Community Justice Files 30
| Author | Dr Nick Flynn |
| Pages | 85-89 |
85
COMMUNITY JUSTICE FILES 30
Edited by Nick Flynn, De Montfort University
HM Inspectorate of Probation Annual Report 2012 -13
Based on 58 reports including six thematic reports, HM Inspectorate of Probation Annual
Report for 2012-13 has h ighlighted continuing good work being undertaken with adults
and young people in the community. The percentage of the adult work examined which
achieved a sufficiently high level of quality to minimise risk of harm was 75%, reduce
likelihood of reoffend ing was 74% and support compliance and enforcement wa s 79%.
Youth offending work was also found to be well planned, and in nearly three fifths of the
cases inspected there was a reduction in either the frequency or seriousness of offending.
However, significant short comings were found in adult offending work carried out in
prisons. Referring to the role o f prisons to punish, contain, deter, but also reform, the
report noted that “the opportunity provided by a period in custody to focus on and
change aberrant behaviour was… in a significant proportion of cases, being lost”.
In the foreword to the report, the outgoing Chief In spector of Probation, Liz Calderbank,
commended the progr ess made over the past year, while at the same time raising
concerns about the far-reaching changes to rehabilitation work with offenders proposed
in the Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation strategy. In particular, she noted that:
The changes rely for their funding on the economies to be introduced by
contracting out a large proportion of the work currently undertaken by
Probation Trusts and are going to be implemented in a very short time,
allowing little opportunity for the development of a shared working
culture. Both the scale and the pace of the chan ge is considerable and
we are concerned, as an inspectorate, that i s it taken forward and
implemented without any drop in the quality of work already achieved.
HM Inspectorate of Probation Annual Report for 2012-13 can be foun d at:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publications/corporate-reports/hmi -prob/hmi-
probation-annual-report-2012-2013.pdf
British Journal of Community Justice
©2013 Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield
ISSN 1475-0279
Vol. 11(1):85-89
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