I thought I'd have a rest from trying to point out how misguided government plans are for the Probation Service and instead give a plug to a new business. There can't be many twitter followers of Ben Gunn who aren't aware, but others might be interested to know that in true entrepreneurial-style Ben has decided to market his services through his own business 'Mokurai Consulting'.
For someone so keen on self-publicity, I'm not entirely sure how appropriate the translated zen name is - Silent Thunder - but you've got to hand it to him, since release he's clearly decided not to let the grass grow under his feet. I admire him for both making use of his knowledge and experience and for making up lost time.
Unashamedly making use of the appropriate Gunn Clan motto Aut Pax Aut Bellam 'Either Peace or War', and badge, Ben certainly looks ready to take on all-comers willing to either request or pay for his particular services. In addition to the offer of training and talks, I see that he's moving into a new area, that of giving advice on Parole and Sentence Strategy. He explains:-
Having found and made every mistake available to a prisoner in Sentence Planning process, Ben offers the cutting-edge insights that equip prisoners to navigate through the demands of the prison system, minimising the length of sentence to be served and with the least inconvenience to the prisoner and his family.
Parole Boards are often treated by legal advisors as discrete events, to be dealt with as a tick-box exercise to please the Board. Ben adopts a broader view, encompassing all aspects of the prisoner’s sentence and life experience and planning a parole strategy that provides the best chance to neutralise the negative views of prison reports and parole board expectations.
Don't you just love that bit about "minimising the length of sentence to be served and with the least inconvenience to the prisoner and his family" and "planning a parole strategy that provides the best chance to neutralise the negative views of prison reports and parole expectations." Bring it on Ben!
Sign the No10 petition here.
Now that offender mentoring is back in fashion for a while is there not an mutualisation opportunity here for Ben's supervising Trust?
ReplyDeleteThere might be, but I think Ben has been quite open in saying he wants to make some money, oh and some waves of course!
ReplyDeletenever mind about Ben what about ndelius - what a shambles- I am neuro diverse and everything takes 4 times as long to input and then impossible to find, what are your thoughts on it?
ReplyDeleteGood question, but ndelius is yet to reach our neck of the woods - can you let us know what we have in store then please?
Deletein a word `chaos' no one knows what they are doing, ie to add a contact you run a national search then when you have found the person you must not click on `add contact', no you have to click on `view' then contact log, then scroll right down to the bottom of the page and then you can click on the other `add contact' button and click click click again. And to make it more complicated the Delius page is designed for a wider screen so does not fit on a square computer screen so you have to keep moving the page around to see what is in the corners. When making a contact you can only see 4 lines of what you are typing. Then when you have made a contact there is no button to add the next appt, oh no, you have to do the whole search again and programme the next appt in, around 20 clicks of the mouse, it gives you Repetative strain injury. And if you want to send a letter, god help you, you might as well write it by hand as that would be quicker, i have been shown how to build a letter 4 times but still loose the letter every time. And if you dare to want to see a letter that has migrated over that is nearly imposible as all migrated documents are named, wait for it `migrated documents', so unless you know the date you sent it you cannot find it. Then if you want to breach some one it is such a complictated process that only those with a phd in computing science are able to do it. OGRS score is hidden deep in the recess of events, and the actual order is not clearly shown. Flags are not clear and some DV perps migrated over as DV victims! caseloads are not accurate ie I had 40 casses pre delius now appear to have 22, the 18 others have just migrated to random people who have had something to do with them at some time in the past. Delerius It is not fit for purpose and feels like we have been given a case record system from the eighties, remember when you had to press all the function buttons. Beaumont coulson have a lot of work to do to get it more user friendly, lets hope they are paid lots for all their effort. The problems will be highlighted when there is an SFO and then the mangagers will have to try and decipher what has been going on with the case. Can't wait until you get it and see what you have to say
ReplyDeleteBloody hell! That sounds a nightmare and makes CRAMS look brilliant by comparison.
DeleteThanks very much for sharing that - it would be good if we could get some more comments from people using it now as this computer programme is going to be very important in terms of the privatisation agenda. If it's as crap as you say, the whole thing may be scuppered as it looks like a train crash in the making.
If it's ok with you, I intend to write a piece specifically on Delius and base it on your comments.
Cheers,
Jim
I would like to hear feed back from other trusts as well
ReplyDeleteI would like to add that my brother has been in prison for over 6mths and has not had a sentence plan done due to a backlog! How can this be acceptable??? It is a breach of their prison rights!
ReplyDelete