Probation Vocational Days

Good afternoon!  I've just completed by third vocational day while over here in England.  Thought ya'll should know about it as there have been some great things seen and some very passionate people met!

On my first vocational day, I visited the West Mercia Probation office in Shrewsbury.  I started off by sitting in on a pre-sentence report interview for a domestic violence case and found that the interview and relevant information/risk assessment were very similar to what we do back in Saskatchewan.  I went on to the Magistrate's court (which we don't have in Saskatchewan) and was toured about by the Enforcement Officer (a probation officer who prosecutes probation order breaches).  Very different sort of role for a probation officer what with private prosecutions being common in England.

The Magistrate's court is a lower tiered court from the Crown court.  Three magistrates panel the bench.  They are "ordinary people" from all walks of life with some legal training.  They are often under advisement from the court clerk on the legality of their process.  Justice is done by the people for the people.  Maximum sentence is 6 months custody time, or 6+6 if there is more than one charge.  I sat in court and chambers with three magistrates on my third vocational day.

Probation programming observed in Shrewsbury and Stoke were great.  I observed a group on criminal thinking patterns and spent a lot of time chatting with the unpaid work program (community service) as well as the program manager for Shrewsbury.  I delved into their IT and their admin duties on my second vocational day and found them to be very regimented and goal oriented.  Mind you, this was due to strong targets set by the government to hold probation/courts/police accountable, and came at the expense trading time to complete paperwork to meet those targets as opposed to focusing on the offenders themselves (in some regards).  These targets directly affect funding.

All in all, three vocational days have shown me a good deal of what probation/court work and community operations sentence management is all about.  No time at the jail though.  I'm considered a foreign national and will not be allowed entrance.

All the best to the POs back home,

Brennan