John Harding

Which Way Probation? A Correctionalor Community Justice Service?

Martin Narey’s appointment as the Commissioner for Correctional Services is likely to have a profound effect on the development of the probation service over the next five years. His responsibilities in terms of oversight include: prisons, probation, the Parole Board and the National Youth Justice Board. The Criminal Justice Bill 2003 creates a range of new penalties including ‘Custody Plus’, ‘Custody Minus’ and intermittent custody. The overall effect will be more people imprisoned and a greater seamlessness between prison and probation. Given this process, the author considers that a drive towards an integrated correctional service in a third Labour administration appears likely. He argues that probation should remain separate from the prison service and regain its former identity with its key stakeholders, the local courts and local communities.

Some reflections on risk assessment, parole and recall

A few high-profile murders by released prisoners, subject to parole and life licences, have drawn governmental and public attention to the process of the parole board decision to release an offender and the quality of supervision under licence by probation areas. Reports by the Chief Inspector of Probation indicate that, in some parts of the parole process, too little attention is paid by prison and probation staff and parole board members to issues of risk of harm, static risk, instrumental violence, conditions of release and the thoroughgoing end-to-end management of prisoners. This article discusses these issues and examines some of the changes in parole responsibilities since the Criminal Justice Act 2003. In particular, it looks at the impact of recalls to custody following a breach of licence requirements and extended sentence recalls.

Barge Cruising: an Experiment in Group Work

OVER recent years probation officers have shown increasing initiative in providing recreational opportunities for juvenile and young adults under supervision. Summer camps, office-centred playgroups, canoeing and hoslelling have become established features of many probation departments, perhaps reflecting the caseworker’s awareness of the limitations imposed by the one-to-one office interview and the need to impinge more actively on the probationers’ environ-

Forty years on A celebration of community service by offenders

John Harding was the senior probation officer/community service in the Nottinghamshire Home Office pilot area from 1972 to 1974. He was the Chief Probation Officer for Inner London from 1993 to 2001. In this short comment piece, the author provides an insightful personal account of the introduction and implementation of community service in England and Wales.

Step by steppe - progressing probation in Russia

This article seeks to trace the development of probation services in the Russian Federation in recent years. It illustrates those developments by reference to two contrasting projects involving collaboration between Russian and European Probation Services. The first is a pilot training project for probation officers organized by a Human Rights NGO in Russia, whilst the second is an EU led policy and practice initiative with the Russian Ministry of Justice to strengthen alternative sanctions and to introduce electronic monitoring on a pilot basis.

Supporting People — Opportunities and Threats Facing the Housing and Support Needs of Offenders

The authors give a view from the Probation Service in Inner London about the potential impact of the Governments Supporting People proposals on the care of offenders in the community.

Reparation: Prospects for Criminal Justice

Pilot projects in one metropolitan area suggest that reparation schemes, tried successfully in the United States and New Zealand, can be adopted for local use in and out of court, and be well received by victims of crime.

Community Service— a Beginning

TRADITIONALI,Y, community service has been developed by middle class groupings where the volunteers are usually of a higher actual class than those being served. Informal helping, however, has always gone on at the neighbourhood level ~in which the helper is not specially labelled as a volunteer. Probation officers will not be short of examples where offenders have inconspicuously given service in their own community or neighbourhood. Indeed, over the last few years social work agencies have begun to recognise the potentiality of using the offender as a helper in the community. How has this movement begun and what lessons have we already learned which can be of relevance to the new