Probation

• Privatisation


  In 2014, the Conservative government under Justice Secretary Chris Grayling launched what he claimed aws a "rehabilitation revolution" aimed at reducing re-offending. A key part of the policy was the part-privatisation of the probation service.

  21 CRCs, were set up. The CRCs were to deal with low-risk offenders and would earn their profits on a payment-by-results basis, with targets to reduce re-offending by their clients.
• Evidence of failure


  19 out of 21 CRC failed to meet targets for rehabilitation and extra £342m was spent. Offenders' housing were met in 54% of cases whereas it was 70% in NPS supervised cases. Offenders were supervised by phone. One CRC held meetings with their clients in open-plan offices, playing "white noise" to prevent people from eavesdropping. Inadequate protection for victims and children for domestic abuse offenders. CRCs probation officers had higher caseload than those in the NPS due to staff cuts to save money. As a result government terminated all of the contracts by the end of 2020.
• Bias


  Conservative ideology favours privatisation which they see as the most effective means of achieving social control in the justice sector. Dame Glenys Stacey, the ten head of probation service, said in 2019 that the part-privatisation was "irredeemable flawed" and that it was difficult to see how people could have confident in the service while it "remains subject to pressures of commerce", She concluded that the core work of engaging with offenders, monitoring them and helping their rehabilitation should be in public hands.
• Evaluation of CRCs


  The evidence from the most current and up-to-date official reports strongly indicates a failure by the CRCs to achieve social control of offenders. This failure also undermines the objective of keeping the community safe, for example where domestic abusers are returned to the community without adequate supervision.
• The NPS


  The NPS has been more successful than the CRCs in achieving social control. Overall, it has about half the rate of reoffending compared with prisons. Yet, there is a critical national shortage of probation officers. High workloads have led to professional standards being compromised. A lack of professional leadership. Probation premises are dated, shabby and in some cases not secure. There is no national strategy to provide enough local specialist services. There is a shortage of places on specialist programmes to address the causes of offending.