Probation Service Reinvigoration Campaign
DEAR CROPS SUPPORTERS July 2009.
NEWSLETTER NUMBER 5
Thank you for your support over the last six months.
TREMENDOUS NEWS NO.1
THE HOWARD LEAGUE FOR PENAL REFORM’S COMMISSION ON PRISONS, a group of the most eminent criminologists in this country, under the presidency of Mrs Cherie Blair, has finally reported after two years of studying prisons and probation around the world.
They have added their voice to the idea that :-
NOMS should be abolished
Effective Community Sentences should be re-instated to replace short prison sentences.
These, as you know, have been two of CROPS’ central aims from the beginning.
As previously reported, Jonathan Aitken’s paper on prisons a few weeks ago, suggested “NOMS” should go.
Now we have discovered that the official Conservative Party Policy also states that NOMS should go.
The Liberal democrats have told us, through David Howarth, the same thing.
So, opposition to NOMS, and to the idea of sliding together the prisons and probation, that we believe so wrong, is strengthening.
We are still seeking an interview with the Conservative party to persuade them that Community sentences do not have to be “rigorous”, but “effective” [which we think our suggestion would be].
We can but hope that the voice of sense, from Mrs Blair, criticising the penal policy of that wretched husband of hers, Mr Blair, will win over the voice that says everything has to be more punitive than the last.
TREMENDOUS NEWS NO. 2
Jack Straw got a good pasting in the Commons when being questioned about the murder of the French Students in Lewisham, South East London.
We helped David Howarth bring out the fact that the number of trained Probation Officers in London was decreased by this government from 800 to under 600 from 1999 to 2003.
We ourselves asked the new, temporary, Chief Probation Officer of London at a Napo meeting a few days ago if he knew about this, and if he knew what the number of PO’s and PSO’s was in London today ?
He replied that he thought there were about 700 PO’s and the same number of PSO’s, in London today, and that he had committed London Probation to raising another 100 PO’s or even 140 in the next two years.
So the number might climb back to what it was in 1999 by 2011 !
And this in spite of the increase in the amount of work, the type of work, and the dangerousness, difficulty and punitiveness of the work.
The Chief suggested that I should not ignore the PSO’s, but you will recall how we have pointed out without ceasing that PSO’s are not trained for more than a few weeks, and have no idea how to do the traditional work of rehabilitation of offenders, to which ultimately we hope the service may return, as being the only way to reduce re-offending.
Tony Benn has replied to my letter saying that our work is ~”very timely and necessary”, and he does “support our aims”. We are pleased to receive this from a man of his stature.
Lord Soley [ex-MP, and ex-Senior Probation Officer, Clive Soley] replied to my letter saying that he was too committed to other causes to actively support us, but he was with us in spirit.
No reply from Lord Woolf, who seems to have joined the ranks of
Make Justice Work, an organisation similar to ours : do check out their website also: is there a way we could work with them I wonder ??
Lord Soley suggested we write to Lord Alfred Dubs, which we have, and to Baroness Stern, which we have not yet.
TREMENDOUS NEWS 3.
The website is now up and running , thanks to your contributions, large and small, and to the unstinting work of our friend Anmar Hassan who has done a great job, we think, at a bargain rate for us, and whom we are now able to pay!
Please see www.recreateprobation.org.uk, and you will find there is a Forum where we are keen for all sorts of people to put their views: we are particularly interested in receivers of the NOMS system to tell us whether they think it works or not, and what should be done to improve the system, and are we on the right lines [we do think we are !].
Will Watson, Chris Hignett and Martin Page