A debate was held on 5th March 2003 on rethinking crime and punishment (Transcript RSA lectures) in which Trevor Grove, a journalist and magistrate summed up the position quite nicely:
“Community punishments…they are not perceived by the public as being effective; they are seen as a soft option. Nobody actually sees them happening. Local papers don’t report on the success stories. It is news to me that eight million hours of work was done by people sentenced by people like me: we don’t get the feedback, never mind the public” (pg 10)
The role of the probation service includes public protection, reduction of re-offending, and rehabilitation of offenders, ensure proper punishment in the community and to raise awareness of the damaging effect of crime on a community both directly and indirectly. It combines risk assessment and management to ensure that the offender is placed in the right environment to best rehabilitate.
In order therefore to sell the probation service to the punitive members of the public the starting point would be to explain the possible reasons people commit crimes, what the community punishments are, how they are enforced and affect re-offending, but also look at prison at its effects on the offender.
So why do people commit crimes? In his book The Psychology of Criminal Justice (1992) Geoffrey Stephenson argues that, whereas there is little evidence that delinquents and criminals have distinctive personalities that incline them to criminality, the criminal tendency is associated with the development of characteristic modes of thinking. The function of this cognitive style is often the justification of criminal behaviour. These modes break down into Justification: Rich people can afford to be robbed of their possessions, Excuses: In some neighbourhoods you need to commit crime to survive, and Denial: Most of what people call crime doesn’t harm anyone. A major factor in the rehabilitation of offenders is to work on these modes of thinking and recognise the need to change. Through delivering a positive role model for the offender in a Probation Officer, they can work together to understand the offenders’ way of thinking and gradually take steps encourage positive thinking and reduce anti-social behaviour. In his book Probation Values, Brian Williams says:
“Probation workers base their work on the assumption that offenders can change, that recidivism is not inevitable and that the nature of professional relationships with clients is influential” (pg 20).
We have seen that a main problem is lack of understanding of what the alternatives to prison are. There are four main types of community sentence: community rehabilitation orders, which involve close supervision by an officer and are tailored to included appropriate accredited programmes to help with particular problems or patterns of behaviour, community punishment – this is an alternative to imprisonment, which involves up to 240 hours of unpaid community work, a combination of these is a community punishment and rehabilitation order, and finally drug treatment and testing orders where the offender has a request in his order to receive treatment for a long standing drug dependence which necessitates criminal behaviours. In a Home Office press release on October 28th, an enhanced community punishment order was introduced which directly addresses anti-social behaviour, poor thinking skills and poor employment skills. Announcing this national roll out, Eithne Wallis, director general of the probation service said:
“Each year offenders have to do seven million hours of rigorous work for their community as their punishment. It is strictly applied and enforced. As well as being a tough punishment, it cuts crime. It gives offenders new skills that change anti-social behaviour, makes meaningful amends to local communities and is designed to reduce re-offending by building on best practice and lessons learnt”
Far from being a “soft option” as earlier stated by punitive members of the public, community orders require a lot of dedication from the offender to actually succeed. If the offender misses two appointments, programmes or days at work, or breaches their drug treatment and testing order, occupational guidelines state the probation officer has to enforce the order and send them back to Court for reassessment, which could result in them being sent to prison instead.
Punitive members of the public of course believe prisons to be the most effective form of punishment for offenders but the following are accounts from prisoners and offenders on community punishment. In the journal Criminal Justice Matters, an anonymous account was written by a UK prisoner serving five and a half years entitled Prison: A view from the inside. The next two quotes taken from this article help to demonstrate the hopelessness prisoners feel, what is missing from the system and highlights possible advantages to serving a community sentence.
“Prolonged prison makes future criminality more viable – detachment from social groups, institutionalisation, eroding of self-esteem all impact the already reduced alternatives of an ex-con”
“Beyond the punishment of prison, true reform depends on helping resolve personal problems, providing useful skills/training for real jobs and support beyond the gate… dumping offenders outside with everything lost and nothing to offer but a criminal record to employers only perpetuates crime”.
The program ‘Think First’ is just one of the accredited programmes run by the probation service provides an answer to many of the problems listed above. Working closely in groups, offenders are encouraged to learn problem solving skills and attitudes to become more effective members of the community, and giving them the opportunity to rehearse for real life situations. Many offenders will also have the chance to learn more practical skills through the supervised work they carry out as part of their sentence such as landscaping and gardening, painting and decorating and carpentry, which will stand them in better stead for finding work. Offenders are also helped to improve their basic skills – literacy and numeracy as part of the rehabilitation process.
Another telling article was published in April 2003 in The Observer newspaper. Paul Rossendale was on probation when he wrote his account of his life so far and experience of prisons:
“I was terrified when I first went to prison, but I got used to it. It wasn’t scary, it wasn’t a deterrent, it was just boring…As soon as I got out I went back to my old ways…. Sometimes I actually preferred being in prison. It’s just a way of life. You don’t have any responsibilities, everything is done for you”
“I (later) got 18 months probation to include a six month R&R (Reasonable and Reasoning) programme. A lot of the time doing R&R I wished I was back in jail because that was a lot easier…it’s definitely not an easy ride at all”
“You get to see how the victim feels, and the chain of people your crime affects. There were twelve in the (R&R) group, but some breached their contracts and went back to prison, so the group went down to nine”
As James Maguire points out in his book What Works? Reducing Re-offending that community sentences operated according to certain principles will have a positive effect on recidivism, whereas those that have strong punitive elements can increase recidivism by some twenty five percent, and G McIvor found that community service resulted in lower reconviction rates if the offender had an understanding of the purpose of the work, had direct contact with the beneficiary and could acquire new skills. (Sentenced to serve: Operation and impact of community service)
Another aspect though which needs to be considered and put to the punitive community is that of multi-agency work. Supervising officers have contacts within many authorities and partnership organisations to help prevent and remove any barriers to successful reintegration such as housing and benefits. This includes work with the prisons and released prisoners. In fact there is a new multi agency partnership between the prison services, probation services and Jobcentres called Progress to Work being rolled out across the country which ensures that released offenders are put straight onto training courses and given the correct help and benefit advice to help provide a successful resettlement.
So in conclusion it could be suggested that the punitive members of society don’t need to be ‘sold’ the idea of the probation service and its advantages, it simply needs to be more informed of the processes, aims and guidelines. The probation service is an integral part of the law enforcement community and should not be thought of as an opponent to the punishment system, rather an aide or collaborator. Just as nobody fits in the same shoe, no one punishment can be the most effective solution for every offender, and people should be and are evaluated individually on conviction to ensure the best option for him or her is the sentence handed out. As has been demonstrated, community punishments are often just as ‘hard to do’ and sometimes harder as the offender is made to address their behaviour head on, rather than languishing in a prison cell surrounded by other offenders passing on their knowledge – a school of crime and disorder?
Word Count: 1920
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Anonymous., (Summer 2003), Prison: A view from the inside, Criminal Justice Matters (Vol. 52, pp 24-25)
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Home Office Press Release., (28 Oct 2003) Enhancing Community Punishment, reference:290/2003. [On-Line]: Available:
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Maguire, J., (1995) What works: Reducing re-offending. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- McIvor, G., (1992) Sentenced to Serve: Operation and impact of community service by offenders. Avebury
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MORI, (2002) Perceptions of the National Probation Service: Research study conducted for National Probation Service. [On-line] Available:
- Rossendale, P., In his own words: the probationer (2003, April 27) The Observer.
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RSA Lectures, (2003) The Rethinking Crime and Punishment debate, [On-line Transcript] Available:
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Stead, M.,MacFadyen, L., Hastings G.,(Nov 2002) What do the public really feel about non-custodial penalties? [On-line] Available:
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Stephenson, G., (1992), The Psychology of Criminal Justice, (2nd ed.) Blackwell Publishers
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Williams, B., (1995), Probation Values. Birmingham: Venture Press.
