Nail Hit On Head

Regular readers will be well aware that this blog has had its highs and lows over the years. We've gone down many wonderful and varied avenues, pretty much dictated by you the reader and contributor. Despite my best endeavours as editor, I'm never quite sure what the direction of travel will be each day, but of course that's the very nature of probation isn't it? There will be ups and downs; joy and disappointment; success and failure, because every person is unique both in character and circumstance. 

So it is that during what I hope might be a discussion on how probation might be saved under a new government, regular reader 'Getafix throws in what might appear to be an innocuous and idle question:- 

How exactly does anyone "manage" someone else's offending behaviour?

"A misnomer to perpetuate a charade. I suspect it’s used to offer an assurance to the public that Probation has the necessary wherewithal to combat offending. When, as we know that is just an illusion. I suspect it sounds better than stumbling in the dark and generally hoping for the best. All staff really manage is trying to get home at a reasonable time and not whittling about the next SFO. The rest is just pseudo science and management flimflam."

*****
"According to Chatgpt posted on X managing offending behaviour involves imprisonment of more people and increasing the salaries of senior leaders when they fail. Mischief managed."

*****
"One doesn't...well this one doesn't. Manage your managers (good luck with that one), your own expectations, and endeavour to get some love and practical help in through the cracks."

*****
"This is the delusional thread currently running through probation work. It’s dangerous and conceited that probation officers are made to believe they risk assess and risk manage to “protect the public”. Signing up to this nonsense means we are laying ourselves wide open to be blamed for every person on probation that reoffends. Trying to “manage” every person means every failure is a failure of that “management”. Probation work is about helping people to change for the better. People change when they feel ready, not because a probation officer demanded it, not because of an accredited programme, not because of what’s written in case records. When they do change it’s because of what they did, not what we did. People change because they receive support, consistency and access to opportunities, everything an understaffed and crumbling probation enforcement agency cannot provide."

I've posted both of the extensive responses above on Twitter or X in new money and they've gained a huge amount of attention from possibly what is a much wider audience than is usual here, mostly I suspect because it strikes a chord with many people, some no doubt clients both current and historical; but also probation staff both new and old who 'get' what probation should be about, but know it's hopelessly lost its way and especially since the takeover by HM Prison Service and the dead hand of the civil service. 

I have to say I'm very heartened by the response to the question posed by 'Getafix because what it says to me is that, despite the best endeavours of HMPPS thought police, recusants are still out there and haven't all retired or been driven out by other means. In fact am I to dare to hope the penny is dropping amongst some newer recruits that the job could be done much better and more usefully by listening and learning about it how used to be, and still is in many parts of the world. The sad thing is, probation as practised in England and Wales used to be regarded as an exemplar - was the Gold Standard remember?! - but is now effectively an outlier to the bewilderment of other criminal justice jurisdictions worldwide.  

--oo00oo-- 

As an interesting aside to the above, I was struck by the following posted on Twitter yesterday by someone who had clearly been through the criminal justice system:-

"I know it goes against the grain, but if prisoners were treated better in prison and by society upon release, would the level of repeat offending be as high?"

As the current government gleefully runs up the flagpole the callous notion of removing all benefits from claimants who remain unemployed for more than 18 months for any reason,  doesn't that mournful enquiry say so much about the society we've become......