Probation workers fight privatisation

Submitted by Matthew on 2 October, 2013 - 11:02

On 19 September, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling announced that the majority of probation services across England and Wales would be “up for sale”.

70% of offender rehabilitation services will be privatised by Autumn 2014. The remaining 30% of probation work, which will comprise “high risk” only cases (offenders categorised as posing a significant threat to the community), will be placed under the control of 35 new government companies.

The high risk work will form a new and hugely slimmed down National Probation Service.

The shift from an accountable, public and largely successful public probation service, to a disjointed, privatised assortment of providers may prove disastrous.

There is not a shred of empirical evidence to suggest breaking up and selling probation services will result in more efficient offender rehabilitation.

Moreover, the risks posed to the community are deeply concerning.

200,000 offenders on supervision orders will be moved over to private companies such as Serco and G4S. There a risk in the transition between service providers that someone will “slip through the net”.

The recent scandals (the falsification of offender reports to give the impression of company efficiency) of both Serco and G4S show that private companies cannot be trusted with essential services.

Least of all, with services that are there to keep communities safe and bring down offender re-conviction rates.

NAPO (National Association of Probation Officers) and Unison both oppose the plans. While the response from the trade unions has so far been lukewarm, it may now be moving in the right direction. Talks on employment terms and conditions between NAPO and the National Negotiating Council have broken down and it is expected that NAPO will soon be balloting for industrial action.

Unison are still in talks, however an indicative ballot over the summer period returned a staggering 90% vote in favour of industrial action to protect terms and conditions. At such a critical time, it is baffling that the trade union bureaucracies have so far failed to move toward joint industrial action.

What probation services will look like in the future remains to be seen. If the privatised United States model is anything to go by them up) we are looking at very grim times ahead.

There, some private probation providers have begun charging offenders for supervision orders. When the offenders are unable to pay, they lock them up.

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