Can probation be rehabilitated?

Robinson, Gwen

doi:10.1111/hojo.12504

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 34 publications

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“…HMI Probation has stated that nationally probation continues be an organisation that is ‘struggling with major staffing issues, with under-trained officials coping with an unmanageable workload’ (Lowbridge, 2023). In this respect our findings support the assertion that probation is a sector undergoing a necessarily lengthy and complex process of restructuring but that it does so as ‘a post-traumatic organisation’ (Robinson, 2022) still contending with the harms of the hasty implementation and subsequent systemic flaws of the Transforming Rehabilitation reform programme as well as a global pandemic.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

A necessary but painful journey: Experiences of unification in a probation service region

et al. 2023

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In this article, we present some initial findings from the first year of a longitudinal study of the experiences of unification by staff in one Probation Service region. Their reaction to unification is explored as well as their hopes and fears regarding the newly unified service. Despite working in what was often presented as an unsettled and fractured environment marked by on-going staff shortages – whilst at the same time having to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic – amongst most participants there remained a high level of loyalty to the probation profession (or the idea of probation). However, while many expressed optimism regarding the longer-term prospects for the unified organisation, this was also overlaid with concerns about how unification would play out in the short to medium term. Their enduring sense of commitment and loyalty to their role was also being tested by what some saw as overbearing pressure to manage risk, coupled with the fear of being exposed if people whom they supervised committed a Serious Further Offence.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

A necessary but painful journey: Experiences of unification in a probation service region

et al. 2023

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Making Good?: A Study of How Senior Penal Policy Makers Narrate Policy Reversal

Annison,

Burke,

Carr

et al. 2023

The British Journal of Criminology

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This paper provides insights into the predominant styles of political reasoning in England and Wales that inform penal policy reform. It does so in relation to a particular development that constitutes a dramatic, perhaps even unique, wholesale reversal of a previously introduced market-based criminal justice delivery model. This is the ‘unification’ of probation services in England and Wales, which unwound the consequential privatization reforms introduced less than a decade earlier. This paper draws on in-depth interviews with senior policy makers to present a narrative reconstruction of the unification of probation services in England and Wales. Analogies with desistance literature are drawn upon in order to encapsulate the tensions posed for policy makers as they sought to enact this penal policy reform.

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For Better or Worse? Improving the Response to Domestic Abuse Offenders on Probation

Renehan,

Gadd

2024

The British Journal of Criminology

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As the Ministry of Justice looks to develop a ‘new generation’ of programmes to reduce reoffending, we reflect on what can be learnt from the only accredited domestic abuse programme in England and Wales, Building Better Relationships (BBR). Findings from an ethnographic study of BBR are situated within the Probation Inspectorate’s recent inspection of domestic abuse work within the newly unified Probation Service which revealed a fractured and overstretched workforce. Our central argument is that if we are to avoid making matters worse, practitioners must be equipped with the time, supervision and skill needed to maintain something akin to a ‘therapeutic alliance’, that will endure in moments of crisis in their own lives as well as those of their clients.

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Can probation be rehabilitated?

Cited by 4 publications

References 34 publications

A necessary but painful journey: Experiences of unification in a probation service region

A necessary but painful journey: Experiences of unification in a probation service region

Making Good?: A Study of How Senior Penal Policy Makers Narrate Policy Reversal

For Better or Worse? Improving the Response to Domestic Abuse Offenders on Probation

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