Parole Old and New

DOI10.1177/026455059404100411
Published date01 December 1994
Date01 December 1994
/tmp/tmp-176SoW6HdNGpoy/input
a reality. Bull Information Systems has
been awarded a £50 million contract to
develop the Probation Service IT
RESEARCH
infrastructure and implement a system to
support probation officers in England and
Wales (though rumour has it that some
interesting arguments continue about the
small print!).
As part of the overall systems
integration contract, Bull will deliver 55
Parole Old
UNIX servers(very BIG computers), 520
office servers (not quite such big
computers) and over 5500 personal
computers (the ones that will sit on
and New
YOUR desk). Bull’s contract involves
delivery of a nationwide system which
allows instant access from any single
To provide a base-line against which to
workstation at any location, to all
evaluate the changes in the parole system
appropriate information. Philip
introduced by the Criminal Justice Act
Crawford, chief executive at Bull UK,
1991, the Oxford Centre for
commented:
Criminological Research gathered
information between April and
’This is clearly a great success for
September 1992 on key aspects of the
Bull, reflecting our careful study of
’old’ parole system as it has affected
the Probation Service’s real needs and
prisoners serving sentences of four years
how best we could meet them.’
or longer (ie, the category who fall to be
dealt with under the Act’s discretionary
It is
release
very heartening that someone has
arrangements). Two hundred
done a careful study of the Probation
prisoners and a variety of staff at five
Service’s REAL needs and has managed
prisons (Albany, Parkhurst, Featherstone,
The Verne and
to come
Wandsworth) were
up with a solution as to how
these
interviewed and the
can be best met. I, unfortunately,
decision-making
must have been out of the office when
process at 16 panels of the Parole Board
this in-depth consultation exercise
were observed.
was
carried out and missed it. Had I not been,
,
I would have suggested that if even 10%
> ~ ~i
yi f
pli
of the Bull contract price (a mere £5m)
I
was devoted to IT developments that
actually enhanced the ability of the main
In general prisoners knew very little
grade officer to deliver a meaningful and
about how the system worked, despite
effective service to their clients, then the
information available in the Prisoners’
10% saving currently sought by the
Information Pack, and seven out of 10
Home Office could be achieved through a
felt that the process was a ’lottery’, 85%
real increase in ’productivity’ rather than
considering it to be inaccurate in
through staff cuts. However, as long as
selecting good risks. 77% of those
an attitude that would put the proverbial
turned down for parole felt it was
ostrich to shame persists amongst the
because of the nature of their offence; 14
vast majority in the Service and the only
of the 35 black offenders felt that they
voices raised (however meekly) seek
had been rejected because of their race.
only to try to stop the unstoppable, the
future will bring only what is deserved.
Parole Interviews
Only a third said
226


that the prison staff assessing them had
known them well; prisoners claimed in
~~~~~J;I~~¡~~~IJ. four out of 10 assessment interviews the
interviewer had not known them at all.
Fifty four prison officers, 20 probation
The interviews rated most highly for
officers and six wing governors were
knowledge, care, fairness, length and
interviewed.
general satisfaction were those conducted
by probation officers, though this was not
Knowledge of Prisoners
30% of prison
a unanimous assessment. One prisoner
officers said that they knew very
...

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