The What Works initiative is having a profound impact on the work of the National Probation Service, and much has been invested in new accredited programmes - both in terms of the numbers of offenders planned to complete these programmes and their anticipated impact upon offending. Yet there has been little scholarly or professional discussion of the nature and risks of the new paradigm: it is important that it is subjected to critical debate and scrutiny. This book aims to provide a critical overview of What Works, providing a wider set of perspectives on a project which is vital for the future of the National Probation Service.
A former parole officer shines a bright light on a huge yet hidden part of our justice system through the intertwining stories of seven parolees striving to survive the chaos that awaits them after prison in this illuminating and dramatic book. Prompted by a dead-end retail job and a vague desire to increase the amount of justice in his hometown, Jason Hardy became a parole officer in New Orleans at the worst possible moment. Louisiana’s incarceration rates were the highest in the US and his department’s caseload had just been increased to 220 “offenders” per parole officer, whereas the national average is around 100. Almost immediately, he discovered that the biggest problem with our prison system is what we do—and don’t do—when people get out of prison. Deprived of social support and jobs, these former convicts are often worse off than when they first entered prison and Hardy dramatizes their dilemmas with empathy and grace. He’s given unique access to their lives and a growing recognition of their struggles and takes on his job with the hope that he can change people’s fates—but he quickly learns otherwise. The best Hardy and his colleagues can do is watch out for impending disaster and help clean up the mess left behind. But he finds that some of his charges can muster the miraculous power to save themselves. By following these heroes, he both stokes our hope and fuels our outrage by showing us how most offenders, even those with the best intentions, end up back in prison—or dead—because the system systematically fails them. Our focus should be, he argues, to give offenders the tools they need to re-enter society which is not only humane but also vastly cheaper for taxpayers. As immersive and dramatic as Evicted and as revelatory as The New Jim Crow, The Second Chance Club shows us how to solve the cruelest problems prisons create for offenders and society at large.
To clear his arrest record, Andy Nocera must complete one year of therapy without another arrest, which forces him to deal with his repeated failure to live as an openly gay man, and gives him an opportunity to rescue another lost soul. Original.
"[The report] finds that supervision -– probation and parole -– drives high numbers of people, disproportionately those who are Black and brown, right back to jail or prison, while in large part failing to help them get needed services and resources. In states examined in the report, people are often incarcerated for violating the rules of their supervision or for low-level crimes, and receive disproportionate punishment following proceedings that fail to adequately protect their fair trial rights."--Publisher website.
This text provides a comprehensive look into probation in the United States and abroad during the early third of this century. It contains a series of articles that outline the problems, techniques and dilemmas confronting probation officers and the presiding judges. Topics also include the significance, legal background, organization, administration, growth and extent of probation in the United States.
This Handbook provides a comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date source of information and analysis about all aspects of the work of the Probation Service. It takes full account of the many changes that the Probation Service has undergone over the last few years, and is currently undergoing as probation becomes part of the broader National Offender Management Service. Contributors to the book are drawn from leading academics and practitioners in the field, drawing upon the best expertise available. Running through the book is a concern with a range of key current issues such as addressing the diversity of offenders and creating effective links with other criminal justice agencies, and it includes perspectives from both probation service staff and from offenders and victims. This book is an essential text for practitioners, trainees and students of probation and those studying it as part of a wider criminology or criminal justice course.
There are over 80,000 people on probation in North Carolina. This book sets out the law and procedure of how probation officers and the court system respond to violations of probation with a focus on the courts' limited authority to revoke probation, after the Justice Reinvestment Act of 2011.
Contemporary probation practice is developing rapidly and is become increasingly professionalized. Probation officers are typically described now as offender managers, and the creation of NOMS (National Offender Management Service) has broadened the remit of the Probation Service. As well as bringing an increased emphasis on skills and qualifications it has also introduced a new set of ideas and concepts into the established probation lexicon - including institutional, legal, political and theoretical terms of its own as well as importing concepts from the disciplines of sociology, criminology and psychology. This Dictionary is the essential reference book. This Dictionary is part a new series of Dictionaries covering key aspects of criminal justice and the criminal justice system and designed to meet the needs of both students and practitioners: approximately 300 entries (of between 500 and 1500 words) on key terms and concepts arranged alphabetically designed to meet the needs of both students and practitioners entries include summary definition, main text and key texts and sources takes full account of emerging occupational and Skills for Justice criteria edited by a leading academic and practitioner in the probation and offender management field entries contributed by leading academic and practitioners in probation and offender management.
