NCJ Number
73300
Journal
Revue penitentaire et de droit penal Issue: 2 Dated: (April/June 1979) Pages: 315-334
Date Published
1979
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The organization, functioning, and services of the British probation system are explained through the example of the West-Midlands services.
Abstract
In Great-Britain, the probation agencies form part of the Home Office which sets the rules and supervises the functioning. The probation service of the West-Midlands combines seven geographic zones under a central administration in Birmingham; each zone employs several professional probation officers supervised by a senior probation officer. Their clients include probationers, parolees from borstal reformatories and prisons, released inmates in need of assistance, former patients of psychiatric institutions, and children from broken homes. Most clients are below the age of 30. One of the main duties of probation officers is to conduct background investigations and furnish offender evaluations on which the courts base their probation decisions. The West-Midlands Probation Committee is supported by approximately 400 volunteers who are frequently members of the working class; most recently, Indian and black volunteers are placed in charge of offenders with the same cultural background. Volunteer tasks include assistance with the immediate problems caused by sudden imprisonment, assistance to clients' families, aid to probation officers, and vocational/professional support. A new and rapidly growing part of probation services is the Community Service Order, a restitution program which imposes on offenders work for a community cause to make up for the damage done. Other institutions of the probation services include the Day Center, furnishing employment assistance; Probation Hostels, temporary lodging for ex-offenders; and Bail Hostels, (replacing prisons as places of pretrial detention). --in French.