The Probation Service should remain public: parents need to know

[mumfiftyfour]

I am a probation officer working with mainly high risk cases including sex offenders, it is a brilliant job which I love. The government proposes to transfer 70% of core probation work from the responsibility of the public sector to large multi national companies such as G4S and Serco. This means the main focus will be to gain shareholder value NOT the safety of the public. Justice should not be for profit and those people who commit crimes and victimise others should be punished by the courts AND supervised by properly trained and accountable probation officers. I really fear for the future of our communities and would ask you, as parents, to look further at this issue before it is too late. Please would you sign the Government E -petition 'Do not privatise the Probation Service'. Using your private e-mail address, simply click on to:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/44403
and follow the simple instructions. If 100,000 people support the petition it will be debated by Parliament rather than forced through without people being really aware of the serious implications for our communities.

[OliviaMMumsnet]

Hello We've moved this to our petitions board
Thanks for raising this.

[LineRunner]

Could you do a clickable link on here, OP?

I think you are right, btw.

[OliviaMMumsnet]

Have made it clickable for you OP

[Joannasusan1]

I am also a Probation officer and we need to raise awareness fast before the sell-off of the Probation Service goes through. Women everywhere should be aware that most domestic abuse perpetrators are medium risk offenders who will be supervised by untrained G4S or Serco workers. Also most offenders with sexual offences are also medium risk and will be supervised by unskilled and untrained workers on low incomes who work for companies who only want to make money. Women are going to be less safe, children are going to be less safe and private companies will only be there for profit. Risk moves so quickly, as we well know and domestic and sexual abusers can suddenly increase their risk but there will be no skilled assessors to monitor this, and if money follows the offender, there is no incentive to move an offender's risk up. A separate company which remains in the public sector, will supervise high risk offenders and there will be little communication between the public and private companies. This is disastrous for public safety. Women, we need to protect our families from the likes of G4S, under investigation for fraud, and Serco, in news for sexual abuse of asylum seekers in Yarls Wood. Please let's have a national campaign now.