tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post3808465579948966172..comments2024-03-29T06:40:58.606+00:00Comments on On Probation Blog: Perspectives on Prison ReformJim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-90307044894893835112016-05-23T23:52:17.437+01:002016-05-23T23:52:17.437+01:00Or just stop sending so many people to prison as t...Or just stop sending so many people to prison as there are alternatives!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-22890513954239846682016-05-23T03:19:00.913+01:002016-05-23T03:19:00.913+01:00I don't suppose that many people listened to &...I don't suppose that many people listened to "Bye Bye Bad Girls" on BBC radio Wales 12:30 Sundays. The first episode was about the harm caused about the harm caused to Welsh Women by imprisoning them in England. This government ignored the Corston Report, it had the opportunity to build a female prison on the Firestone site in Wrexham, choosing to build a super max male prison for low cost warehousing of males, ignoring the economics that returning people to society from prison to re-offend is vastly more expensive than helping them rehabilitate, more easily accomplished in the smaller prisons.<br /><br />The first episode the presenter found that a visit from her home in Swansea to Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire would cost about a £100, a lot for a one hour visit.<br /><br />All of the interviewees expressed that not having visits was a mental depressant and social contact was lost. <br /><br />A lady from North Wales served her sentence in Low Newton (Durham) a good 250 miles from her family. She told of a visit by her disabled mother, change trains 3 times. On a return trip a station lift was inoperative so she could not change platforms, she was diverted to another station resulting in the visit taking 19 hours. Understandably after that she got someone to drive her, stay B and B return the next day, that has got to be a £200 visit.<br /><br />My Reforms.<br /><br />Firstly "Zero Tolerance" has failed admit it. I do not advocate the use of Marijuana its a waste of time, but it's probably less harmful than alcohol certainly not as addictive. Zero Tolerance has driven Marijuana out of prisons too easily detected, to be replaced by much more harmful substances. If you ask a Dutch Policeman, he will tell you that controlling a crowd of people who have been smoking Marijuana is easy compared to a crowd of drunks, so a prisoner who is stoned is not much of a problem for the prison. If prisons stopped looking for Marijuana, it could replace more harmful drugs, a blind eye approach.<br /><br />Mobile phones. Prison phone calls are extremely expensive £1 a minute to Australia compared to 1p a minute on skype or similar. Cheap and Easy phone calls should reduce demand for mobile phones.<br /><br />Weekend leave. Other countries release prisoners who can be trusted to return and can afford it, leave for the weekend. This leads to a better ratio of staff/residence at the weekend some chance of useful activity. A lock down is just another waste of time. The weekend leave improves the chance of a successful reintegration. <br /><br />Zero cost options!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-56379856883956331262016-05-22T22:42:02.557+01:002016-05-22T22:42:02.557+01:00In the interest of balance, in my 19:42 post I sho...In the interest of balance, in my 19:42 post I should perhaps also have considered remaining in Euroland & the joys of Iggle Piggle & Pinnochio continuing in office until 2020 whereby I suspect they'll give considerable concessions to The Brexiteers in order to keep the fractured Tory party together.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-50968417354022541952016-05-22T21:11:37.006+01:002016-05-22T21:11:37.006+01:00If you work for the NPS you're a civil servant...If you work for the NPS you're a civil servant. If you work for a CRC you're ultimately employed by a private company. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-12576751609675513662016-05-22T19:42:15.074+01:002016-05-22T19:42:15.074+01:00Therein is the proof that Grayling & his NOMS ...Therein is the proof that Grayling & his NOMS lieutenants won their war: "We're all civil servants now..."<br /><br />As Anon@17:55 rightly says, we are not all civil servants. The poor souls cast upon the mercy of CRC owners are not civil servants, in fact many have been cast out and are no longer probation practitioners, or are at imminent risk of being jettisoned overboard by the greed-mongers.<br /><br />Neither Gove nor Spurr would entertain employing anyone other than an 'on message' taskmaster. Once the eurofarce is done & dusted Gove will either walk or tighten the reins, depending on the final scale of the Tory schism.<br /><br />And when one considers the senior Labour rats leaving what they consider to be a sinking ship - Sadiq has decamped to his Mayoral palace and Burnham will follow suit in Manchester if he's lucky - the future's looking bleak if there's no-one left to rein in Tory lunacy...<br /><br />... Imagine: out of Europe & no meaningful Labour Party. That leaves a right wing bunch of crazies with no checks & balances probably led by one of the following after Cameron & Osbourne bale out: May, Johnson or Gove. My blood is freezing at the thought.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-66903867497807576102016-05-22T17:55:23.056+01:002016-05-22T17:55:23.056+01:00Erm... we're not all civil servants now...Erm... we're not all civil servants now...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-74900827271348857432016-05-22T10:49:56.707+01:002016-05-22T10:49:56.707+01:00Because of the prison crisis and conditions nobody...Because of the prison crisis and conditions nobody wants to work there, and with the poor pay too, they'll never get the staff. Will be the same for probation, all the staff are being let go and the attack on probation officer training means after all the current trainees have qualified they'll be at least a 2-3 year gap until new staff are qualified. I can see an change for sone time and it's set to get worse before it gets better.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-41300081839849565042016-05-22T10:44:19.809+01:002016-05-22T10:44:19.809+01:00I've said it before, change the ethos from pun...I've said it before, change the ethos from punishment to rehabilitation and put a Probation Officer in charge of NOMS. Even better, second a few to be prison governors and hunt out the ones that are also ex-offenders. We're all civil servants now so second a few to head the Ministry of Justice too, and I mean at the top not silly policy jobs nobody takes notice of. And I mean a good few frontline qualified probation officers known for innovation, not PSO's, not PO those managerial types that became managers because they didn't like offenders or weren't good at the day job, and not those Judas' previously employed as Probation Chiefs that retired and keep popping up, or the other ones currently employed as NPS/CRC directors. Probation Officernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-11782442972352585582016-05-22T08:25:57.746+01:002016-05-22T08:25:57.746+01:00This is exactly what needs to be avoided in the cu...This is exactly what needs to be avoided in the current wave of CRC Cuts, up to 40%. Voluntary redundancies likely to be taken by the more experienced members of staff thus leaving less experienced with no one to learn from, possibly resulting in greater loss of staff and difficulty recruiting. I hope working links etc. Are taking note of this! What has been allowed to occur in the prisons is shocking malpractice and people have died as a result. I believe this will eventually result in a national enquiry and large scale compensation for all those concerned. It is a ticking time bomb.in the meantime the government is destroying what should be a genuine alternative to custody. Probation! Doesn't make any sense whatsoever!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com