Hidden voices: Practitioner perspectives on the early histories of probation in Ireland

Abstract

Probation practice, past and present, is under-researched in Ireland, with limited attention paid to the personal accounts of the people of probation such as administrators, probation officers, clients and rehabilitation workers. This article presents findings from the first phase of a project which aims to construct a comprehensive and multi-faceted historical account of probation practice in Ireland from the perspective of core stakeholders. It begins with an overview of its 'formal' history, before presenting key findings from interviews with probation officers who began work in the 1960s and 1970s. The core objectives of the project are to shed light on probation officers' occupational identities, map the probation sub-field, and bridge the 'governmentality gap' between official and frontline narratives; goals that are achieved through the application of an oral history methodology. A thematic framework of analysis is employed in order to better hear the individual and collective voices at the frontline of probation in Ireland during the timeframe.

Against Hibernian Exceptionalism

“…Against Hibernian exceptionalism were the forces behind Irish penal practices and policies in order to firmly establish the distinctive and generative ideas, meanings and desires driving actual penal practices in Ireland in the 1960-1970s (Brangan, 2021a, 2021bHealy & Kennefick, 2019;Healy & Kennefick, this volume)?…”

Unnesting the Matryoshka Doll: An Ecological Model of Probation and Parole Decision-Making in Ireland

“…The authors concluded that risk assessment tools are being used not to replace but to “formalize, guide and support clinical judgment” (Fitzgibbon et al, 2010, p. 168). Likewise, Healy and Kennefick (2019) found that the high levels of autonomy enjoyed by probation officers, fostered by loose and embryonic management structures, created space for innovation and resistance during the 1960s and 1970s. Frustrated with the sluggish and parochial nature of criminal justice policymaking at that time, some probation officers responded through innovation; for example, setting up new rehabilitation services to fill perceived gaps in provision.…”

Doing Criminology and Criminal Justice in Ireland: Perspectives From a Peripheral Nation

“…More recently, Ian O’Donnell and Yvonne Jewkes (2011) and Kilcommins et al (2004) have pointed to the release of prisoners at Christmas, or more particularly the “routine and mundane” approach taken to this, as a potential illustration of “the humanity that continues to characterize the Irish system, for all its flaws” (Kilcommins et al, 2004, p. 265). Irish probation practice, moreover, continues to be strongly motivated by penal welfarist concerns (Healy & Kennefick, 2019) and retains a strong commitment to clinical judgment over risk assessment techniques (Fitzgibbon et al, 2010; Hamilton, 2016). Despite patchy implementation, the widespread attraction of and to concepts (if not the mainstreaming) of restorative justice and restorative practices (Marder, 2019, 2022) could likewise indicate a desire for a supportive, forgiving justice—at least, for those deemed to deserve or have earned it.…”