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This article suggests that a ‘culture of utility’, manifested in the central importance attached to producing specific outcomes, is prevalent in probation practice in England and Wales, and this is argued to be unconducive to humanistic practice. Comments on probation training are integrated into the discussion and it is suggested that here also a ‘culture of utility’ is influential. An underlying theme of the article is that it may be more accurate to see probation as preoccupied by the consideration of ‘utility’ than to view it as increasingly punitive. Alternative ways of thinking are possible but difficult to realise.