Risk and 'Alternatives to Custody'
| DOI | 10.1177/026455058903600119 |
| Published date | 01 March 1989 |
| Date | 01 March 1989 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
m
Risk
and
’Alternatives
to
Custody’
Ashley
Toms
(Probation
Offic-
er,
Lancaster)
doubts
the
ethics
and
advantages
of
’Risk
of
Custody’
scales
and
recom-
mendations
in
Social
Inquiry
Reports
based
on
strict
’alternative
to
custody’
criteria.
~~
u,, ! ~
~I
,,,
,
robation
officers
have
been
urged
to
concentrate
their
efforts
on
’high
risk’
offenders
and
keeping
people
out
of
prison.
In
practice
this
means
recom-
mending
’alterna-
tives
to
custody’
(ATC)
in
social
in-
quiry
reports
only
for
defendants
considered
to
be
at
high risk
of
a
custodial
sentence.
SIR
writers
viewing
ATC
in
this
way
must
have
some
concept
of
risk
of
custody,
above
which
they
will
make
anATC
recommendation
and
below which
they
will
not,
ie
a
trigger
point.
This
may
be
a
f’ixed
percentage,
as
with
the ’Bale
Scale&dquo;,
or
it
could
vary
according
to
individual
practitioner
assessment.
Either
way,
the
’level
of
risk’ principle
remains
the
same.
As
an
experiment
I
asked
col-
leagues
to rate
’high
risk’
in
percentage
terms.
Answers
varied
between
40’Y.
and
90%,
indicating
a
wide
disparity
in
interpretation.
David
Bale
and
Cam-
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