ESSAYS

Essay on Strategies to Tackle Offending Behaviour

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The role of the probation service in the rehabilitation of offenders has never been more vital. Due, in part, to a shift in the socio-political climate and the prevalence of mass media interest in the penal system, more and more politicians and the public are questioning the efficacy of probation and asking for re-evaluations as to how it fits in with the wider notions of the criminal justice system.

Increasingly, policy makers are turning to more radical, non-custodial forms of justice to palliate the need for both a rigorous sentencing system and a curb on public spending regarding prisons. The words of an unnamed Home Secretary cited in Dick Whitfield's Introduction to the Probation Service (1998) rings true even now, some years after they were said:

"'Tough on Crime' became a mantra for both political parties with Michael Howard the then Conservative home secretary, emphasizing that'prison works', despite the fact that a predecessor had suggested that prison should be regarded as 'an expensive way of making a bad person worse'" (Whitfield, 1998: 17)

Whether it is the forms of restorative justice that have seen some popularity in Australia and New Zealand or the increasing faith in non-custodial sentencing such as the recent "clean up" scheme whereby offenders are designated public areas to pick up litter and clear away mess , the notion of criminal justice seems to be ever widening and policies put in place reflect this.

The recent business plan by the National Probation Service for England and Wales offers us a clear indication of just how crucial these concerns are with regard to the homogeneity of the probation service itself:

"The wider criminal justice agenda at probation area level must be maintained. Chief Officers have an important contribution to make to Local Criminal Justice Boards, which will become increasingly focused on post-conviction initiatives…This will require strong collaboration with the Court service and the police." (NPS, 2005: 6-7) As can be seen here, this Action Plan focuses heavily on the notion of probation as an integral part of the criminal justice system, providing a framework for post-conviction monitoring and guidance.

However a recent report by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales detailed that there was an increase of complaints relating specifically to the probation service of a staggering 47 per cent suggesting that, perhaps, the service's high ideals are failing to met in the everyday reality of offender's and probation officer's lives .

With this in mind, in this essay I would like to the look specifically at the probation service and asses its efficacy in providing an "effective framework for intervention with offending behaviour", drawing from both historical and contemporary notions of exactly what roles and responsibilities the probation services sets for itself. Such a discussion inevitably involves a consideration of the mechanisms of social classification and offender evaluation (Home Office, 2000; Home Office, 2004a), the everyday practice of probation (Whitfield, 1998; May, 1991) and the socio-political ideology behind its inception (Haxby, 1978; Raynor, 1988) and its continuing development (Home Office, 2003; NPS, 2005).

Before we can begin to assess the efficacy of any recent probation initiatives and responsibilities it is imperative to ask exactly what exactly is probation's role in the justice system which is, I think, best done through a brief survey of its historical roots and founding precepts.

As Whitfield suggests (1998: 11) the exact roots of the probation service are hard to discern being as they disparate and multi-faceted:

"The reality - like so much of the probation world - is more confusing and more pragmatic. The United Nations report which described probation's origns as being dependant on 'individual practical experimentation rather than a set of philosophical principles' was probably nearest the truth." (Whitfield, 1998: 11)

However, it is possible to isolate various paradigmatic traces in socio-political thinking that would, eventually, result in not only the formation of the probation service as we know it today but also, its enshrinement in legislation and legal statue.

In this way, the probation service's roots lie in the philanthropic and temperance movements of the nineteenth century. It was as a result of a widening concern for the efficacy of the penal system and the philosophy of what Michel Foucault termed "the carceral" episteme (Foucault, 1991: 293) that reformers such as Frederick Rainer in the US and Mathew Davenport in the UK began to search for other, less punitive, forms of punishment.

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