A comparative imagination

Probation in America: Armed, private and unaffordable?

While America is renowned for its enormous prison industrial complex, less academic attention has been paid to the state of probation intervention. The probation population has long been rising more swiftly than the prison population, and one in 45 adults in the USA is now subject to community supervision. This article explores the development of American probation and considers a series of key contextual issues, including the fragmented nature of the US probation system and the philosophies which underpin it, supervision fees, privatization, and the arming of probation officers, in order to illuminate how the community corrections system functions. The Justice Reinvestment initiative is also considered, and the impact of budgetary pressures upon probation is taken into account.

The Japanese Probation Service: A third sector template?

The use of probation in Japan is similar in some respects to probation in England and Wales (E&W) and unrecognizable in others. This article provides an outline of the structure and operation of probation in Japan and draws comparisons and contrasts with probation in England and Wales. It is intended to provide an overview for those who know little about Japanese criminal justice in general and about Japanese probation in particular. The focus in on accessible English language sources that will enable readers to follow up their interest and deepen their knowledge.

Probation in France: Some things old, some things new, some things borrowed, and often blue

French prison based probation services merged with their community based counterparts in 1999. This reform was aimed at placing the service under the wing of prison services and to reduce the influence of the judiciary. Despite still adhering to their rehabilitative goals and to a one-to-one pre-Martinson type of supervision, French probation services have long abandoned social work. Their exceptionally heavy caseload, a prevailing prison thinking, their newly acquired judicial work and managerialism explain this evolution. French probation services present an odd mix of old traits, insularism, and denial of recent scientific progress, with penal transferring, modern management and frenetic law reforming. All this has generated an identity crisis along with work-related stress.

Step by steppe – progressing probation in Russia

This article seeks to trace the development of probation services in the Russian Federation in recent years. It illustrates those developments by reference to two contrasting projects involving collaboration between Russian and European Probation Services. The first is a pilot training project for probation officers organized by a Human Rights NGO in Russia, whilst the second is an EU led policy and practice initiative with the Russian Ministry of Justice to strengthen alternative sanctions and to introduce electronic monitoring on a pilot basis.

From ‘community corrections’ to ‘probation and parole’ in Western Australia

Geographically, Western Australia (WA) is one of the largest and most sparsely populated single jurisdictions in the world. Although much of the work of Community Corrections Officers (CCO) in metropolitan Perth is easily recognizable to offender managers in England and Wales, the state’s Indigenous citizens, many living in remote communities, are hugely over-represented in its prisons and pose particular challenges in respect of community supervision. The de-professionalization of CCO training and their supposed inter-changeability with prison officers led to a service that was in danger of ‘losing its way’ and whose performance was comparing unfavourably with that of other Australian states. This article traces the recent history of the post-Mahoney Report Department of Corrective Services, culminating in a return to the title of ‘Probation and Parole’, and asks whether the lessons learned in WA following this re-professionalizing process might be relevant to other jurisdictions.

Probation in the Republic of Korea: A compressed journey to public protection

In 2009 the South Korean probation and parole service celebrated its 20th year. This short review details the rapid organizational expansion and cultural change within South Korea’s probation and parole service. It highlights how policy transfer and the politicization of crime is currently shaping the work of probation officers into what can be described as a compressed journey into an organization dominated by its public protection remit.

Mapping probation futures: Norway

In 2008 the Norwegian government published a White Paper called Punishment that Works, outlining correctional policy for a period of five to ten years. The central message of the White Paper could be summarized as ‘less use of prison and better rehabilitation’. It was intended that a decrease in the use of prison would lead to an increase in the use of community-based sentences and ways of serving prison sentences. Better rehabilitation implies increased use of services and facilities outside the prison system. Both tendencies favour an intensified development of probation work. Whilst the future for probation work in Norway therefore generally looks positive the authors also consider some of the challenges to the proposed policy.

A European approach to probation training: An investigation into the competencies required

In 2010 the European Probation Curriculum Group (EPCG) carried out research into the requirements of various probation curricula throughout Europe and the potential need for a European approach to probation training. This article presents the findings of that research. It argues that there is enough similarity in the competencies required in probation training throughout Europe to make the development of a European Curriculum a viable and worthwhile project.

New responses to vulnerable children in trouble: Improving youth justice; Early lessons from the Social Impact Bond at HMP Peterborough; Interim evaluation findings from the London Youth Reducing Re-offending Programme

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