NCJ Number
116500
Date Published
1987
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This chapter examines the political context in which the Probation Service in England and Wales operates.
Abstract
While the Service strives to maintain a humanitarian and compassionate response to offenders by means of programs that are predictable, widely available, and properly accountable, it is also dependent upon the public and upon central and local Government for continued funding. Tension is produced by Government expectations of efficiency, greater cost effectiveness, and more visible forms of social control and the counter claims of some local authorities who may favor preventive strategies at the cost of statutory obligations. In addition, internal service conflicts exist in which Union interests can polarize probation practice to the point of abandoning the middle ground and compromise between competing tensions. Additional tensions arise in the increasingly volatile political climate and recession that have sharpened the division between the haves and the have-nots and between blacks and whites. Finally, perhaps the greatest tension arises with respect to the reconciliation of probation's social work and policing functions, between care and control, and between social justice and the rule of law. A balance between these two roles can be sustained only through a readiness to allow discretion and within the context of a liberal penal philosophy.