Public safety is at risk as huge workloads and staff shortages continue to place the probation sector under pressure, inspectors have said, while officers lack the “professional curiosity” needed to spot potentially dangerous behaviour among offenders managed in the community. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation has painted a picture of a service in crisis with hundreds of vacancies, overstretched officers and managers, and crumbling, overcrowded buildings, including hostels for recently released offenders. An inspection of the central functions supporting the National Probation Service (NPS), the publicly run arm of the probation sector, which supervises about 105,000 high-risk offenders, found that some officers were not properly reviewing their cases. The report follows a number of high-profile cases with links to probation, including those of the London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan and the serial rapist Joseph McCann.
As part of their work, probation officers are tasked with rooting out offenders who claim their behaviour has improved but have not actually reformed – known as “false compliance”. Khan, a convicted terrorist who killed two people on London Bridge in November while out of prison on licence, appeared to have convinced professionals around him that he was no longer a risk by taking part in rehabilitation courses. Inspectors said false compliance was a real challenge for probation officers who needed highly tuned skills and expertise to interview and challenge offenders effectively. Justin Russell, the chief inspector of probation, said the lack of skills could be down to inexperience in the job. Amid questions over the failings in the case of McCann, a convicted burglar who carried out a string of sex attacks after being freed in a probation error, Russell said probation officers were still not carrying out basic domestic violence and child safeguarding checks for some offenders.
Read more: Jamie Grierson, Guardian, https://is.gd/TayODg
