Probation Practice Research Articles

The value of ‘bearing witness’ to desistance

Sarah Anderson’s article, ‘The Value of “Bearing Witness” to Desistance’ (2016), aims to consider the relevance of trauma in work with offenders and the importance of ‘bearing witness’ to offenders’ experiences of trauma. Anderson explores its relevance to probation practice. We reflect on how being aware of our own life journeys and encounters with trauma can impact on such work, and this article seeks to highlight ways within practice that practitioners ‘bear witness’ and in doing so support offenders’ desistance journeys and risk reduction.

Everything That Is Old Is New Again—Old Again—New Again . . .

Since the decade of the 1970s, the policies and practices in probation, parole, and community corrections have vacillated between an emphasis on rehabilitation and enforcement, and most recently back to rehabilitation. While these paradigmatic shifts in ideology are driven by top management, generally at the behest of elected officials who are concerned with burgeoning costs and the desire not to appear soft on crime, it is what is done in everyday practice at the “street level” that determines if change actually occurs and is interpreted. This essay discusses probation and parole practices with regard to fluctuations in emphasis on the offender rehabilitation and law enforcement functions of probation and parole officers.

Self-Disclosure in Criminal Justice: What Form Does It Take and What Does It Achieve?

Self-disclosure, the act of therapists revealing something about themselves in the context of a professional relationship, has been linked with higher levels of effectiveness when used by correctional workers. However, it is poorly defined in both criminal justice policy and criminological research which has resulted in a lack of understanding about the potential risks and benefits to practice and practitioners. This article uses literature from other fields (namely, social work, counselling, and psychotherapy) to lay out what forms self-disclosure might take in the field of criminal justice. The article presents data that were generated as part of a larger project on emotional labour in probation practice in England. It analyses these data to argue that self-disclosure is used in two principle ways: to create and enhance a therapeutic relationship and in a more correctional way which is focused on criminogenic risk and need. We conclude by arguing that future research which seeks to identify a link between certain skills and effective outcomes needs to start with a much stronger definition of such skills as, otherwise, any effects are likely to be lost.

Hidden voices: Practitioner perspectives on the early histories of probation in Ireland

Probation practice, past and present, is under-researched in Ireland, with limited attention paid to the personal accounts of the people of probation such as administrators, probation officers, clients and rehabilitation workers. This article presents findings from the first phase of a project which aims to construct a comprehensive and multi-faceted historical account of probation practice in Ireland from the perspective of core stakeholders. It begins with an overview of its ‘formal’ history, before presenting key findings from interviews with probation officers who began work in the 1960s and 1970s. The core objectives of the project are to shed light on probation officers’ occupational identities, map the probation sub-field, and bridge the ‘governmentality gap’ between official and frontline narratives; goals that are achieved through the application of an oral history methodology. A thematic framework of analysis is employed in order to better hear the individual and collective voices at the frontline of probation in Ireland during the timeframe.

Probation officers for young offenders in 1920s Scotland

Relatively little is known about early probation systems in Scotland. While there has been growing interest in Scottish probation history, many aspects of early 20th century probation practice remain unexplored. This article looks in particular at the role of early juvenile probation officers, their background, their ethos, their guiding principles and methods. Probation in 1920s Scotland was a controversial topic that provoked much debate, chiefly concerning the appropriate personnel to act as probation officers and under what conditions should they operate. The article examines these debates regarding probation reform in the interwar period.

Enhancing probation practice and safety with smartphone applications

As technology continues to improve and become more intertwined with our everyday activities, more and more opportunities present themselves for using technology to enhance the work that we do. This article outlines the introduction of Samsung smartphones to a large number of the Department of Corrections’ workforce, as well as giving details on two applications that are being used to improve the day-to-day operations and safety of our community corrections staff in New Zealand. In early 2014, The New Zealand Department of Corrections rolled out Samsung smartphones to over 3000 staff, to aid them with their day-to-day work operations. The idea behind providing staff with smartphones was to allow staff to use their work email and calendar on-the-go, as well as to access the internet when out of the office. The introduction of smartphones represented a marked leap forward in staff mobility and productivity.

Recent Texas Cases Impacting the Wills, Probate, and Trust Practice

This article discusses recent judicial developments relating to the Texas law of intestacy, wills, estate administration, trusts, and other estate planning matters. The discussion of each case concludes with a moral, i.e., the important lesson to be learned from the case. By recognizing situations that have led to time consuming and costly litigation in the past, estate planners can reduce the likelihood of the same situations arising with their clients.

Probation practice in the information age

This article analyses the implications of the greater use of technology and information in probation practice. Using data generated via an ethnography of probation, the article firstly argues that probation in England and Wales now exists in what scholars would identify as ‘the information age’ (i.e. that computers and other technologies work to define and create probation practice as we know it). The article goes on to use actor-network theory to analyse two ‘heterogeneous networks’ to explore the way in which probation practitioners and the technologies they use interact to create particular forms of practice. The article argues that unless we understand the technology that underpins practice we cannot fully understand practice. Finally, the article considers the implications of this analysis for probation post-Transforming Rehabilitation (TR).

Questions of Legitimacy in Probation Practice after Transforming Rehabilitation

AbstractIn this article, we discuss the impact of changes to the organisational structure of probation on the legitimacy of probation practice. In particular, we explore how the division of probation into the National Probation Service (NPS) and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) could affect the self‐legitimacy felt by probation practitioners in both organisations and the implications for probation of a possible lack of overall legitimacy post‐Transforming Rehabilitation (TR). This article is based on empirical research exploring the views of probation staff of the (then) impending changes introduced via TR and reflections on what has happened since.

更生保護法施行前後における保護観察実務の動向と今後の展望 (課題研究 刑事司法と福祉の連携の在り方-犯罪行為者の社会復帰支援の現状と課題)

更生保護法施行前後における保護観察実務の動向と今後の展望 (課題研究 刑事司法と福祉の連携の在り方-犯罪行為者の社会復帰支援の現状と課題)

Dominant Principles and Models of Treatment Work with Adult Offenders in the Community

In its introduction the paper provides a presentation of probation activities in Croatia, many of which also imply treatment work with offenders. As part of the rehabilitation approach, the Croatian probation service follows the principles of the Risk-Need-Responsivity Model (RNR Model) and the principles of the Good Lives Model (GLM) to a certain extent. This paper analyses the RNR Model from the perspective of existing benefits and criticisms, with particular consideration of the responsivity principle, which is pointed out as especially challenging in foreign literature. The short presentation of the GLM is followed by a comparison of these two models, whose principles currently lead to great debates, due to potential differences in approaches to the offender. Models and associated principles are then analysed from the perspective of the challenge of their implementation in the performance of probation activities. The conducted analyses can contribute to the efficiency of the Croatian probation service and also be useful to scientists in the validation of the probation actuarial instrument and research of the local probation practice.

Penal Reform and Probation in Europe: Positive Change of Direction, ‘Nudges to the Rudder’, or ‘Steady as She Goes’?

AbstractPenal policy can be influenced by a range of factors, including fear of crime, punitive priorities, and perceived future threats to public safety. Nevertheless, there have been some reductions in numbers in prison globally, echoed in reducing numbers on probation supervision in Europe, in recent times. Such trends raise the question of whether there is a discernible movement towards penal reform, and if so, what influences such movement. The possible influence of supranational bodies, changes in communications media, greater attention to former service users, and generally improved stakeholder engagement, are considered. In particular, the influence of probation practice and its values on the wider criminal justice system and penal policy are explored. The author concludes that offender rehabilitation may have come through a challenging period to become again a central (yet fragile) pillar of penal policy, evidencing in turn the ‘green shoots’ of further potential positive change.

Spillover and work–family conflict in probation practice: Managing the boundary between work and home life

Based on the close relationship between social work and probation practice, this article uses and develops Greenhaus and Beutell’s (1985) work–family conflict model to understand the spillover from probation work to practitioners’ family lives. We examine the ways spillover affects practitioners’ family lives and show that these conflicts stem from desensitisation and the work being community based. They also arise in more imagined ways, which we describe as altruistic imaginings and darker imaginings. The article concludes by highlighting the need for organisations to acknowledge spillover and its effects and makes suggestions around the provision of organisational policies. We conclude by considering what probation providers, as employers, might do to improve the situation as well as some reflective tools that practitioners might use to consider their own work–life balance with a view to improving staff wellbeing as well as effective service provision.

The value of ‘bearing witness’ to desistance

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on making probation practice ‘desistance-focused’. It does this through considering the body of knowledge on responding to trauma through ‘bearing witness’ to the person’s story – attending to their values and lived experience – and applying this to probation practice. It addresses why the literature on trauma has relevance to work with people who have offended. Then it explores the epistemological, performative, moral and political dimensions of ‘bearing witness’ and the relevance of each of these to desistance. It highlights the potentially critical role of the audience (in this case the probation practitioner) in the co-construction of the desistance narrative. Additionally, the paper argues that insufficient attention has been paid to the moral space in which such narratives are co-constructed. In a context where the voices of people who have offended are silenced and their experiences of victimisation or structural violence are written out, I suggest that ‘being present and being with another’ (Naef, 2006: 146) enacts a moral responsibility to support a transition from object to subject and to recognise and endorse the humanity of those who have committed crimes. The paper provides a practice example of ‘bearing witness’ to desistance. Finally, it addresses potential challenges in asking probation officers to ‘bear witness’ to desistance.

2015 Developments in Connecticut Estate and Probate Law

This Article provides a summary of recent developments affecting Connecticut estate planning and probate practice. Part I discusses 2015 legislative developments. Part II surveys selected 2015 case law relevant to the field.

Assessing the current state of juvenile probation practice: A statutory analysis

ABSTRACTThe 2002 Desktop Guide to Good Juvenile Probation Practice indicated that a state's juvenile justice system should reflect a “balanced and restorative justice” (BARJ) model. Over a decade has passed since this publication, yet little is known about whether juvenile probation followed the BARJ. This study employed a statutory analysis to examine the differences between the legally prescribed roles of juvenile probation officers and the BARJ model across 50 states and the District of Columbia. Results indicated that even with significant reforms and statutory changes overtime, juvenile probation practices still fall short of meeting the basic tenets of restorative justice.

Revising Wolff’s support for retribution in theories of punishment: desistance, rehabilitation, and accommodating individual and social accounts of responsibility

ABSTRACTJonathan Wolff supports retribution as a justification for punishment in his book Ethics and Public Policy: A Philosophical Enquiry, arguing that the victim’s status and self-respect has been undermined by a crime committed. Punishment responds to these ‘social violations’, with the criminal justice system acting as a ‘communicative mechanism’ to the offender and victim, restoring the status of the victim by punishing the offender. Consistent with Wolff’s ‘bottom-up’ methodological approach to applied ethics, this paper defends his conclusions supporting retribution, for certain crimes at least, but his position needs qualifying and supplementing. We mount a defence of retribution which, contrary to popular views, seeks to accommodate both individual and social accounts of responsibility. This accommodation is achieved by holding the individual offender responsible via retributive justifications of punishment, while also acknowledging the social responsibility of restoring the status of the offender given the social injustice experienced by many offenders, prior to their offending. Following this analysis, and a consideration of empirical studies concerning probation practice, we recommend the practice of desistance as most likely to help reduce re-offending, alongside the social responsibility of other state representatives and social institutions for building socio-economic capital for the offender.

Fragmenting probation

A continuing criticism of the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms is that they fragment the process of probation supervision and, as a consequence, are likely to damage the network of relationships (between workers from different agencies as well as between supervisor and supervisee) that encourages compliance with orders and desistance from offending (PA/PCA, 2013; Ugwudike, 2013; McNeill and Robinson G, 2013; Robinson A, 2014). This short article reports on a research study that explored probation practice in an increasingly fragmented environment. The article outlines the implications of some of the study’s findings for the developing practice of community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) and highlights points of particular concern if good practice is to be maintained and practitioner expertise sustained.

How to Change the Philosophy and Practice of Probation and Supervised Release

How to Change the Philosophy and Practice of Probation and Supervised Release

How working with psychologists has influenced probation practice

The Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway initiative has been in operation now for over a year and a number of different projects are working across the country to support its implementation. These projects involve health and probation working in partnership to enhance the case management of offenders who present in a way that is consistent with a personality disorder diagnosis. In other words, agencies are working together as never before to share expertise, to collaborate and co-produce risk assessments and sentence plans and to support offenders more effectively, particularly at times of transition. So what is the impact? This paper uses real life case examples to report some of the innovative practice developments that have come about during the first year of one such project (in Yorkshire/Humberside). It also uses qualitative data from focus groups with offender managers to explore the impact of working differently. The paper will highlight some of the helpful and challenging aspects for offender managers of working in partnership with a different organisation and organisational culture and will look at how the formulation-led, psychologically informed influence from health has affected both their personal and professional life. The paper will go on to discuss what we consider to be some of the challenges for the project in the coming months and years, and how the project intends to adapt to meet them.