To hassle you until you...

[PavlovtheCat]

...sign this ?

I am going to keep posting about it on MN until you have ALL signed it.

Probation will run by SERCO or G4S if you don't get on board. Do you want that? Really? They can't even provide security for the Olympics! And they overcharged YOU tens of millions of pounds, by pretending dead prisoners were still on tag and collecting a fee for them. Or. Sometimes, they simply made the prisoners' names up and then collected a fee for them. That's just for starters.

If these clowns don't run it, some other unaccountable , faceless corporation will be in charge of the monitoring and rehabilitation of offenders. They will hold the safety of YOUR communities in their hands.

So. Sign it. It might even be too late. But we have to try. We simply cannot sit by and let a service which has evolved for over 100 years and is successful in reducing offending across the country be privatised and risk being run by profiteers.

AIBU to expect you to give a shit? Really, you HAVE to give a shit.

[Spirulina]

Bet there's more to it than what you state tho

[southeastastra]

this party want to privatise everything, makes me mad

some services should be run as such a SERVICE

signed

[CelticPromise]

Signed. Any private company will cream off the straightforward cases and leave the difficult ones. I can't understand how probation can be a profit making service.

[PavlovtheCat]

What do you mean? You mean more than the career puppet Chris Grayling yet again ripping the heart out of the country in the hope he will become Home Secretary? Like he did with the Workfare model (this is basically the same model as that).

What else could there be? Or do you mean the reconviction rates of prisoners sentenced to less than one year in prison, which has been used to highlight the inefficiency of the probation service, when those prisoners are not subject to probation licence? (If they were on licence they would be on probation supervision and we would work with them and reconviction rates would reduce). So, you mean the falsifying of stats to make the public think he is right, because they don't know much about what probation actually does?

Well if not these things, what else is not meeting the eye?

[PavlovtheCat]

Thanks sea. celtic it can be. Profit making business if you cook the books. For example, If you don't breach offenders who fail to comply with community supervision so that you don't lose some of your target driving fee. Or, for those cases that escalate in risk of harm, that need to be sent back to the public protection team, but will mean you lose some of your fee, you simply pretend their risk has not escalated and they don't murder someone on their watch. But" of course private profiteering companies would absolutely be happy to lose their fees if they can't manage risk. Won't they?

[Thants]

I hate serco. They cover up sexual abuses and take over contracts that should not be privatised such as this. Sadly the company I work for deals with them

[PavlovtheCat]

It's amazing how involved they are in so many aspects of government work. I read a guardian article the other day which talked abouth them being the 'biggest company no one has ever heard of'. Even now with all their publicity the public don't really seem to see how much SERCO and G4s run the countries broken down services.

But, I would be no happier than any of the other 400 companies who have put in expressions of interest to run probation contracts getting the contracts. Some of these companies (lots of them) are overseas companies, including one that currently runs sone American prisons (not SERCO, although I believe they do run at least one US prison).

[Zombieminx]

Signed. YANBU!

[PavlovtheCat]

It's more than a prospect. It's being done now. By April 2014 around 70% of offenders will be run by a private 'quango' (? i guess that's the best way to describe the private section of the split) before the organisations have been awarded their contracts, which will be finalised by autumn 2014.

But it's not too late to stop it.

[PavlovtheCat]

That post was for a bump and a chance form more of a rant than questioning your post . Thanks for the signs everyone. 7 in the last hour...only another 72,645 to go!

[pixiepotter]

whereas the public sector has such a glowing reputation for cost effectiveness and never fucking up!

[Hubb]

Signed!

Bump :)

[PavlovtheCat]

pixie there is certainly room for improvement in the public sector. But, dangerous criminals and those with the potential to become dangerous must ALWAYS be managed within an accountable, trained public sector service. There has to be a simple way of tracking and managing escalation of risk of causing serious harm to others that does not allow for corners to be cut to make more money, and that HAS to be within the public sector so it can be transparent.

And, the probation service as it is now has, year on year for over ten years reduced reconviction rates, so it's not failing by any stretch of the imagination. It is succeeding.

[PavlovtheCat]

and pixie you have seen the news on g4s and SERCO recently right? You think they can do a better job?

[MissMarplesBloomers]

YANBU but can I also urge posters to write to their respective MP's and anyone else they can think of?

Individual letters are counted as individual compalints/concerns a petition only one. It is however a vital way to generate awareness & spread the word effectively.

[PavlovtheCat]

Yes I agree missmarples, although I suspect that the only people who will write to MPs are those within the criminal justice system.

[SPsTombRaidingWithCliff]

I actually have no fucking clue what your post is on about

No idea about G4S or SERCO

[PavlovtheCat]

sp I hope this means you are not in UK?

[FortyDoorsToNowhere]

i will not sign until i know what this is about.

[SPsTombRaidingWithCliff]

I am in the Uk. Yorkshire to be exact.

[FortyDoorsToNowhere]

I'm in the uk also. not heard of it until this thread.

[PavlovtheCat]

Wow. Ok. I will post up some links.

[PavlovtheCat]

here