This online feature will help give members of the public,
including those considering a career in probation, an insight into
the day-to-day reality of working with offenders.
Is it written by a Probation Officer currently employed by
London Probation Trust.
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As the cliché goes, there is
no such thing as a typical day as a Probation Officer. Days
are spent in court, on a prison visit or at a Multi Agency Public
Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) meeting - a full day in the office
is a complete rarity. That said, if I am in the office I tend
to get in at around 8.30am, making sure I get a cup of tea before
the phone starts ringing.
At 9am the office opens to a steady flow of
offenders coming to see their assigned officer. We might see
anything from one to ten offenders, all with different offences and
diverse issues that are linked to their committing the offence.
My first visit is from a 22 year-old male who
has committed offences of kidnap and possession of a firearm.
He has only recently been released from prison, so we cover the
basics of his release licence: what is expected of him, but also
what he can expect from us. Ensuring that there is clarity
means that offenders are able to take responsibility for their
licence. We spend an hour going over this, as well as
starting to look at the offences themselves and what led him to
commit them. This is important, since if he is able to
identify his own risk factors, he can prevent himself from doing
something dangerous in the future if he so chooses. Drug
dealing and spending time with ‘the wrong people’ are some of the
factors we identify in this supervision.
After this meeting I read the Crown
Prosecution Service papers for an individual I’m interviewing later
before I prepare his pre-sentence report. His offence is
criminal damage, and appears to be closely linked to the man’s
mental health. Following a few phone calls to the local Community
Mental Health team, I am able to establish that the man is well
known, and they give me a good insight into the triggers to his
negative behaviour. This information means I am able to
contextualise his behaviour far better and make assessments that
are based on a better understanding of the case.
After interviewing this offender, I spend the
afternoon writing a detailed risk assessment and putting together
the court report. Probation Officers are required to
recommend a sentence to the judge, based on the seriousness of the
offence and the interventions that are available to the court.
In this case, I recommend that the man is given a community
order with supervision and a mental health treatment requirement.
This means that he will have an assigned officer who he will
see weekly and his mental health treatment will be enforceable by
the court.
Being a Probation Officer means that you have
to be able and willing to handle anything that gets thrown at you.
Managing people, particularly those who can often have chaotic
lifestyles can be tricky and the unexpected is often the norm.
Predictable, desk-bound work this is not!