Probation offers a real alternative

REHABILITATION is essentially what the Probation Service is all about, according to its director, Michael Donnellan.

He said it was still the core purpose of probation, a century after the idea was created.

But the way the Probation Service is going about its task has radically changed, he said.

“All our work is based on building relationship with offenders, to try and engage them to turn their lives around.”

But most people involved in rehabilitation agree it’s a difficult task.

“Rehabilitation takes all kinds of connotations, almost like treating someone,” said probation officer David Williamson, spokesman for the Impact branch representing probation officers.

“But if people make constructive changes in their lives and reduce risk to others, that’s what rehab is.

“The ultimate measurement most people want, and understand, is not committing further crime, but, do you say if they commit further offences that they’ve failed?

“If someone robbed banks and, after release, the next time they were in court was on a motoring charge, do you regard rehab work has failed?”

He said if reoffending solely determined the success or not of rehabilitation, then rehabilitation would fail (see panel).

“Yes, reoffending is the ultimate goal, but you have to start setting intermediate goals on the way.”

He said rehabilitation was very difficult: “You are looking at multiple needs with a lot of people. Very rarely is there one trigger that if we can solve that, everything will fall into place.”

The Probation Service provides services for adults and children in the community and in prisons.

They also fund more than 60 community and voluntary projects (such as the Bridge project), which work with offenders in local communities.

The service underwent a major reform last year following an external review of its operations.

It has been substantially restructured, with new court structures, internal administrative structures and a new dedicated Young People’s Probation (YPP) Service, which was set up to implement the community options in the Children Act 2001.

Some 77 new staff were assigned to the Probation Service last year, 65 staff to the YPP.

The service is coming up with a range of innovative projects to implement the act, such as the mentoring project and the strengthening families project.

Some 70 volunteers have been trained to mentor young people.

“They want to work with young people who might be in trouble, to help them,” said Mr Donnellan.

“If young people feel you are interested in them, then most young people really like that, because that, it a sense, is what is missed — someone really caring about them.”

The project is running in Dublin, Cork, Clonmel and, soon, in Limerick.

Probation is implementing the parental supervision order through the “strengthening families model”.

They are running a 14-week pilot course in Cork, with other agencies, in which they bring 10 families — kids and parents — to a probation centre for the evening and work with them.

“We all know who the high risk families are. This way is about empowerment of families, teaching skills, not just to parents, but teens and younger ones. The outcomes have been phenomenal.”

He said they plan to expand the idea to Kerry, Limerick, Portlaoise and Dublin.

They are also revamping community service, where offenders do unpaid work in local areas instead of being sent to prison.

“We are currently reviewing the whole function to see how it could become a much more up-front alternative to prison,” said Mr Donnellan.

“We want to bring it more out into the open and connect more with the community in a way that they can see that people are actually giving something back to the community.”

He said they plan to exploit the environmental issue and get involved in waste management and recycling.

In prisons, Mr Donnellan said they are developing their expertise in assessing offenders in terms of risk of reoffending and risk of harming others.

“We reckon about 20% of the prison population are going to come out to us, that’s the group we really need to work on.”

These prisoners, numbering around 700 people, include murderers and sex offenders.

He said close cooperation with other agencies was crucial: “In the past we often worked in our silos. All the evidence now is for us and prisons and gardaí and the community to work together.”

He said their work on risk assessment would form part of the new Integrated Sentence Management structure the Prison Service is setting up.

Mr Donnellan does not side with critics of prisons.

“I know the Prison Service gets criticised, but I marvel at the energy and the work going on behind closed doors in prisons, the attempts that are made to seriously engage prisoners in education, work and training. It’s kind of silent work really and never gets acclaimed.”

Nor does he put much faith in simple cost comparisons between prisons and probation: “It’s so simplistic. Prison is a 24x7, 365 days a year. I was former director of a secure unit, and when you provide residential services the costs are fixed.

“We would calculate a probation report costs €1,300-€1,500 to complete. Supervision has a cost clearly and compares favourably with international standards. It’s hard to compare it with someone in prison. We don’t work Saturday night or Sunday morning. Prisons have to work all year round.”

Mr Donnellan doesn’t accept either that the judiciary don’t use probation options (see graphic).

“I don’t accept the judiciary are under-using us. In my experience of courts and judges they bend over backwards to try and prevent people going to prison.”

He pointed out that when reformers criticise people being jailed for three months they don’t realise it could be the offender’s tenth, or more, conviction.

He rejected the belief in some quarters that probation should be used pervasively. “We couldn’t function. Probation should be around changing an offender that has in a sense crossed the line or is of sufficient risk.”

He said the revamp of their services would help ensure judges had confidence in probation options.

“In order to send more people to probation, the judiciary have to have the confidence that we will manage the offender on behalf of what the courts says.”

Mr Donnellan said the Department of Justice was “absolutely committed” to alternatives to custody, seen in the “phenomenal” increase in resources to Probation, the setting up of the National Commission on Restorative Justice (NCRJ) and the Children Act.

He said he believed the options in the Children Act could be copied for adults, and said the NCRJ should be able to offer guidance as to how that could be done.

“There is more focus on Probation now than two or three years ago. I think, in four or five years time, it will become a central force in justice as a real alternative.”

Reoffending

Research by UCD, published in 2006, covering the period 2000 to 2004, found that 25% of released prisoners reoffended within a year and almost 50% within four years.

It found 85% of people jailed for not paying a fine return to prison within three years.

Nearly half of people committed for property offences reoffend within three years.

Author Ian O’Donnell said the findings were in line with other countries.

Research by the Association of Criminal Justice, published in 2007, said 36% of 400 young people in juvenile detention centres reoffended within a year.

The report, The Children Court, A National Study, said youths with higher convictions were more likely to reoffend.

It said figures from Trinity House showed 80% of former offenders were in St Patrick’s within a year.

“Recidivism is a major concern in relation to young offenders, particularly those who have spent up to two years being rehabilitated in the structured supportive environment of a Children Detention School,” said the report.

“The creation of a comprehensive aftercare support system is vital to reduce the number of young people who find themselves at risk of reoffending.”

Research published by the Scottish Government last October found similar reconviction rates for prisons and probation.

It said 64% of those released from custody and 61% of those on probation were convicted of another crime within two years.