Cut 'unsustainable' probation workload in
England and Wales, urges watchdog
================================================

Ministers should consider reducing the caseload
of the probation service by up to 40,000
offenders if they are to ease the overcrowding
crisis in prisons, a watchdog has told the
Guardian.

Martin Jones, the chief inspector of probation
in England and Wales, said the current model was
"not sustainable" and suggested ministers should
free up capacity by no longer asking probation
officers to monitor people released from prison
after short custodial sentences for crimes such
as shoplifting.

Days after the justice secretary, Shabana
Mahmood, announced plans to release thousands of
offenders from September because of a prisons
overcrowding crisis, Jones also suggested that
youth justice services could take some of the
probation service's workload by monitoring 18-
to 21-year-olds released from prison.

About 5,500 offenders on standard determinate
sentences are expected to be freed from jails
before Christmas after serving 40% of their
sentences. Mahmood said on Friday that the
Prison Service would have run out of space
within weeks without immediate action.

Responsibility for monitoring the newly released
offenders on licence will fall upon the
probation service, whose measures can include
electronic tagging and curfews.

In his first in-depth interview since joining
the inspectorate in March, Jones said the
government must find a way to lighten the
workload of the probation service, which is
struggling with an increased volume of cases and
inexperienced and overworked staff.

"Let's not pretend that the probation service
can manage nearly a quarter of a million people
within its current resourcing envelope. You
might have to make some choices in relation to
people for whom there might be some benefits,
but actually, where do you focus those
resources? I don't think this current model is
sustainable," he said.

The way that offenders are monitored in the
community has come under intense scrutiny since
the murder of Zara Aleena, a law graduate, in
east London in 2022. Her killer, Jordan
McSweeney, who had a long history of
misogynistic and racially aggravated incidents,
should have been seen by probation officers as a
high-risk offender and recalled to prison after
missing appointments. Instead, he was
incorrectly assessed as being of medium risk and
remained free to attack Aleena.

That case followed the exposure of failings by
the probation service before Damien Bendall
murdered three children and his pregnant partner
in Derbyshire in 2021.

As part of an overview of the probation system,
which manages more than 240,000 offenders a
year, Jones said:

  * He suspects that each of the probation
  service's 12 regions in England and Wales are
  already struggling to cope with the number of
  cases.

  * Approximately two-thirds of the cases his
  staff inspect fall short of the standards that
  have been set to keep the public safe.

  * 97% of probation delivery units examined by
  the watchdog were falling below the standards
  set for good practice.

  * He is drawing up an inspection programme for
  probation hostels - halfway houses for high-
  risk offenders - because at present there is
  no independent oversight of their work.


Jones said there was an urgent need to address
the workload, particularly as the government
seeks to ask probation officers to take on a new
cohort of offenders under the early release
scheme.

He argued that people who receive short
custodial sentences such as shoplifters, who
were brought into the probation system in 2015
by Chris Grayling's Offender Rehabilitation Act,
could be taken back out. Previously, offenders
serving a sentence of less than 12 months were
released unconditionally after half of their
sentence had been served in custody.

"In 2015, people released from short custodial
sentences didn't receive any kind of supervision
at all. It seems to me that what they've almost
done is dragged across these cases and ended up
with an inflated caseload that they can't
properly supervise. I think you could deal with
those people more effectively by way of
community sentences," he said.

Thousands of cases involving 18- to 21-year-olds
that are assessed by the probation service could
be moved over to youth justice services, he
added.

"Youth justice services is a very stable
service. It currently has a cutoff at the age of
18. What if we asked youth justice services to
reach out and actually deal with young adults up
to the age of 21, and actually supervise them in
that way?" Jones said.

He said the early release of prisoners would be
a "challenging" task.

The Guardian disclosed on Thursday that the
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) cut the length of time
that high-risk offenders such as freed rapists
and murderers spend under supervision in
government-approved hostels.

Until recently, very high-risk offenders in
England and Wales could stay for a maximum of 12
weeks in "approved premises" where their
behaviour is closely monitored by key workers.
This was cut to a maximum of eight weeks by the
last government.

Jones said that at present, there was no
independent oversight of approved premises. He
has discussed with the government plans so that
his staff can investigate them in future.

"The case for this is extremely strong. You need
to understand not just the numbers that have
been released, but how they are then being
managed back into the community," he said.

An MoJ spokesperson said: "The prison system is
in crisis, which is putting significant pressure
on the whole justice system. We are gripping the
situation and supporting our hard-working staff,
including recruiting 1,000 more probation
officers to deliver robust supervision and
protect the public."



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