This issue of the journal includes an important piece by Mariam Rashid, a practitioner working in England. Mariam's practice note reflects on what she describes as ‘complex complicity’ as a woman of colour working in a criminal justice system that disproportionately processes people from racial and ethnic minorities. Evidence of this disproportionality has been set out in a range of research and reports

The priority of public protection has moved probation away from its historical concerns with providing after-care, now emphasising risk management as well as the continuation of the sentence in the community. Yet people released from prison notoriously face many difficulties in accessing the social resources they need for desistance and meet with mistrust associated with their criminal records. This

This article critically examines the restrictions on access to statutory compensation in Great Britain for victims of serious crime with criminal records. Drawing on original analysis of Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority transparency data it reveals the scale of the denial of victimisation as a so-called ‘collateral consequence of a criminal record’. The policy is then critiqued on the basis

In March 2020 in response to the global pandemic, countries across Europe ordered businesses and offices to close and their citizens to stay at home. This paper is part of a wider investigation, which explores what happened to probation services in France and in Scotland during this time of national emergency. Qualitative interviews with 29 French and 27 Scottish probation staff took place during the

Probation staff perform a health-related role involving identifying health-related drivers of offending behaviour; facilitating access to support for these, including continuity of care for people leaving prison; and advising the courts on appropriate sentencing. This study analyses data from probation staff surveys and interviews with people that were under probation supervision during the pandemic

I work as a Probation Officer; I have been doing this job for almost 15 years. I work primarily with men and have worked in major cities in England. I am a minority in England, both ethnically and religiously. I am a woman, and my family are migrants from Africa, and their grandparents were indentured labour from India. In all the ways I am different, I also often share histories of migration, of minority

This short article is a comment on the recent proposal of a What Works Centre for probation ( Sanders, Jones and Briggs, 2021). Any new ‘What Works’ initiative needs to be informed by the patchy and uneven history of research on the effectiveness of probation in England and Wales. Problems have included, at various times, failure to keep up with research in other countries; over-dependency on government

This issue of the journal contains several articles that focus on women in the criminal justice system. These traverse a range of different geographical contexts, including Lithuania, Catalonia, the United States and England and Wales, and explore issues ranging from probation staff perspectives to women's experiences of victimisation. and stigmatization. A common theme of many of the contributions

The increasing availability and use of mobile technology have allowed for innovative solutions to address a range of issues, especially in relation to health behaviour change. Such technological advances have also created opportunities within the justice context and the past decade has seen the development and use of mobile technology in the criminal justice system. Yet, little systematic research

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) position on Online Child Abuse Activist Groups (OCAGs), more commonly referred to as ‘paedophile hunters’, is that their motivation should be questioned since there is no positive advantage to policing. The problematic nature and inaccuracy of the term ‘paedophile hunter’ will be explored within this article, but the term is widely used in practice. Such activism

Day Reporting Centres as an alternative to prison have become a feature of the Criminal Justice Systems of most States in America. In contrast, Day Centres have virtually disappeared from the curricula of Probation services in England and Wales. In this paper we look back on the short history of day centre provision in this country and examine what can be learned from its different forms and assess

This article reviews the development of the healthcare provision in youth offending teams (YOTs), and the implications of this for improving provision for adults supervised by probation. The Crime and Disorder Act (1998) made healthcare funding a statutory requirement in YOTs, and healthcare presence in most YOTs was significantly boosted by the collaborative commissioning initiative. There is no parallel

The purpose of this article is to analyse the experiences of probation officers who supervise women in the community in Catalonia. To this end, qualitative research involving 15 semi-structured interviews with probation officers in Barcelona and Girona was carried out. The results show that professionals agree that there are important gender differences in relation to: (a) personal and penal characteristics

As part of a large pan-European project on co-creating public services we supported the design of a programme in England that attempted to operationalise research on desistance, through a model of co-created, strengths-based working. We then evaluated its implementation and impact. The programme was implemented in a Community Rehabilitation Company. It was delivered in the context of rapid organisational

Using the concept of ‘pains of punishment’, the article analyses the experiences of Lithuanian women serving community sentences. Our study demonstrates that women experience the universal pains of punishment associated with stigmatisation, shame, and the inconveniences caused by punishment, as well as constraints and anxieties about impending imprisonment. Furthermore, the complex context of their

This Special Issue of the journal explores the ways in which different countries adapted probation services in response to the public health restrictions imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The issue contains contributions from several jurisdictions including Austria, the Netherlands, England and Wales and Scotland. A notable feature is the way probation services, like in many other areas

This article is about the experience of telephone supervision from the perspective of practitioners. It is set in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which changed and challenged the nature of probation supervision and required service users and supervisors to communicate remotely, using the telephone, rather than by meeting face-to-face. The article explores some of the impacts and consequences

This study explores the stories of eight women supervised by probation during the first national lockdown in the United Kingdom in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Probation quickly implemented an exceptional delivery model to protect the health and safety of staff and service users. Covid-19 has highlighted societal disparities across the world, it can be suggested that this has hugely impacted

This study aimed to explore, describe, and interpret New Zealand probation officers’ insights into supervisees’ non-compliance with community sentences. Seventeen probation officers participated in two focus groups. Probation officers viewed problems with cognitive skills as a key barrier to sentence compliance. They reported that these problems underpinned other factors linked to compliance, such

The COVID-19 pandemic occurred at a time when families of prisoners were gaining visibility in both academia and policy. Research exploring the experiences of families of prison residents has tended to focus on intimate partners and children, despite parents of those in prison being more likely than partners or children to maintain contact. The small body of work focusing on parents has identified

In this paper, we draw on data from a recent study of how Covid-19 and related restrictions impacted on vulnerable and/or marginalised populations in Scotland (Armstrong and Pickering, 2020), including justice-affected people (i.e. people in prison and under supervision, their families and those that work with them; see Gormley et al., 2020). Focusing here mainly on interviews with people released

In March 2020 the first lockdown due to COVID-19 was imposed in Austria, forcing NEUSTART, the organisation providing probationary services, to adapt the way of interacting with their clients. An online survey was conducted examining how these changes affected the everyday work of the probation officers. Results indicated that they managed to stay in contact with their clients, although difficulties

The Exceptional Delivery Model for probation practice in England and Wales meant that probation practitioners predominantly worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, engaging and supervising service-users remotely. This article explores the impact of the Exceptional Delivery Model on staff and their practice. We begin by considering how probation practice changed because of the implementation

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, online supervision has increased markedly, including within the Dutch probation services. In the present research, we systematically collected and analysed both clients and probation officers’ experiences of working online in the prior year. Although the clients were generally positive about remote supervision, some expressed that they missed the personal contact

Suicide in probation services is far higher than the general population. This paper presents secondary analysis of data previously used to evaluate the outcome of delivering psychological treatment to probationers in London. A sample of probation service users who screened positive for clinically significant symptoms of distress and were subsequently assessed and offered treatment (n = 274) were allocated

This article analyses the impact of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation on practice, providers and practitioners. Since 1936 HMI Probation has aimed to improve practice through independently inspecting probation services. However, no research has looked at its impact on those it inspects. This is important not only because the evidence on whether inspection improves delivery in other sectors is

Probation is a sentence served in the community and includes a number of supervision conditions. If the conditions are violated, individuals could receive a sanction, including revocation. Not every violation, however, may receive a consequence. Probation officers have discretion for how they manage individuals on the caseloads. This study used qualitative data from two departments in a MidWest state

Probation services in England were re-unified and brought back into public ownership on 26 June 2021, following the privatisation and division of services that took place under Transforming Rehabilitation. Probation in Wales had already been brought fully under the public ambit in December 2019, following the collapse of the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC), which had operated there. The re-unification

The current study aimed to identify the correlates of post-traumatic stress among a sample of women on probation and parole with a history of victimization. Community-based sampling was used to recruit 406 women on probation and parole in Jefferson County, Kentucky. The post-traumatic stress diagnostic scale was used to measure three indicators of post-traumatic stress: post-traumatic stress disorder

The What Works Movement in the UK Government has seen the establishment of 12 centres to focus on evidence-based policy in different domains. In this paper, we present the challenges and opportunities posed by a What Works Centre (WWC) for Probation, based on our prior experience of establishing WWCs in other areas. Although there are legitimate and substantial challenges to some of the methodological

Desistance is now a key focus for probation practice in the United Kingdom. However, how to implement desistance in the workplace has remained challenging, particularly in the absence of practice guidance. This article presents the experience of ‘making desistance real’ in the context of Community Rehabilitation Companies. ‘Identity shift’ is presented as a core component of the desistance approach

This article addresses community corrections training from the perspective of a former practitioner. Though CC training has received modest consideration, academies’ roles in reinforcing occupational cultures are nearly absent from the literature. This article addresses this gap with an autobiographical account of an academy experience and shows that not only did the profession appear to attract candidates

Prison visits are recognised as an important feature of a humane prison system, providing important benefits for prisoners and their family in maintaining ties (McCarthy and Adams, 2017). Scotland has a history of penal welfarism and a right-based agenda in relation to visits (McCarthy and Adams, 2017); however, there is a lack of research that focuses on visits in the context of Scottish prisons.

We undertook a Rapid Evidence Assessment to explore the existing empirical evidence relating to the impact of probation caseloads on recidivism. Over 3,000 potentially relevant papers were sifted from which five were deemed robust enough to be analysed in detail. All five were US studies which examined the impact of particular initiatives to reduce caseloads and were delivered by mainstream community-based

This comment piece outlines the genesis of the Napo Archive and the process of its establishment at the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge. It outlines the scope that these resources offer for researchers, students, and for those with a more general interest in probation. It also points to the unique vantage points that these materials could offer in relation to investigations

The role that probation practitioners play in the desistance process has begun to receive much needed attention. Yet, the experiences of facilitators of probation-based, domestic violence perpetrator programmes have long been neglected. This article explores the experiences and wellbeing of eight facilitators from one cohort of the Building Better Relationships (BBR) programme in England. Drawing upon

Writing in the mid-2000s and following from emerging evidence from desistance studies, McNeill (2006: 39) proposed that research on desistance offered a new ‘paradigm for offender management’. Insights from desistance research, he argued, not only provided emergent evidence about the ways in which people cease offending and how they might be supported to do so, but also a solid normative basis for

This article critiques the focus on responsibilisation of criminalised women within desistance research, policy and practice, through the neglect of the structural conditions surrounding women’s criminalisation and victimisation. The concept of the ‘good woman’ within these areas is grounded in patriarchal and neoliberal discourse. Drawing upon women’s narratives, we show this results in feelings of

In England and Wales, criminal reoffending costs £18 billion annually. Securing employment can support desistance from crime, but only 17% of ex-prisoners are employed a year after release. Understanding the motivations of employers who do recruit criminalised people therefore represents an important area of inquiry. This article draws upon qualitative interviews with 12 business leaders in England

This research compares how English and French desisters experience and perceive probation supervision. In this qualitative study, desisters of both countries were interviewed to collect narratives of change within the context of punishment in the community. The aim of this research was to explore and compare the role of probation in desistance processes, in different national, socio-economic, and criminal

The emerging literature on desistance (and recovery from addictions) has focused on key life-course transitions that can be characterised as the need for jobs (meaningful activities), friends (transitioning to pro-social) and houses (a home free from threat). The term ‘recovery capital’ is used to characterise personal, social and community resources an individual can draw upon to support their recovery

This article focuses on the feasibility of using a desistance-focused approach in the National Probation Service (NPS) in the post-Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) context. Findings are drawn from an exploratory study undertaken in one NPS Division, which used triangulation of three data collection methods: observations of one-to-one supervision sessions, documentary analysis and practitioner focus

We analyse practitioner and service user reflections on a digitally enabled toolkit designed to enable desistance-focused conversations within routine probation supervision of men with convictions for Intimate Partner Violence in England and Wales. We explore how to embed inclusive therapeutic service provision within the role of public sector National Probation Service practitioners through the testimony

Welcome to the first issue of the journal for 2021. The last year has certainly been momentous and many will have been happy to ring in the new year. However, the start of this year looks to be turbulent as COVID continues to impact widely on all aspects of society. On 1st January the United Kingdom officially left the European Union following the Brexit referendum and the end of the transition period

In the current article, we investigate the occupational stressors parole and probation officers working in provincial correctional services in Ontario, Canada experience. We examine four specific stressors that emerged thematically from participants’ open-ended survey responses, and conceptualize these as operational factors (i.e., the duties of the job) or organisational factors (i.e., structural

This paper explores conceptualisations of ‘success’ by men on Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence licence screened into the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway. ‘Success’ was defined as a process of having ‘survived’ the perceived injustices associated with the IPP sentence. Participants’ discussed ‘internal factors’ enabling them to make use of ‘external facilitators’ of self-change;

This practice note presents the results of a participatory evaluation of a coproduced project for care leavers at two young offenders institutions in the North East of England. The project has been delivered by Nepacs, a North East charity that provides family support to those affected by imprisonment and evaluated by Barefoot Research, a social research organisation. We think reporting on our experiences

As part of the national Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway, Intensive Intervention Risk Management Services are commissioned to offer the opportunity for some eligible offenders to access individualised intervention to support their treatment needs, upon their transition from custody to the community (Skett and Lewis, 2019). However, it has previously been acknowledged that psychological services

In recent years there has been an increased focus on military veterans as a distinct population within the criminal justice system. The prevalence and nature of offending, alongside the mental health concerns of this group have dominated existing research, bringing us closer to an informed evidence base. Yet, it is widely acknowledged that more research and insight into the complexity of the lived

This paper investigates Lithuanian probation officers’ discretionary decisions on probation violations under strict legal regulation. Based on a quantitative survey, this paper analyses hypothetica...

Given the recent tragic loss of two babies in women’s prisons (see Devlin and Taylor, 2019; Taylor, 2020) maternal imprisonment has had a moment in the public eye. A small number of researchers have been focusing on mothers in prison. To this, Natalie Booth has added her sensitively researched work on the experiences of caregivers of the children of female prisoners. Booth brings family theory to criminology

As its title reflects, the recent White Paper A Smarter Approach to Sentencing (Ministry of Justice, 2020) emphasises the role of sentencing in delivering an effective criminal justice system. It hopefully moves probation away from the highly marketised model of delivery that has been so damaging in recent years, but its rehabilitative intentions are largely subsumed within a set of populist and punitive

Society has witnessed a rapid growth in the prevalence and use of social media. The influence and impact of this expansion has sparsely, if at all, been considered within the context of desistance ...

In this study, we examine the re-entry of 58 people during the first year following their release from prison. Our objective was to gain a more comprehensive perspective on the experience of release from a Romanian prison. We take into account three important dimensions that set the tone and tenor of life after prison: (1) the state as a truant agent in the process of release, (2) family, and (3) employment

Drawing on interviews with halfway house staff, this article provides insight into how these workers conceive of their work and occupational identities within the specific context of the halfway house. Specifically, I examine how halfway house workers seek to differentiate their work and approach to governing former prisoners from that of parole officers. I demonstrate how halfway house workers in

Between 2015 and 2019, 41 throughcare support officers (TSOs) supported people serving short sentences leaving custody across 11 Scottish Prison Service establishments. The role of prison officers in the provision of throughcare in the community was an innovation in Scotland and represents a new approach to the long-standing challenges around supporting reintegration from custody. Drawing on data from

This article is a response to Barr and Christian’s article ‘A qualitative investigation into the impact of domestic abuse on women’s desistance’. Based on the findings of two separate but interlinked projects considering women’s qualitative desistance experiences in the community, Barr and Christian argue for a reframing of desistance from crime as desistance from harm when working with women in the