Reflections on the Report

Abstract

There can be progressive alternatives and it is no credit to the Service or NAPO that they have not directed their attention to thinking them out and campaigning to achieve them. One such would be a reduction of offences for which a custodial sentence could be imposed.There are many offences which are a nuisance rather than a danger as the Report itself comments (para. 160), and where the preventive effect of custody is dubious. The resources thus released from institutions, together with any other resources available, if channelled into developing real alternatives, e.g. job-training, literacy schemes, hostels, lower caseloads for probation officers and many other alternatives based on the needs of the offender, would be more likely than the Younger Report to facilitate a move away from custody, the stated aim of the Report. THERE is at least one respect in which both supporters and critics of the recently issued Younger Report could unite in welcoming it, that is, in as much as the report compels probation officers to think more clearly about the image of their job, about the purpose and content of their work. The Younger Report contains a number of &dquo;radical&dquo; proposals for the treatment of young offenders between the ages of 17 and 21 and for the future organisation and roles of the probation and prison services. It is to be regretted in my view, that the authors of such a report, however distinguished in their own right, do not include at least one probation officer with a working and up-to-date knowledge of the problems encountered by the Probation Service and the problems encountered by its clients. The fact that 12 of the Younger Committee of 19 have signed notes of dissent or reservation about proposals contained in the report could be said to raise doubts about the proposals as a whole, though they could also indicate the complexities involved in formulating a satisfactory and acceptable penal policy.The report contains some proposals that most probation officers would probably positively welcome, or at least regard as unexceptionable: concentration on remand on bail rather than in custody, especially regarding psychiatric assessment (paras. 74, 449, 456); expansion of provisions for probation hostels and increased funds for voluntary hostels, especially for homeless young redicidivists (paras. 415, 421, 424); and greater emphasis on social education, community service, day release courses, sensible and relevant work training and group discussions in the custodial establishments for young people where the ofhcers would not wear uniforms (58, 342, 345, 356, 370).The report proposes the amalgamation of senior detention centres, borstals and YP centres into a single system. Most probation offices I suppose are at least sceptical regarding the value of borstals, though equally many can cite examples of detention centre and borstal training which have provided a positive turning point in the lives of their clients.