough of Hackney. A brilliantly written page turner. We follow Wally’s clients’ riveting, mostly successful, journeys. Many have difficult pasts, often with serous addictions (~80% UK crime is drug or alcohol related). No hopers, one might think. Intervention will be predictably ‘butter side down’. But no! Most of those fortunate enough to have Wally as a probation officer buck the trend and become honourable citizens, ‘butter side UP’. But it was not just Wally. He joined a supportive team with an expert leader who let him innovate with weekly groups: outdoor confidence building activities; indoor chatting, where people learnt from other’s failures and subsequent successes. Wally’s own story is also an inspiring one of change: in his early 40s from successful businessman to probation officer. The network he built up with social workers, prisons housing and employment agencies is a tribute to what can be achieved by co-operation. Now he reflects: ‘the nature of probation has become an unrecognizable profit-making industry … an exercise in box-ticking …eradicating any chance of changing people’s lives for the better’. His hope is ‘that the role of probation officer will return to profession that encompasses flexibility, creativity and humanity’. This is an obvious ‘must read’ for those in the probation and criminal justice system, and for anyone responsible for outsourcing in all areas where objective evidence shows massive failure. Indeed, a must read for any who enjoy a good yarn, especially if they share Wally’s commitment to flexibility, creativity, and humanity.
This is the tale of Wally’s first two years as a probation officer in the London Borough of Hackney. A brilliantly written page turner. We follow Wally’s clients’ riveting, mostly successful, journeys. Many have difficult pasts, often with serous addictions (~80% UK crime is drug or alcohol related). No hopers, one might think. Intervention will be predictably ‘butter side down’. But no! Most of those fortunate enough to have Wally as a probation officer buck the trend and become honourable citizens, ‘butter side UP’. But it was not just Wally. He joined a supportive team with an expert leader who let him innovate with weekly groups: outdoor confidence building activities; indoor chatting, where people learnt from other’s failures and subsequent successes. Wally’s own story is also an inspiring one of change: in his early 40s from successful businessman to probation officer. The network he built up with social workers, prisons housing and employment agencies is a tribute to what can be achieved by co-operation. Now he reflects: ‘the nature of probation has become an unrecognizable profit-making industry … an exercise in box-ticking …eradicating any chance of changing people’s lives for the better’. His hope is ‘that the role of probation officer will return to profession that encompasses flexibility, creativity and humanity’. This is an obvious ‘must read’ for those in the probation and criminal justice system, and for anyone responsible for outsourcing in all areas where objective evidence shows massive failure. Indeed, a must read for any who enjoy a good yarn, especially if they share Wally’s commitment to flexibility, creativity, and humanity.
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A fascinating insight into the work of a probation officer 30th January 2022
This a very well written, interesting and readable account of the daily life of a probation officer – the trials and tribulations and successes as well . The “clients” are depicted realistically and sympathetically and it is good to learn of the dedication of a compassionate and hard working probation officer. As well as accounts of hardened criminals the author opens us up to an often heart-breaking world of people who have never had chance in life due to poor or non existent family life, and the consequential alcohol and drug and mental health issues which affect most of the defendants who end up in the criminal justice system. The tone of the book, despite the sad plight of many of the people in the probation system is light and often amusing. Overall a very heart-warming account of the probation service’s attempts to restore self esteem and confidence in otherwise broken lives.
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About the author
After half a lifetime spent as a designer, manufacturer, exporter and retailer, Wally Morgan completely changed direction. Concurrent with running his own retail gift and jewellery business, Wally became a volunteer with the probation service in the mid-1980s. He was struck by the number of probationers and parolees who had difficulty with literacy. After a short period of training, he became a part-time English teacher in an inner London prison, by which time he was hooked. So many of those he met felt they wouldn’t need to offend if they could improve their lives, but they couldn’t do it alone. Who was available to help them?
Wally decided to make a mid-life career change and secured a place on a full-time Home Office training course for probation officers. Once qualified, he discovered that his two years of training didn’t prepare him to do the job – it merely qualified him to start learning!
Probation officers, he discovered, occupy a uniquely privileged place in the lives of those with whom they interact. Neither police nor prosecution, nether defence nor apologists, the probation officer’s role is to enable convicted offenders to recognise the error of their own ways, make changes to their own lives and avoid prosecution by improving their conduct. This is particularly true in inner cities, where the challenges of living in close proximity to others compel people, young and mature, to make hard choices. Too often, people have too few personal or material resources to make the right decisions: the easy options often turn out to be harmful or damaging resulting in their arrest, conviction, sentencing – and humiliation.
Wally Morgan’s first book recounts his initial two years as a probation officer in an impoverished Inner London Borough. The stories related are all true but have been disguised: the characters may now be fully rehabilitated, some with children or grandchildren of their own, and will not want to be identified. He is occasionally recognised in the street or even contacted by former clients for advice or reminiscence – or even to thank him and wish him well.
When he retired from Probation, Wally was invited to teach probation students at University of Hertfordshire. His initial one-year contract was renewed eight times. After he fully retired in 2011, he began his latest career as a writer by joining a Writing Group at the University of the Third Age (U3A) in London, where he was inspired to share his life stories. This book is one of the products of his life reflections.
His second book is well on the way to completion; it demonstrates how much more taxing a probation officer’s life can become than those episodes in the first volume.
Wally Morgan is still retired and lives in London with his wife.
Wally decided to make a mid-life career change and secured a place on a full-time Home Office training course for probation officers. Once qualified, he discovered that his two years of training didn’t prepare him to do the job – it merely qualified him to start learning!
Probation officers, he discovered, occupy a uniquely privileged place in the lives of those with whom they interact. Neither police nor prosecution, nether defence nor apologists, the probation officer’s role is to enable convicted offenders to recognise the error of their own ways, make changes to their own lives and avoid prosecution by improving their conduct. This is particularly true in inner cities, where the challenges of living in close proximity to others compel people, young and mature, to make hard choices. Too often, people have too few personal or material resources to make the right decisions: the easy options often turn out to be harmful or damaging resulting in their arrest, conviction, sentencing – and humiliation.
Wally Morgan’s first book recounts his initial two years as a probation officer in an impoverished Inner London Borough. The stories related are all true but have been disguised: the characters may now be fully rehabilitated, some with children or grandchildren of their own, and will not want to be identified. He is occasionally recognised in the street or even contacted by former clients for advice or reminiscence – or even to thank him and wish him well.
When he retired from Probation, Wally was invited to teach probation students at University of Hertfordshire. His initial one-year contract was renewed eight times. After he fully retired in 2011, he began his latest career as a writer by joining a Writing Group at the University of the Third Age (U3A) in London, where he was inspired to share his life stories. This book is one of the products of his life reflections.
His second book is well on the way to completion; it demonstrates how much more taxing a probation officer’s life can become than those episodes in the first volume.
Wally Morgan is still retired and lives in London with his wife.
Absolutely heartbreaking to read the two recent inspections of probaton in Swansea and Gwent. Not so long ago, I worked for a Probaton that was independently rated as "Excellent".
ReplyDeleteWhile Probation remains under the control of the Government department that wreaked all this damage, it wont recover. Serious harm, as we know, is that "from which recovery is difficult or impossible". That harm has been inflicted, and in the current regime, there can be no recovery. I dont think any other area would have done any better in an inspection, and I fear that the response will be yet more top down micromanagement, gaming the targets, squishing the joy and humanity out of our work and our clients.
Pearly Gates