Key Links

Campaigns

Criminology

Death Penalty

Diversity

Justice System

Police

Prisons

Probation

Weblogs

Practitioner Links

Domestic Violence

Mental Disorder

Restorative Justice

Sex Offenders

Substance Misuse

Victims

News

News Archives: Index

October 7, 2010: Probation Set For Industrial Action

October 5, 2010: Turning Prisoners Into Taxpayers

October 4, 2010: Murder Changes Now In Force

September 20, 2010: Probation Programmes Face Cuts

August 24, 2010: Victorian Poor Law Records Online

August 10, 2010: Justice Job Cuts

July 28, 2010: Prison Violence Growing

July 22, 2010: Police Numbers: Latest Figures

July 22, 2010: New Jurisdiction Rules

July 16, 2010: CCJS On Prison And Probation Spending Under Labour

July 15, 2010: Latest Statistics On Violent And Sexual Crime

July 15, 2010: Latest National Crime Figures

July 15, 2010: New Chief Prisons Inspector

July 14, 2010: Hard Times Ahead For Prisons: Anne Owers

July 14, 2010: Prison Does Not Work: Ken Clarke

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform: Sentencing and Rehabilitation

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform Priorities

July 12, 2010: What Price Public Protection, Asks Probation Chief Inspector

July 12, 2010: NOMS has failed, says Napo

July 10, 2010: IPCC To Investigate Death of Raoul Moat

July 9, 2010: Women In Prison: New Report

July 9, 2009: Unjust Deserts: Imprisonment for Public Protection

July 8, 2010: Police Search Powers Change

July 7, 2010: Make 'Legal High' Illegal, Says ACMD

July 2, 2010: Failing Children In Prison

July 2, 2010: Police Buried Under a Blizzard of Guidance: HMIC

July 1, 2010: Freedom To Change The Law?

June 30, 2010: A New Outlook On Penal Reform?

June 30, 2010: Revolving Door Of Offending Must Stop, Says Clarke

June 30, 2010: Ken Clarke: Speech on Criminal Justice Reform

June 29, 2010: No More Police Targets

June 26, 2010: Family Intervention Projects Questioned

June 25, 2010: Cutting Criminal Justice

June 24, 2010: Napo on Sex Offenders Report

June 23, 2010: Closing Courts: The Cuts Begin

June 23, 2010: Strategy To Tackle Gangs

June 15, 2010: Courts and Mentally Disordered Offenders

June 8, 2010: Working With Muslims in Prison

June 1, 2010: Your Chance To Nominate a QC

November 7, 2006: Probation Review 'Non-Negotiable': John Reid

Home Secretary John Reid claims the probation service is letting people down, and needs fundamental reform. In a speech to prisoners and staff at Wormwood Scrubs Prison, he called for a new approach towards how offenders are managed once they're released, saying:

 ‘To be frank, the probation system is not working as well as it should.’

The problem, he argued, is unlikely to be financial – since 1997, government spending on probation has increased by a third, to £800m a year, or more than £3,800 per probationer, while re-offending rates remain high. In England and Wales, more than half of all criminals arrested have already been to jail at least once.

Dr Reid alluded to two high-profile murders committed in recent years by ex-offenders on probation: Naomi Bryant, who was murdered by a convicted rapist, and the Chelsea banker John Monckton, who was stabbed to death by a 24-year-old who was on probation at the time for attempted murder. Listing the problems he saw within the probation system, he stated:

‘There are some areas – not all – but there are some areas where performance isn’t good enough. Where dangerous offenders haven’t been supervised properly. Where the job hasn’t been done sufficiently – the tragic murders of John Monckton and Naomi Bryant illustrate that we’ve had shortcomings.’

He noted that re-offending rates showed no signs of significant improvement, arguing that:

‘Too much money is spent on writing reports, and not enough on practical help’

Adressing the prisoners in the audience, he said:

‘The way we supervise you after you get out of prison or when you’re on probation, including who supervises you and how they do it – that needs fundamental reform.’

Part of the problem, he said, is that the system is massive. Each year, more than 40,000 prisoners are released from custody, and they join 136,000 offenders given supervised community sentences as an alternative to prison. There is only so much, he said, that internal reform can achieve. While individuals may be committed and hard-working, the system needed real transformation that can only come with outside help, so he called for more involvement of the volunteer and private sectors in order to turn the system around.

Pointing out that the first probation system was started in the US as a volunteer organisation, he said that bringing in volunteer agencies could enable uniformed officers to concentrate on what they do best, and free up probation officers to focus on the most serious criminals. Similarly, private companies have expertise and staff that could accelerate the process. Less than 3% of the probation budget is going to outside contractors, he said, adding:

 ‘That’s not enough. It’s not enough to provide the stimulus and innovation that everyone agrees the system cries out for, and it’s not enough to lever standards up across the sector.’

Without that kind of across-the-board involvement from outside groups, he said, real change will not happen, and people’s lives will continue to be damaged. So new legislation will now be introduced to increase the proportion of probation service work outsourced to volunteer agencies and private groups. He unequivocally stated:

‘That is the real reason further reform is non-negotiable. Because protecting the public and turning offenders’ lives around is non-negotiable.’