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.