Limitations within Probation

Question 1

Privatisation

Answer 1

Probation companies are partly privatised
They work with other organisations or companies ( Community rehabilitation companies (CRC)
Director (Sarah Payne) states that privatisation would enable the National Probation Services get to the root cause of recidivism

Question 2

Limits

Answer 2

National Audit office warned that there is no way of knowing how well these companies are doing and leads to the fear that they are not being subjected to the right oversight or scrutiny
Joint report (June 2017) by the HM inspectorate of probation and HM inspectorate of prisons, states that the staff are more focused on paperwork and targets at the expense of the offenders
The report also contains criticisms the impact the effectiveness on probation services, more specifically that too many prisoners are released without a proper place to sleep, Merton’s strain theory would suggest that this would lead to criminal behaviour as the offender feels societal pressures to climb the social ladder
In too many cases offenders remain a risk to the public as they were not properly assessed before release
Despite much talk about mentors only one in the sample of 98 actually received a mentor