Probation service Identity crisis
| Published date | 01 March 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02645505241241349 |
| Author | Nicola Carr |
| Date | 01 March 2024 |
Probation service
Identity crisis
The House of Lords’Justice and Home Affairs Committee’s inquiry into the use of
community sentences in England and Wales was published at the end of 2023
(House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee, 2023). The inquiry was
prompted by the marked decline in the use of these sentences by the courts in
recent years, while at the same time prison numbers have continued to grow.
Data from the Ministry of Justice cited in the report showsthat the number of community
sentencesintheircurrentiterationhasdecreasedinbothabsolutetermsandasapro-
portion of all sentences. The number of community orders imposed by courts in England
and Wales has fallen from 143,000 in 2005 to 60,500 in 2022. While community
orders accounted for 10% of all sentences in 2005 and only 6% in 2022. However,
it is important to note that this has not led to a commensurate reduction in probation
caseloads. Data shows that suspended prison sentences have become a more
popular sentence option since the implementation of provisions of the Criminal Justice
Act 2003. The numbers of people subject to post-release supervision has also risen
markedly following the introduction of a requirement that all people released from
prison should be subject to supervision in the community as part of the Transforming
Rehabilitation reforms.
The House of Lords’Report describes the Probation Service as undergoing an
‘identity crisis’(p. 9). This, it contends, is a result of a number of factors –years of
structural reforms, a poorly conceptualised geographical structure, inadequate staff-
ing numbers and the changed nature of the role of the probation officer, one which
has become increasingly dominated by an emphasis on public protection. This has
come at the expense of engagement with people who are not viewed within this
purview:
The Probation Service is going through an identity crisis. The role of the probation
officer has changed in recent years –the increased focus on public protection dis-
tracts the attention of staff away from least-serious offenders. Moreover, the
expectation that they refer offenders to services provided by others, and the quan-
tity of the administrative tasks they are expected to perform, often on flawed IT
systems, transform their mission into an unfulfilling job and means that they have
reduced capacity to support low-level offenders on community sentence. (2023: 9)
The House of Lords’Report draws a contrast between youth offending services
and probation provision, noting some of the key differences in their delivery.
Editorial The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2024, Vol. 71(1) 3–5
© The Author(s) 2024
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DOI: 10.1177/02645505241241349
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