tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post7982936214448227822..comments2024-03-28T07:32:23.397+00:00Comments on On Probation Blog: Sonnex Remembered Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-924865091464786082016-10-28T11:37:16.480+01:002016-10-28T11:37:16.480+01:00This is a very detailed write-up. Perhaps there wi...This is a very detailed write-up. Perhaps there will be people who, after reading this, can provide more information that could assist you in the matter. I wish you all the best with the <a href="https://plus.google.com/109220604973237432156/about?gmbpt=true&hl=en&_ga=1.2603568.1894068356.1458183670" rel="nofollow">case</a> in the future and hope things get resolved accordingly. My wife and I will cross fingers and pray things turn out for the better. Thanks.Eliseo Weinsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06407697057363434395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-3120995688283789192015-03-03T07:04:26.400+00:002015-03-03T07:04:26.400+00:00Err, really? You think the abusive words & act...Err, really? You think the abusive words & actions of staff at Yarlswood were okay?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-6827642312788239482015-03-03T05:32:33.925+00:002015-03-03T05:32:33.925+00:00Shocking new figures show some jails are now opera...Shocking new figures show some jails are now operating at nearly double their intended capacity, as the prison crisis continues to worsen.<br /><br />Ministry of Justice data analysed by the Howard League found three out of four men's prisons are holding more people than they are designed for.<br /><br />"Caging men in squalor with nothing to do all day is never going to help them become law-abiding citizens on release," Howard League chief executive Frances Crook said.<br /><br />"Far too many people are being sent into already overcrowded jails and the need to stem the flow is now urgent."<br /><br />The new data comes amid concerns that the tough-on-crime approach favoured by justice secretary Chris Grayling is clashing with severe spending cuts to the prison estate.<br /><br />The most overcrowded prison was Leeds, which was designed to accommodate 669 prisoners but was holding 1,218 at the end of January.<br /><br />Swansea was holding 422 prisoners in a jail meant for 242, while Wandsworth was holding 1,606 in a space meant for 943.<br /><br />Faced with an ever-growing prison population and cuts to finding, prison governors are being forced to stuff jail cells intended for one person with two or even three prisoners.<br /><br />Freedom of information requests from Howard League showed that on an average day almost 19,000 prisoners are 'doubled up' and 800 'trebled up' in a single cell.<br /><br />The policy is now the norm in many privately-run prisons, such as Birmingham and Altcourse, which are G4S-run, or Doncaster, which is Serco-run<br /><br />At its worst, overcrowding forces multiple prisoners to share a six-by-ten foot cell designed for one, with little ventilation and an unscreened toilet. They are very often kept in the cells for 23-hours a day, with nothing to do.Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-71178795835295229322015-03-03T05:29:20.544+00:002015-03-03T05:29:20.544+00:00The Ministry of Justice has come under fire for pl...The Ministry of Justice has come under fire for placing a violent robber in an open prison - just two years into his nine year sentence.<br /><br />Police have also been criticised for not announcing for SEVEN days that Connor Smith-MacPhee had escaped from Kirkham prison, Lancashire.<br /><br />Today Worsley MP, Barbara Keeley, described both actions as ‘astonishing’.<br /><br />While on the run, Smith-MacPhee gave police the slip after they raided a house on the East Lancs Road in Boothstown, running across the rooftops of several houses in his underpants before hiding in a man’s chicken shed on nearby Birchfield Drive.<br /><br />When the homeowner found him in the shed he forced his way into his house and held the man hostage for 40 minutes before making him drive them both to Walkden. Smith-MacPhee then ordered the owner out of the black Subaru and sped off. He is still on the run.<br /><br />Barbara Keeley MP said: “I find it astonishing that both the Ministry of Justice and Greater Manchester Police regard this prisoner as someone who does not represent a risk to the public.<br /><br />"I will be asking the Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, to explain exactly why this prisoner was re-categorised as a Category D prisoner when he was sentenced to nine years as recently as December 2013 for crimes involving firearms and violence.<br /><br />“I have also asked Greater Manchester Police exactly why they also regard this escaped prisoner as posing no risk to the general public when he has held one of my constituents hostage and stolen his car. There clearly is a public risk and I want to see Greater Manchester Police doing much more to protect my constituents.<br /><br />“I congratulate the Manchester Evening News for their work on their coverage of this and for taking the threat to the public seriously. We need to see this prisoner re-captured as soon as possible.”<br /><br />The 21-year-old fugitive was jailed in December 2013 for his involvement in a gang who posed as police officers to gain access to people’s homes, before attacking and robbing them.<br /><br />In one case they kidnapped and sexually humiliated a man with the barrel of a shotgun to force him to ring friends to ask for more money.<br /><br />One of the raids happened in front of two young children and a baby.<br /><br />Smith-MacPhee was jailed for conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to kidnap, and two firearms offences.<br /><br />He was moved to Kirkham prison after being re-categorised as a Category D prisoner, those who can be reasonably trusted not to try to escape.<br /><br />He walked out of Kirkham on Monday, February 23. On Friday police tracked him to the house in Boothstown, but he escaped.<br /><br />His details and picture were only released on Monday this week.<br /><br />GMP said there were ‘sound operational reasons’ for not releasing his name earlier. They have said despite being convicted of very serious offences they ‘do not believe that he currently poses a risk to the general public’.<br /><br />A spokesman added: "GMP employ varied tactics to track and apprehend wanted individuals and absconded prisoners.<br /><br />"In this case, officers had strong operational reasons for not immediately disclosing the identity and photograph of the prisoner, and still believe this was the right decision."<br /><br />The Ministry of Justice twice failed to respond to our request for a comment.Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-54444590895018905182015-03-03T00:21:16.394+00:002015-03-03T00:21:16.394+00:00You may say that but the way our prison population...You may say that but the way our prison population manipulate the system by dirty protests and self harming and, inevitably, getting their own way, do you honestly - be honest - really think that the culture would change overnight?. The Scandinavian countries, it has to be said, are more civilised and the population more intelligent than the UK. I don't need to qualify that (do I?!). Just tonight, channel 4 news were trying to paint failed asylum seekers as victims, when they were trying to exploit the decency of 'the system', like dirty protesters and self harmers by stripping off to avoid court appearances. It was all loaded against the staff and portrayed their shock and decency as racism. There was some shocking language but I ask the question 'what would you think and do, in their place?'. Belly aching bleeding hearts like the channels presenters, should put in a years service themselves THEN report back. TonyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-74005562032982614252015-03-03T00:20:52.022+00:002015-03-03T00:20:52.022+00:00Sonnex would have made a snappy name for a TR bidd...Sonnex would have made a snappy name for a TR bidder<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-82621230067610707522015-03-02T23:04:59.332+00:002015-03-02T23:04:59.332+00:00Wales CRC asking staff to go into prisons to run T...Wales CRC asking staff to go into prisons to run TTG for 6 months. Wonderful secondment opportunity! I guess Working Links can put in whoever they want to. Norway seems to have the best prison/offender regime. They treat offenders like humans.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-68463735837303412882015-03-02T21:20:42.073+00:002015-03-02T21:20:42.073+00:00However, the opportunity to work with prisoners vi...However, the opportunity to work with prisoners via a OB programme provides a great insight into the individual, something you would not have, without courses, education, vocational courses etc...model prisoners are those who never come to the notice of anybody, unfortunately, rarely model citizens!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-75563872215887841752015-03-02T18:45:43.071+00:002015-03-02T18:45:43.071+00:00Be interesting to see the MoJs response to this, a...Be interesting to see the MoJs response to this, and where the parcel gets pushed to!<br /><br /> http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/fugitive-latest-questions-asked-over-8753640Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-46974309612193492762015-03-02T17:31:33.871+00:002015-03-02T17:31:33.871+00:00Yeah, but don't worry at least that horrible, ...Yeah, but don't worry at least that horrible, two-faced shit of a man Jack Straw can get between £5,000 and £8,000 per day for using any contacts he has to enable the multi-nationals to achieve their aim of destroying the working and middle classes of this country by using zero hours contracts ad deprofessionalising honest hard-workin people.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-4110245366143316372015-03-02T16:15:35.071+00:002015-03-02T16:15:35.071+00:00Also at odds with the initial subject of the day, ...Also at odds with the initial subject of the day, but (I think) worthy of comment, here's a snippet (as best I can remember it) of a conversation overheard between two ladies in a (very lengthy) post office queue today. It struck a chord...<br /><br />X: (exasperated) Its ridiculous, only two of them when there's at least twenty waiting, and six kiosks closed.<br /><br />Y: I know, but I also feel sorry for them. This place is closing next week. They won't have jobs after that.<br /><br />X: So there'll be no main post office in town?<br /><br />Y: Oh there will, but its going to be at Smiths on the Main Street. Apparently they've offered them all jobs on zero hours contracts at minimum wage, but they've all told them to stuff it.<br /><br />X: Smiths?<br /><br />Y: Yeah, I was told they're just finishing the extension with all the security stuff in it; they got the franchise to run the post office. That's why the main street was closed for three weeks, causing all that chaos.<br /><br />X: Smiths? That's terrible. All those politicians decorating their offices and paying their mortgages with our money, and they make the post mistress redundant and give the job to someone in a bookshop. I'm glad I'm retired.<br /><br />Y: Wish I could. I'm 49 and work up at [the] Hospital for the NHS - its ridiculous. They won't take staff on, but they'll get agency staff in on a week by week basis - and they get paid twice what I get. Most of them don't know what they're doing, they don't know the area, they upset the patients, they don't do any paperwork, we have to pick all that up - and then we don't get time to see the patients, so they get more bloody agency staff in!! Its all wrong!! Its crap!!<br /><br />X: I used to be a nurse up there until I retired. This lot think they're schmoozing me with their pensioner promises, but you know what, they can all piss off. Our MP's no use to man nor beast. He's in the pockets of [single major local employer] and would sell his granny to them if he thought it would help him get some more votes. They're just ruining this country, turning it into a wasteland while they get rich and fat.<br /><br />Y: I'd shoot the bloody lot of them.<br />_____________________________________________________________<br /><br />P.S: When I got to the counter (Cashier Number Five Please) I said I was sorry to hear the post office was closing. The woman kindly dealt with my parcel, apologised for any delay, burst into tears, closed her position and ran into a back room.<br /><br />This is real life in the UK Today. March 2nd 2015. Its heartbreaking.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-71016399905784701532015-03-02T15:58:55.776+00:002015-03-02T15:58:55.776+00:00I completely agree.
SPO 3I completely agree.<br /><br />SPO 3Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-49321907960368826582015-03-02T13:04:04.585+00:002015-03-02T13:04:04.585+00:00Prison isn't about rehabilitating the offender...Prison isn't about rehabilitating the offender much as the political rhetoric would have us believe it is. Prison is merely about warehousing the offender until they are released into the community with as little effort as possible. Offender behaviour programmes are under resourced and often not available. The fact that they have been proven not to work should also be a factor to consider. The only way someone will stop offending/reoffending is when they want to so you have to get them to a place where they want to. But prison is simply not the right environment for such interventions. If all you want to do is get criminals off the street then prison works just fine but when these people are released as they will be sooner or later then you are likely to get worse human beings more likely to commit crime than when they went in due to the inhumane conditions they have been locked up in. Treat people like animals you get animals. Reading stories of habitual offenders who have turned their lives around it is clear that OB courses and prison usually wasn't the lightbulb moment that caused them to change.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-19750602832132069992015-03-02T12:55:35.060+00:002015-03-02T12:55:35.060+00:00Can I point out that I have been informed by manag...Can I point out that I have been informed by management at what was Hampshire Probation Trust in response to a complaint I made that my OM repeatedly failed to respond to any communication I sent her before I was released that an OM is allegedly only legally obliged to communicate with an offender once a year. Management maintained that as she had written to me a two paragraph letter at the instigation of her SPO which didn't even answer a single issue I had raised or any of the questions I had asked that she had done her duty and need not communicate with me further until the following year. If this is in fact true and not some attempt to wriggle out of a failure to respond to letters from me this makes a complete mockery of what Andrew Hatton says above. How on earth can you possibly effective manage an offender or build up a relationship with them prior to release to enable you to do an accurate risk assessment if all you are required to do is send the offender one letter in any calendar year that can say absolutely nothing at all? No wonder most risk assessments don't appear to be worth the paper they are written on and why things do go so horribly wrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-71802605102635825812015-03-02T12:40:14.224+00:002015-03-02T12:40:14.224+00:00This snippet from an article in the Northumberland...This snippet from an article in the Northumberland Gazette tells a story.<br />And as for TTG being up and functioning in the near future?<br /><br /> Official inspections have found prisoners spending up to 23 hours a day in such conditions, as overcrowded prisons lack the resources to house people safely, give them something to do and reduce reoffending following release.The figures indicate that plans to set up a network of resettlement prisons – keeping prisoners close to their homes and probation workers in the last three months of their sentence – will founder unless the prison population is reduced.Current pressures mean that prisoners are placed where there is a bed, not where they need to be to best reduce reoffending.Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “Caging men in squalor with nothing to do all day is never going to help them become law-abiding citizens on release.“Far too many people are being sent into already overcrowded jails and the need to stem the flow is now urgent.“Government must get a grip on a prison system in crisis that is feeding the crime problem and creating more victims.”Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-69841581163003329182015-03-02T12:23:12.730+00:002015-03-02T12:23:12.730+00:00Sorry to stray off topic but Channel 4 news tonigh...Sorry to stray off topic but Channel 4 news tonight at 7pm may well be worth a watch, as the reality of outsourcing services that should always remain in the public sector come under scrutiny at Yarls Wood.<br />It' also interesting to see that whilst Serco are the prime contract holder, they actually outsource some services to G4S.<br />Could that be something likely to come about in the new world of probation ?<br /><br /> http://www.channel4.com/news/yarls-wood-immigration-removal-detention-centre-investigationAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-35391790503204797982015-03-02T11:37:34.873+00:002015-03-02T11:37:34.873+00:00I think Frances Crook is so right. When a prisoner...I think Frances Crook is so right. When a prisoner is released and probation services take up their 'supervision' they are infact at their final stage of engagement with their journey through the CJS.<br />It's often the case that the supervisionary period and those involved in it take the flack when things go wrong and SFOs occur.<br />But isn't whats happened to the prisoner during their detention, their development whilst in custody, an even more important issue?<br />If the issues that led to the offence originally, are not addressed whilst the person is in custody, then surely they're being released into the world of probation 'supervision' still with the original offending issues unaddressed?<br />I note today, that there are a lot of newspaper reports about the prison population being so over crowded, and as such pretty ineffective with regard to any sort of rehabilitave function. <br /><br /> http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2015/03/02/prisons-at-double-capacity-as-figures-show-crisis-at-breakinAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-81495825181998229412015-03-02T11:28:58.477+00:002015-03-02T11:28:58.477+00:00I occasionally come here to give a little reminder...I occasionally come here to give a little reminder that the effect over-zealous supervision can have on the Client is quite possibly a great amount of more trouble than it is worth.<br /><br />Many may look at it from a different angle in so obviously it is well worth it in every case, it is their livelihoods.<br /><br />You can do anything to anyone and if it's not considered illegal, well nothing to lose, all to gain.<br /><br />So long as enough of you turn up to do it then it'll all work out fine...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-61791366376910508282015-03-02T10:04:06.042+00:002015-03-02T10:04:06.042+00:00I first worked at the office where I did my last 6...I first worked at the office where I did my last 6 month student placement and stayed for another five and a half years. Then I did a specialist job in Borstal liaison which ended early because Borstals were closed, I was in that post for 18 months. <br /><br />Then I moved areas and worked 6 years in one team before resigning & being a locum social worker for 6 months. Then I did a locum maternity leave cover probation job for 6 months, became permanent with that Service, worked for a few months in one team in transition, before moving districts and stayed in the next for seven years, then did a five year prison secondment and finished my career with an 18 month mistake. <br /><br />In most locations I worked at were colleagues who had been in their current job for normally more than two or three years - six or seven was not unusual. I knew a few long stayers of over 10 years including one of 25 years. For me five or six years felt about right, as by then I felt too familiar not, so much with the clients but with Magistrates and the institutions in the locality. I knew it was time to move one job, when one magistrate asked me to take lunch with the rural Bench when cases went over to an afternoon in the outlying fortnightly court and a week or so later in the town court another magistrate asked me if they got a sentence right!Andrew_S_Hattonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09115192522317353139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-81577786772088469922015-03-02T09:30:57.722+00:002015-03-02T09:30:57.722+00:00The notion of continuity of working with any indiv...The notion of continuity of working with any individual case has been eroded to the point of non-existence. Firstly, the Interruption to the flow of trained staff when training was stopped. Then NOMS's interference with the imposition of inappropriate/unneccesary process & monitoring, Then the shift to Trusts. Now TR. Add to this a change in the staff profile, where the increase in mobility & ambition (allied to a younger intake) has contributed to staff being able & willing to move between areas and roles as they move up the greasy pole. Then sprinkle with the growth of agency staff.<br /><br />How many areas can now say they have staff who have been in post, let alone in one locality, for five years? For ten years? For twenty years? For thirty years?<br /><br />In the early 1990s I joined an office in an inner city area when there were 10 POs and 3 PSAs (aka PSOs). Of those POs, 2 were recently qualified but trained locally; 1 had relocated to the area about 2 years previous; the rest had been local POs for between 5 & 25 years. The PSAs had been there for 6 & 9 years.<br /><br />Where I work now (different area & CRC team) there are 3 POs and 8 PSOs. One person has been there 17 years, not one of the remaining ten has been there longer than 5 years. Most haven't been there for more than 2 years.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-41441819908281104282015-03-02T08:13:50.012+00:002015-03-02T08:13:50.012+00:00Traditionally a case where a person was serving a...Traditionally a case where a person was serving an eight year sentence would ideally have been held initially by the first person from probation who had significant contact with him or her, which would probably have been for the preparation of a pre sentence report for the case that attracted the eight year sentence, or if no PSR, by the officer appointed following conviction.<br /><br />In such a case whilst the prison sentence was being served relationships would, hopefully have been developed with the prisoner via correspondence and occasional visits, perhaps two or three a year, and also with his family back at home.<br /><br />Such a case would be continue to be held by that officer, until the officer moved on, thus it was that I held cases of up to ten years on several occasions from almost the first probation contact to the end of the parole supervision. Such an officer would ideally be paired by a colleague - so each could cover for the other in absences and ideally supported/overseen by a senior colleague who would obviously gain significant knowledge of the prisoner concerned, because of discussions in casework supervision, particularly at significant points, such as when arrangements were needed to be made for pre parole home leave. It did not always work out smoothly BUT if the aim was to achieve continuity of contact was there, it was more likely to have done and the 'warning bells' more likely to be detected when things began to go wrong. Plus underpinning all was the one to one professional relationship between prisoner and probation officer and a personal awareness on behalf of the po of what the prisoner had done before and so was known to be capable of repeating.Andrew_S_Hattonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09115192522317353139noreply@blogger.com