'In relation to current areas of Probation, how is the work with offenders affected by the changes within the probation service'?
‘In relation to current areas of Probation, how is the work with offenders affected by the changes within the probation service’?
A five year strategy on reducing reoffending was published on the 9th February 2006 which outlined the policy direction for public protection, community sentencing, offender management and organisational changes, such as the creation of Probation Trusts and the system of commissioning.
To answer the question I will focus on Offender Management and also the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which came into affect last year. I feel that these two issues will affect our work with offenders.
One of the key aims of offender management was to emphasise on end to end offender management, this will mean that there will a named offender manager for every offender. They will manage the offender, often from before they are sentenced, throughout their prison sentence, and then during time on a community sentence or on licence in the community. Offender managers will be responsible for making sure that they are both punished and rehabilitated properly; and who will get involved as early as possible in managing the offender. Many of the most regular offenders face complex, multiple and inter-related problems, and sorting out these issues one at a time will not work, they need to be managed in the round, with interventions planned and put in the right order. Due to offenders experiencing many different relationships during their sentence the offender may feel that they are being passed from pillar to post. This type of experience is likely to be ineffective, it could even be counter-productive. So an offender manager can actually be seen as a broker, acting as a co-ordinator and monitor of the various services to be provided. Strong partnerships across government and beyond are being built to address the many linked problems that contribute to offending which are health, education and employment, housing, finance and social and family links. With regards to health, prisoner’s health has been moved into the mainstream, with Primary care trusts taking responsibility for prison health meaning that prisons will now be comparable with those outside. In 2004-2005 about 60,000 drug users engaged with clinical and CARAT services in prison and 5,000 drug rehabilitations programmes were completed. ( Home Office Statistics) What will also be improved on will be alcohol interventions and treatment for people with mental disorders. With regards to education and employment work is being done on cutting the numbers down on offenders who have poor basic skills. In 2004-2005 over 40,000 offenders were released from prison with an education, employment or training place to go to. (Home office Statistics). Housing is an issue too and working in conjunction with NOMS, HMPS, housing providers and supporting people arrangements the NPS will increase access for offenders to appropriate and sustainable accommodation. Work will also be done on working with partners at local and regional levels to help prisoners keep their accommodation while they are in prison. Focus will also be on developing services through voluntary partnerships to provide advice on finance, benefits and debt. Supporting offenders’ social and family links is often the key to successful resettlement, and can help sort out other problems like employment and housing, this means that areas will be expected to work closely with other agencies at a local level to ensure that work with individual offenders is set in the wider context of the whole family.
