Showing papers in "European journal of probation in 2014"

Defending probation: Beyond privatisation and security

Abstract: The current debate about the privatisation of probation in the UK has tended to set up a false dichotomy between state and private that diverts attention from the fact that privatisation as part of a ‘rehabilitation revolution’ intends, in fact, to continue the domination of the risk management approach. What is emerging is a public–private combination of increasingly centralised public sector probation and the private ‘security-industrial complex’ of global security corporations. An important consequence of this process is the annihilation of both residual elements of voluntary sector and community work within probation itself and of the smaller private charities and third sector organisations that have long collaborated with probation in traditional desistance work. This complex dynamic is a reflection of some of the key internal inconsistencies of neoliberalism as a political strategy.

Transforming Rehabilitation: Another example of English ‘exceptionalism’ or a blueprint for the rest of Europe?:

Abstract: The Transforming Rehabilitation agenda represents a radical departure in the way that rehabilitative services are delivered in England and Wales. Under the proposed changes, the existing Probation ...

Managing high risk offenders in the community: Compliance, cooperation and consent in a climate of concern:

Abstract: It is increasingly accepted that the change process underpinning the intended outcomes of community supervision, namely community safety, social rehabilitation and reintegration, cannot be achieved without the service user's active involvement and participation in the process. Their consent, compliance and cooperation is therefore necessary to achieving these outcomes and yet, when it comes to very high risk sexual and violent offenders, in the pursuit of community safety, control oriented, preventative practices predominate over change focused, participatory approaches. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 professionals' and 26 service users' to explore how, under the auspices of MAPPA, the supervisory process is enacted and experienced and the extent and means through which it affects people’s willingness to accept or invest in not only the process but the purpose of supervision. It is argued that how the process of community supervision is experienced and what it comprises, not only shapes the outcomes of supervision, but also the nature of consent, compliance and cooperation. We conclude by advocating for more participatory processes and practices to promote service users' active engagement in, and ownership of, the process of change, and in that, the realisation of both the normative dimensions and intended outcomes of community supervision.

A ‘back to basics’ approach to offender supervision: Does working alliance contribute towards success of probation?:

Abstract: Working alliance (WA) considers the bond between two people, and their ability to work collaboratively to set goals and tasks. In the present study, WA was applied to probation to assess the relati...

Upgrading electronic monitoring, downgrading probation: Reconfiguring ‘offender management’ in England and Wales:

Abstract: England and Wales is currently privatizing most of its Probation Service and simultaneously planning to create the largest and most advanced electronic monitoring (EM) scheme in the world, using co...

Consent to Probation in England and Wales: How it was Abolished, and Why it Matters

Abstract: Much of probation theory and probation training in Britain during the 1980s emphasised the importance of ‘contracts’ or negotiated agreements between probation officers, probationers and the sentencing Court – for example, joint decision-making was central to the influential ‘non-treatment paradigm’ and its variants. However, the legal requirement of consent to a probation order was abolished in 1997, partly because it was seen as diminishing the authority of the Court. This article discusses the arguments and attitudes that lay behind abolition, and considers how far the absence of formal consent should be seen as making a difference in practice. Recent studies of supervision skills, therapeutic alliance, compliance with probation, sentencer involvement in supervision, and the role of individual choice in desistance from offending all point to the continuing importance of co-operation and joint ownership of the supervision agenda. Although these can exist in the absence of a formal requirement for consen...

French third sector participation in probation and reentry: Complementary or competitive?

Abstract: In France, the third sector is virtually in sole charge of pre-sentence reports, prisoners’ resettlement, and prisoners’ families and victims’ support. It is increasingly in charge of supporting offenders’ reentry and rehabilitation in the community, of community work, of France’s equivalent of approved premises or half-way houses, of treatment programmes, and, in certain cases, of supervision itself. Unlike in England and Wales, there has not been a deliberate privatisation agenda in this jurisdiction; the third sector has simply gradually been forced to undertake the social work that state probation services have progressively forsaken. The French third sector today has little in common with its 19th century origins: it has become much more professionalised. However, it has kept its deep-seated community roots intact and is more innovative and flexible than the prison-imbedded state probation services. For these reasons, it is a much appreciated partner for the judiciary and local authorities. However, on a par with state probation, the third sector is yet to undergo an evidence-based practices revolution and policy-makers do not seem to be concerned by the outcome of their actions.

Transforming Rehabilitation: What lessons might be learned from prison privatisation?:

Abstract: Drawing upon empirical data collected during HMP Birmingham’s privatisation in 2011, this article explores the prospects of competition increasing performance in the delivery of ‘probation services’ in England and Wales. The constraints and challenges that stem from the public procurement rules and their manner of implementation are highlighted, alongside the adverse impacts that competition can have upon organisational culture. Together with current evidence about the (mixed) performance of privately managed prisons, the article argues that the Government’s faith in competition as a panacea solution to improve public services is misplaced and that too few lessons are being learned from commissioning mistakes.

Yes, no, possibly, maybe: Community sanctions, consent and cooperation:

Abstract: This article explores the significance of consent to community sanctions and measures. The value of consent derives from the principle of autonomy and rights to freedom and dignity. While normally ...

The quality of probation supervision: Comparing practitioner accounts in England and Scotland:

Abstract: Whilst community sanctions and measures in the UK have enjoyed considerable academic focus on effectiveness and ‘what works’ (see McGuire, 1995; Maguire et al., 2010), until recently analysts have neglected practices and processes associated with the routine supervision of offenders in the community. Two recent studies of quality in the practice of offender supervision in Scotland and England begin to address this gap by exploring practitioners’ understandings of quality in each jurisdiction (Grant and McNeill, 2014; Robinson et al., 2013a, 2013b; Shapland et al., 2012). This article compares results from both studies, exploring convergence and divergence across key themes and offering a deeper understanding of what quality means in two distinct but connected jurisdictions. Despite significant and enduring differences in the formal arrangements for, and policy contexts of, probation services in England and Wales and in Scotland, our findings demonstrate substantial and significant similarity across what p...

Rehabilitation: What does ‘good’ look like anyway?:

Abstract: This article explores the need for a clearer vision of what ‘good’ looks like in the rehabilitation of offenders, whether in prison or in the community. Such a vision is needed to underpin not only...

Resilience of Dutch probation officers: A critical need for a critical profession:

Abstract: This article presents the first research findings into the resilience of Dutch probation officers. The research has been a part of European-funded SPORE project, that aimed to identify approaches t...

‘The customer is always right’? Consumerism and the probation service

Abstract: The probation service of England and Wales has faced ongoing change to its structures and challenge to its theory and value base throughout its history. Recent years have seen an acceleration in the scope of this change with sizable budget cuts alongside the threat of competition and subsequent privitisation of probation services. This article explores whether the more fundamental but subtle challenge to practice may yet come not from explicit governmental policy, but the underlying consumerist social structures at play that operate not only in governance, but also in the mindset of the public, practitioners and probationers alike.

Informed consent as a requirement for probation work with (in)voluntary clients: Probationers’ and probation officers’ perspectives:

Abstract: Offenders’ consent is incorporated in Croatian legislation as a necessary element for the execution of probation measures and sanctions. However, legal provisions, which are in accordance with cont...

Consent and cooperation of the unfree – introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract: The idea for this special issue of the European Journal of Probation originates from discussions within a European academic network, the COST Action on Offender Supervision, which commenced its work in 2012.1 In the first book resulting from its work (McNeill and Beyens, 2013), which comprised reviews of literature relevant to four Working Groups, we promised to attend to certain ‘cross-cutting’ issues that we think are crucial to offender supervision because they concern all national systems or jurisdictions and because they concern common underlying values and offenders’ rights in Europe (Morgenstern and Larrauri, 2013). All four of the COST Action’s Working Groups have come across the issue of the offender’s consent before or during supervision. Obviously, this question must be discussed from the point of view of the offender himor herself and third persons affected by supervision: it thus relates to the interests of the Working Group (WG) on Experiencing Supervision. Equally, those who are responsible for supervising offenders have to deal with the question of how to obtain their consent and (if and) how to achieve their cooperation – a task for the WG on Practising Supervision. The WG concerned with DecisionMaking has also been confronted with this issue because certain decisions are dependent upon or follow from the offender giving, refusing or withdrawing consent. And lastly, the issue also has a European dimension, relating to common human rights standards as well as cross-border implications and thus relates to the work of the fourth WG on European Norms, Policy and Practice. So, ‘consent’ seemed to be a compelling theme, to which a whole issue of this journal could easily be dedicated. The reader may, however, have noticed that we have also used the term ‘cooperation’ to describe the theme of this special issue. We did this in recognition of the multi-disciplinary nature – and interests – of our research network, and the potentially very different perspectives that could be brought to bear on the issues of interest here. These, we think, go well beyond consent in its purely legal sense, potentially incorporating attitudes, behaviours and negotiations over the whole length of a period of supervision and in a variety of possible contexts beyond the courtroom. We also thought it important to acknowledge that in the context of supervisory sanctions and measures, some degree of cooperation (or compliance) on the part of the individual is essential to its meaning and effectiveness, in a way that is not true of other types of penalty (McNeill and Robinson, 2013). In any case, both terms (consent and cooperation) in our understanding are linked to the idea that an offender who is supervised must not be seen as a mere object 561147 EJP0010.1177/2066220314561147European Journal of ProbationEditorial 2014

Consent and co-operation in community supervision – Denmark and Norway:

Abstract: Neither Danish nor Norwegian legislation has explicit references to European Rules on Community Sanctions and Measures (ERCSM), No. 31 or European Probation Rules (EPR), No. 6, on consent and co-operation. Attention is drawn to similarities and differences between Denmark and Norway in relation to legal regulations and practices concerning consent and co-operation. The analyses focus upon community supervision by the Probation Service and include the main forms of community sanctions in both countries. It is found that in spite of legal differences between the countries, their practices have a lot in common. The scope of discretionary power that is entrusted to the Probation Service regarding judgement of the offender’s suitability for community sanctions is debated; and the relationship between the rules on consent and cooperation in the ERCSM and EPR and the European Convention on Human Rights on the presumption of innocence and the prohibition of forced labour is questioned.

Consent and cooperation in the Greek context: Rhetoric and praxis:

Abstract: The core alternative measures in Greece have traditionally been implemented without supervision in the community. Since the early 1990s, however, new community measures have been introduced, follow...

Book Review: F McNeill and K Beyens (eds), Offender Supervision in Europe

Abstract: The opening pages of Offender Supervision in Europe challenge the reader to consider the notion of ‘mass supervision’ across Europe. Untold research hours have been spent analysing mass incarceration, but the prison population numbers look decidedly puny next to the burgeoning numbers subject to supervision. As the authors show, community supervision is not only increasing quantitatively, but also seeping from confines of the court-ordered community penalties and licence supervision to form part of an increasing array of early release, risk management and pre-sentence schemes. This book argues that supervision is both under-theorised and under-researched. In response to this, the COST research network on offender supervision in Europe was established in 2012. This group includes around 100 scholars and practitioners from 20 countries whose aims are to exchange, increase and deepen knowledge about offender supervision in Europe. The introduction of the book provides information on the network’s composition and aims and explains that its work is planned in four phases; this book being the culmination of the first phase only. The tasks of this stage were to review existing knowledge, assess the extent of research evidence into offender supervision, identify methodological limitations in the existing research and identify significant gaps in knowledge. The extent of collaboration involved in this endeavour is reflected in the number of ‘associate authors’ involved in the research reviewed for each chapter. In order to gather information in a systematic way, each researcher was invited to submit a country report reviewing research in their own jurisdictions. The research network is organised into four thematic working groups. Each group has contributed one of the four core chapters of the book whose theme reflects the focus of the group that produced it, those being experiencing supervision, decision-making and supervision, practicing supervision and European norms, policy and practice. Chapter 2 on ‘experiencing supervision’ examines the lived, subjective experiences of those receiving or affected by supervision. The authors of Chapter 3 on decision making and supervision investigate the processes involved in the dispensation and administration of offender supervision. They consider the principles developed to determine the structure, content and purposes of supervision, the roles of those deciding upon and overseeing the content of supervision, issues related to the significance and boundaries of compliance and the processes and repercussions of enforcement. 540569 EJP0010.1177/2066220314540569European Journal of ProbationBook Review 2014

Book Review: Sonja Snacken and Els Dumortier (Eds), Resisting Punitiveness in Europe? Welfare, Human Rights and Democracy

Abstract: This edited collection of chapters arose from a seminar, ‘Factors of Criminalization – A European Comparative Approach’, which took place in April 2007, within the wider context of the CRIMPREV Coordinated Action project from 2006–2009 (an interdisciplinary consortium of 30 participants from 10 European countries, see http://ec.europa. eu/research/social-sciences/projects/226_en.html). In the introductory chapter, Sonja Snacken and Els Dumortier outline the contents and describe the varied contributions to academic knowledge and debates. The chapters are divided into three main sections: ‘Punishment and Welfare – From Correlations to Interactions’; ‘Punishment and Human Rights – Shield or Sword?’; and ‘Punishment and Democracy – Which Role for Victims and Public Opinion?’ Importantly, Snacken and Dumortier also critically discuss the concept of punitiveness itself. The topical relevance and (for an Anglophone readership) fresh intellectual scope offered by the European viewpoints in this edited collection are immediately apparent and particularly enticing, not least for engaging with, but also shifting the usual frames of reference. Beyond this, the book has a campaigning aim of turning

Book Review: C Knight, Emotional Literacy in Criminal Justice: Professional Practice with Offenders

Abstract: To this observer, our society’s recent collective experience of crime seems filled with new heights of emotion. Offences such as the murder of Lee Rigby, the abuse perpetrated by Jimmy Saville and the 2011 London riots have led to outpourings of emotion – anger, fear, disgust – and these responses perhaps signal a shift towards a renewed culture of what Bottoms calls ‘popular punitiveness’ (Bottoms, 1995). The government strives to appear ever ‘tougher’ on crime to appease this ‘public’: lights out at 10pm for young offenders, a ban on books sent to prisons, an ongoing legal challenge about the right of prisoners to vote. In this climate, a book that rigorously explores the place and value of emotion in working with offenders, the relationship between worker and service user to increase motivation and achieve positive change, underpinned by a clear framework of human rights and a commitment to a values-based practice, is extremely welcome. Knight argues the case for the efficacy of emotional intelligence – uncovering and using positive emotions – in the rehabilitation of offenders, and in the development of effective practice by professionals. In doing so, she draws on research undertaken with practitioners, and creates a clear evidence-base for the benefits of such an approach. This is a timely contribution; the importance of emotional literacy has been previously explored in social work (Howe, 2008), and perhaps this development has been slower in the field of criminal justice because there emotion itself is highly contested ground. Knight explores the historic drive towards rationality and logic in the criminal justice system, and the exclusion of emotion as a force that could cloud the due process of the law (Karstedt et al., 2011). The emergence of rationality as the dominant discourse in work with offenders was no doubt a response to the danger of a system motivated by negative emotions of revenge, fear and anger (p. 19). However, Knight highlights the tension created for practitioners by the ‘dichotomy between the presentation of criminal justice as an emotion-free zone and the reality for practitioners, offenders, victims and witnesses within the system’ (p. 2) – a reality experienced as emotional. One senses Knight is seeking a model that resolves this tension in a balance between cognition and emotion, and the relevance of this model of emotional literacy lies in its ability to mitigate against both the risk posed by the dominance of scientific rigour to the exclusion of humanity, and the supremacy of emotion that interferes with fact. In the harnessing of 561148 EJP0010.1177/2066220314561148Book ReviewBook Reviews 2014

Book Review: Johannes Wheeldon, After the Spring: Probation, Justice Reform, and Democratization from the Baltics to Beirut

Abstract: that little actual motivational interviewing was ever delivered to offenders. However, the authors do suggest that CCP combined with motivational interviewing did make an impact with the high risk of reoffending group. This is a fascinating book that looks in great detail at what actually happens between workers and offenders and if it did make a difference. I think it has a lot of helpful information for practitioners, managers and policy makers. My only minor criticism was that virtually every contributor starts by looking at Bottoms’ and then Robinson and McNeill’s work and that did get a little repetitive when reading the whole book. The book ends by suggesting that a new area of work will be to look at the impact of the introduction of private sector providers into the probation world in England and Wales and whether this will impact on offender worker relationships. I look forward to reading that book.

Book Review: Mary Anne McFarlane and Rob Canton (eds), Policy Transfer in Criminal Justice. Crossing Cultures, Breaking Barriers:

Abstract: literate practice. Knight explores the development of ‘self-awareness’ and ‘self-regulation’ in practitioners, and the use of emotional literacy to build relationships with offenders and achieve change. In Chapter 8 we shift to the macro level to consider the role of emotions in organisational life; Knight argues that the impetus to neutrality and professionalism in criminal justice organisations leaves practitioners to manage the emotion of their work in isolation. Perhaps a useful comparison can here be drawn with social work: is emotion silenced there in the same way? And if not, is this related to the issue of gender previously explored? That Knight’s work raises further questions for the reader is no flaw, but a sign of the relevance of this subject. The book concludes with clear recommendations for developing the emotional literacy of professionals, and firmly rooting this in organisational practice. The benefits of clinical supervision, debriefing and mentoring schemes, the provision of training opportunities and the recruitment and promotion of practitioners with emotionally literacy or the capacity to develop these skills are all discussed. A new definition of emotional literacy is posited, drawing to the fore the ethical base for this model of work. The thorough rooting of this definition in probation practice is an ambitious goal in the current climate, but the skill in Knight’s work is in just how achievable she makes it seem.