NCJ Number
161946
Date Published
1996
Length
110 pages
Annotation
This study examines how British senior probation officers allocate probationers to particular supervisors and how probation officers then assess those they are supervising.
Abstract
Specifically, it considers the systems and criteria senior probation officers use when they assign probation officers to prepare presentence reports and to supervise offenders, their views on the goals of community supervision, the content of supervision, and the extent to which officers value and make use of special programs in supervising an offender. The study interviewed 80 probation officers and 40 senior probation officers drawn from four teams in each of 10 probation services. Documentation such as corporate plans and statistics were also examined in all 10 areas, and discussions with senior managers were held in some areas. The findings suggest that although some areas have developed effective systems for assessing offenders and matching offenders to supervisors, in others the decisionmaking is much more random and arbitrary. Regardless of how skilled, competent, or well-trained individual probation officers may be, in some teams they have too much of the responsibility for the ongoing assessment and supervision of offenders. Scheduled case discussion meetings would help guard against discriminatory supervision and facilitate the sharing of skills and knowledge. More opportunities for co-working might also be beneficial. The systematic assessment of offending- related needs is central to ensuring the accuracy of probation assessments and the confidence sentencers have in them. One way of achieving this would be to ensure that every offender passes through an assessment program both before and after sentencing. Other measures for making the assessment more systematic include the use of validated assessment tests, the formulation of explicit referral policies for each program and partnership arrangement, the use of printed assessment guides and frameworks, the creation of structured forms for supervision plans and quarterly review forms, and the compilation of resource directories and databases that should be made available to each team. In considering appropriate court dispositions, probation officers and sentencers should be well informed about research findings on what is effective, so that offenders can be appropriately targeted. Appended primary questions addressed in the interviews