Two Reactions to Jordan's Analysis
| Date | 01 September 1983 |
| Published date | 01 September 1983 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455058303000303 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Two
Reactions to Jordan’s Analysis
(1) Michael Day
to offenders and the ’less deserving’. Crime is
experienced as a threat to social order particularly
Chief Probation Officer, West Midlands
when
it shows
Relevance
through in public violence and the
political
Let
response has to accommodate
that fear.
me
start with the concept of ’relevance’
So does the Probation Service and if we seem to
which Bill Jordan claims CPOs
and policy makers
disregard widely held views about Law and
seldom tackle. Like other assertions of his, it gives
Order, Parliament and Courts will look else-
scant credit for what
is being done in the Service
where. The Service has to maintain a delicate
and surely I am not alone amongst Probation
balance between the requirements of those who
managers in trying to make ’relevance’ the
finance it and the needs of those
touchstone of
placed in its care.
every policy and development. In
The role of probation within the criminal justice
every aspect of the Service’s work there is
evidence of a determination
system is imprecise simply because it holds a
to break
out
of office
middle
routines,
ground, which, like that notable section
explore new ways of engaging with
in the Wootton
offenders and those
Report describing community
at risk and
providing support
service, can meet any number of competing
systems within the community. I am aware of a
demands. It also
clearer expression of Service
gets pushed into it crucial
strategy in helping
elements of discretion which it exercises on behalf
society cope with its criminality and the Service
of the criminal justice
seeing its role and function in
system as a whole.
terms broader and
So there is something described as a ’climate’
more significant than facilitating individual
casework practice. The
representing an amalgam of social attitudes,
pace of change and the
scale of experimentation
political philosophies, financial considerations,
may have been forced
which contribute to the context in which we
partly by external factors -
shortage of resources
and
operate, and although it is patchy and lacks
new
legislation -
but how many organisa-
coherence the 1982 C J Act does reflect that
tions generate change from within? I believe we
climate. It is the rather confused approach of the
are successfully shaping a more
extensive role for
Act which
the Service in the community and in its
provides the Probation Service with
relationship with Courts, and at the
opportunities to give its implementation shape
same time
and substance.
making a response which has some meaning to the
The Act
lives of
offenders in the 80s when The Boys from
acknowledges the ineffectiveness of
the Blackstuff has
custody as a training experience and seeks to
more direct bearing than the
reduce the Courts’ reliance
works of Florence Hollis.
on
it as well as cutting
the
Unemployment and
length of sentence to the minimum. In return
race
are
the crucial issues
for
of
greater emphasis on non-custodial penalties
our
time and if we
have nothing to offer there
it looks for the assurance of some limits, con-
we
are certainly irrelevant. But we have, and it
tainment if
is the capacity to respond to different demands in
you like. But it is an exaggeration to
a changing environment which represents the
suggest that a Day Centre or Hostel, a social skills
relevance of which Bill Jordan speaks. Yet that
programme which the offender has contracted to
attend in full
must not be the ‘Bray’ cynicism of...
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