Criminal justice and New Labour: A personal valediction
| Published date | 01 September 2010 |
| Author | Cedric Fullwood |
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550510373811 |
| Date | 01 September 2010 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Criminal justice and New Labour:
A personal valediction
Cedric Fullwood, Former Chief Probation Officer (Greater
Manchester Probation) and Probation Board Chair (Cheshire Probation)
Abstract This comment piece is based on the experience of a Chief Probation
Officer, who became a Probation Board Chair, and who had been at the beginning
of Youth Justice reforms as well as member of an Independent Inquiry into ‘Alterna-
tives to Custody’ (Coulsfield, 2004) – all during the thirteen years of the Labour
Government. Some of the personal factors effecting policy developments are
described, followed by some achievements as well as what the author considers
critical failures of the New Labour years. In conclusion, the author offers four pieces
of advice for the next Administration.
Keywords anti-social behaviour, New Labour, probation, social justice
Introduction
There was a time when Permanent Secretaries and Ambassadors, on reaching
retirement, would pen a private valedictory message to colleagues and Ministers
reflecting on the state of things as they left them. Sir Nicholas Henderson’s dispatch
(leaked to The Economist on 2 June 1979) from the Embassy in Paris in 1979 was
what The Times (2009) called ‘a heartfelt essay that concluded that Britain had
become ‘‘poor and unproud’’ and set an example ‘‘not to follow’’’. Sir Brian
Cubbon, leaving his post as Permanent Secretary at the Home Office in 1988,
expressed frustration at how police matters dominated the policy agenda and
remained untouched by critical scrutiny. One wonders who will take an insider’s
informed, long term and reflective look at the past thirteen years of New Labour’s
work in the field of criminal justice. It has been a crowded field, with changes of
Home Secretary and Ministers reaching into double figures, never mind the almost
casual switch to a Ministry of Justice. Some outsiders are making their pitch. The
current edition of Criminal Justice Matters has, under the generic heading of ‘End
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Copyright ª2010 NAPO Vol 57(3): 286-290
DOI: 10.1177/0264550510373811
www.napo.org.uk
http://prb.sagepub.com
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