A letter in The Guardian recently caught my eye. It was from a group of academics at Swansea University quoting their research that demonstrated a convincing link between the skill of a probation officer and the reconviction rates of those being supervised.
Absolute music to my ears, but even I'm not sure how typical Jersey offenders are, or indeed their small but dedicated team of officers. In an ideal world, if you were setting out to prove such an interesting hypothesis, wouldn't you choose a slightly larger and dare I say challenging Service to look at?
However I did enjoy a good root around the website for Jersey Probation and After Care Service - when did you last hear the term aftercare? - and it was pure nostalgia! They are still called probation officers not offender managers, have 'clients' not 'offenders' and are still appointed as Officers of the Court. Many are social work trained and the whole Service is a blissfully OASys-free zone.
Social Enquiry Reports - yes remember them - are still written in the time-honoured way that no doubt tells a coherent story and that allows the character of both the author and subject to shine through. Oh I'm going all misty-eyed just at the thought of what life was like before OASys ruined everything. To be honest I am so envious of these officers who do not have to waste so much valuable time filling in all that computer crap. No wonder they have time to work their magic!
Please also note that Community Service is still just that and there's not an orange tabbard in sight as those sentenced labour on socially useful and imaginative projects. There is a Restorative Justice system with a 100% satisfaction rate and Youth Justice is still part of the Service. Even prisoners are allocated an officer at six months, not the usual 12 months back here on the UK mainland.
It all seems so surreal - a Chief for a Service that in total might fill a smallish room and is allowed to jet off round the world to places like Norway and Australia in order to spread the word of probation, Jersey-style. What a wonderful world we live in!
Not sure we can safely take this as a representable (or even useful) measure of efficiency. Jersey (and the other Channel Islands) have an enviable situation with their small world outlook and ability to keep a lid on various aspects of life. They do not appreciate outsiders who ******* up their lifestyle; drugs are considerably more expensive there, and they have a very high pro rata prison population when compared to other European countries. Their system of law is not a duplicate of ours and the judiciary has a duty towards its citizens. Nobody pops along and plays with the law for a bit of a hobby there. They can afford to get stuck into offenders and overall, it must be quite satisfying to have a small number of people all working together (-ish on occasions, I am sure.)
ReplyDeleteWell done the academics to find something that would be a nightmare to replicate here. Sounds like the need for further research and an even bigger grant.
Chris