I'm a Probation Officer- ask me anything

[webster1987]

I feel like the role of a probation officer is often misunderstood and we don't get much exposure (good anyway!) in news/TV so...ask me anything!

Indeed it does.
Unfortunately he has been offered no drug rehab, and sending him to prison is sending him to a den of drug dealing.
Probation have done zilch. He has been written off.

Does he want rehab? What help does he want?

Do addicts generally want rehab? They are locked into an illness/addiction and are often unable to make wise judgements as their bodies are totally drug dependent.
Do people with paranoia believe those who tell them they are mistaken? ... no, because they are in the grip of a body/mind that is telling them something false. Do we write them off?

Wanting rehab is a pipe dream for most addicts.

But it should be offered/encouraged/pushed.

Nothing has come my relative's way ... he has just been written off..... especially ironic as his addiction has been fostered and worsened within the justice system ... prison took him from an occasional user to an addict. The system that did this to him needs to take some responsibility for getting him out of it.

When his release was imminent, no discharge planning happened at all. Out he went on a Bank Holiday with nowhere to go, no benefits advice, no housing, no job discussions.

Probation has a role to play here and has done nothing.

When out on licence he was expected to attend probation appointments as a sort of test that he was set up to fail as he had neither the money nor the organisational skills to get himself there. How crazy is that?

Respectfully, if all true then yes, he may have been let down. However, I can’t help but question how true his account is of his experience so far. If he was known to be on drugs in prison, support would have been offered. As you’ve rightly pointed out, if someone using drugs doesn’t want the help though, it is pointless. We can’t force treatment on someone. We can enforce as part of someone’s licence that they attend drug services but as you say, is that setting someone up to fail. It’s incredibly complex and I don’t doubt that the full support available hasn’t been offered to him, but there has to be some accountability on his part.

If he was known to be on drugs in prison, support would have been offered.

Unfortunately, I'm not at all sure this would happen anymore. All I hear from people within the system, reporting via journalism, is that the cjs no longer has the wherewithal to support prisoners - or even look after them properly. We think the NHS is in a bad shape but that's nothing to prisons these days.

But again, it is about the detail. Support on the whole is lacking, everything is underfunded and under resourced. However, if a heroin addicted prisoner wanted to detox on a methadone script, this would always be available. The very real problem in prison now is spice. Every other drug is more expensive and so people end up using spice (I’m simplifying the reasons but you get what I mean hopefully). Mental health support and psychological intervention is most lacking imo. Prisons contain people/restrict their liberty, often for very necessary reasons. There are a handful of prisons that truly work in this country. That being said, support is available in some areas but it all depends on the person’s motivation to change/seek out help

".... some accountability on his part... "
How can he be accountable when he is totally stoned? With drugs he got hooked in in prison. In prison where the drug barons tule and everyone knows it but does nothing.
We are not talking about "his account" ... we know.

What exactly is he addicted to?

As I understand it cocaine and cannabis.

Can you request NOT to work where you live? I would think that working in yout home town would not be advisable.

Although it’s a national service, you are employed by geographical delivery units that cover a large area often with several offices. You are based in an office you apply for, or may be offered another office in the area depending on where needs the staff. Personally for me I have always chosen to work in a different location to where I live but many people do work in the same area they live, in fact in my last office I was in the minority of those that lived out of area. It’s certainly not a consideration of the service and no expectation you should work in a different area.

Thank you

I complained about my previous probation officer whom was active on my case then to the regional department and she then went on to the be senior and kept a willingness to handle my case . She kept making her duty to take my case on ,why? Ever since then I've felt a detrementle issue and dont feel safe working with this person . Is that not detrimental and unsafe?

How can I change my probation officer?

Sorry I have only just seen this and your previous post. The reasons for wanting a change aren’t clear? You follow the complaints procedure ie. To senior probation officer then regional director is not resolved. Then on to prison and probation ombudsman if needed. However, the reason for wanting a change has to be considered carefully as it’s not unusual for someone to complain that their probation officer is acting unfairly when in fact they are acting wholly appropriately to the risk presented by that individual but they inherently cannot see they pose a risk, therefore perceive it to be unfair/unjust.

Hi, I know I'm a couple of years late to the thread, but i was just wondering if you could answer a couple of my questions please.
I am considering a role as a probation officer however, I have some concerns with the work life balance and what that generally would look like.
I know it's bee few years and I'm unsure if you are still in your role, but How did you manage your work/life balance with the caseloads from work?
Were there ever any times you had to take work home with you, and what sort of hours and days did you work? What did a typical day look like?

Thank you in advance

Hi. I wish I could tell you the work life balance is manageable, but it simply isn’t and I can’t see that changing anytime soon. However, some colleagues were much better at it than me but I found it difficult to switch off and if something didn’t get done before I left work, there are potentially very real consequences so it’s not always like it can just sit on your to do list for the next day.

I am still a probation officer but I now work in a prison and it is much more manageable. There are pros and cons to both but I love the work, am never bored, it’s interesting but…the workload is a lot. It will never improve though unless we get more staff so it’s catch 22 really as that’s what puts new staff off!

Just realised I only really answered half! A typical day is very difficult to describe as it varies but in the community (rather than prison) I’d have offenders come in for appointments with me set by myself so can manage my own diary to some extent. I might have multi agency meetings, child protection meetings and home visits to do also. At any point in your day, something could come up (eg. info from police that one of yours has been arrested or a phone call from someone telling you they are going to be homeless) and it could throw all your plans out of the window as you may need to act quickly on something. Whilst that can be stressful, it’s fast paced and interesting, a lot of problem solving and having to communicate plans with different agencies etc. There’s a lot of written work too, risk assessments, reports, case recording which takes up a lot of time and often feels like it gets in the way of the ‘real’ work but I think a lot of services would say the same on that!

probation offices are not open on the weekends so it is Monday-Friday. This will likely include a later finish one evening to see people that are in employment and need a later appointment. We have laptops and phones so can work remotely which is great as can do a day or two a week from home, however, also means you have to be very strict not to log on at home in the evenings!

@CherryNerry I’m still a Probation Officer in the community and TBH, I’d strongly caution you against joining. I’m actually scared to say too much incase I get fired for “breaking the Civil Service Code Of Conduct” but suffice to say; our workloads are unmanageable, they know this but still keep bringing out more and more schemes to reduce prison overcrowding and it all falls on to us, our pay is dreadful and the government are refusing to negotiate with unions despite increasing our workload over and over again but most importantly following the much played down ‘incident’ in Preston recently, we are not safe at work. I cannot stress this enough! We are not safe and nothing has been done about it!!

Hello, I am doing a masters in Design Engineering and my final project is on electronic monitoring - the current working brief is "How might we redesign Electronic Monitoring to champion desistance, bridging compliance with rehabilitation?" with the aim of exploring how human centered design and behavior change can reduce the number of EM breaches. The focus is on how EM can be reimagined to better support women and/or mothers, so that a greater proportion of women can be successfully managed in the community (in line with the Female Offender Strategy). I would love to hear about your experience of working with EM technology, especially if you have worked with mothers on tag in particular. I am very conscious of your extensive workload and want to understand from your perspective how we can better redesign the technology itself and the framework around it to make more time for meaningful human-to-human interaction.

@DesEngElla that’s a big question! I think just technology that works and and an EMS service that actually comes out to fit the tags would be a good start!