Comment
| Date | 01 March 1968 |
| Published date | 01 March 1968 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455056801400101 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
PROBATION
Vol
14
No 1
March
1968
Journal
of the
National
Association
of
Probation
Officers -
4s.
COMMENT
Inspection
and
Confirmation
RULE
1
of
the
Probation
Rules,
1967,
marks
an
important
turning
point
in
the
affairs
of
the
service.
From
the
lst
January
this
year,
except
in
respect
off
direct
entrants,
the
Home
Office
relinquishes
its
duty
to
make
confirmatory
inspectioms,
and
passes
the
responsibility
to
probation
committees,
which
means
in
fact
to
principal
probation
officers.
Clearly,
the
inspectorate
is
relieved
of
a
task
which
it
was
finding
well-nigh
impossible,
and
this
is
to
the
good.
But
there
is
placed
a
heavy
onus
on
principal
probation
oflicers
to
see
-that
the
national
standards
of
which
the
service
has
been
proud
are
not
as
a
result
eroded.
The
change
has
the
effect
too
of
altering
slightly
but
significantly
the
principal
probation
officer’s
role.
It
will
not
be
easy
always
to
reconcile
satis-
factorily
the
need
to
support
and
encourage
with
the
duty
to
inspect
and,
in
effect,
on
occasion
recommend
dismissal.
The
Rule
makes
no
provision
for
any
form
of
second
opinion
from
the
Home
Office
in
border-line
cases.
As
a
safeguard
against
the
very
occasional
mistake,
this
would
probably
be
welcome
both to
the
officer
and
to
the
principal
probation
officer.
The
danger
would
be,
however,
that
every
person
who
was
not
confirmed
by
his
committee
would
demand
a
second
opinion
from
the
Home
Office,
and
~thi~
might
defeat
the
object
of
the
change.
Desirable
as
the
new
Rule
on
balance
is,
there
are
bound
to
be
difficulties
initially.
One
thing
is
certain,
however,.
If
.there
were
any
who
doubted
that
the
principal
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