Probation work and NOMS

Abstract

With the centenary of the probation service less than a year away, it looks increasingly unlikely that probation work will continue into its second century in a shape that has any significant continuity with the past. Following the Carter Review (2003), probation is in the process of radical ‘modernisation’. The intentions are laudable: to reduce re-offending, and thus contain the burgeoning prison population. But the strategy carries big risks. The NOMS reforms have three main elements that relate to probation: