Amy Sage, Bristol Socialist Party
Like many people working within the Probation Service, I was alarmed but also not surprised at the failures uncovered by the BBC’s Panorama episode ‘Undercover – Can Probation Keep Us Safe?’ The documentary followed a reporter who had gone undercover at an Approved Premises (AP) in Kent, where individuals released from prison on licence can spend up to three months before being released fully into the community.
The investigation uncovered numerous failings by the AP, including losing track of several individuals with violent offending histories, and use of unsuitable software to track the online activity of registered sex offenders. These findings were set against the national context of a number of high-profile cases where People on Probation (POPs) have committed serious violent offences whilst under the supervision of the Probation Service.
While it was hinted at, the documentary ultimately failed to explore in any real depth the underlying cause of the issues raised throughout the episode: chronic and persistent underfunding and understaffing. Instead, the blame was mainly placed upon the shoulders of individual members of staff, who indicated that they were struggling under the pressure of high caseloads and budget cuts.
Since 2010, almost £2 billion has been cut from the Ministry of Justice budget, despite the fact that the number of people under the supervision of the Probation Service has been gradually increasing over the past decade. Year upon year of real-terms pay cuts, combined with the impact of Chris Grayling’s disastrous privatisation experiment ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’, has caused the service to haemorrhage staff, leaving the system dangerously overstretched. It was reported in 2023 that 10 of the 12 probation regions in England and Wales were operating at over 100% of capacity.
The Tories introduced a new Early Prisoner Release Scheme, with thousands of prisoners made eligible for release 70 days prior to the end of their sentence in an effort to deal with prison overcrowding. These individuals are instead to be supervised and supported back into the community by the Probation Service. But there is no real plan in place to limit caseloads to safe levels, or to deal with the significant recruitment and retention crisis. Probation is likely to buckle under the weight, putting the public’s, staff’s and POP’s safety at risk.
New Labour government
This is the situation Starmer’s Labour government has inherited. However, they have yet to provide any concrete plans as to how they intend to solve the crisis. Instead, ahead of the election, then Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood vowed to ‘reinstate the rule of law’ by introducing several policies that would actually increase the number of people in prison and on probation.
Without committing to properly funding our public services, Mahmood will face a workforce unhappy about long-term falling real-terms pay and deteriorating conditions. Back in 2022, probation staff, due to a lack of leadership from the unions, voted to accept a 12% pay increase over three years. With inflation remaining persistently high over this period, this pay deal amounted to a significant pay cut.
Many working-class people have genuine concerns about crime and their safety. Increasingly, more people also have a lack of faith in the police and criminal justice system to keep them safe.
Socialist Party members stood as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the general election, calling for properly funded services, run democratically by workers and service users. We put forward policies to bring an end to the poverty, alienation and deprivation that can be part of what breeds crime.
In a society where everyone’s needs are met, and everyone has a say in how society is run, crime would be greatly reduced. For those who do pose a genuine threat to others, a socialist criminal justice system could be built which would be publicly owned with police, courts and a probation service rooted in and accountable to the communities they serve. Judges and other officials in the system would be democratically elected, subject to the right of recall if they are judged to no longer be serving the interests of those they represent and paid a worker’s wage.
Ultimately, capitalism is based on the exploitation of the majority by a tiny minority of big business interests. The criminal justice system is necessary for the maintenance of that system and therefore only the socialist transformation of society can ensure a justice system that serves the interests of working class people. However, that does not mean that we should not fight here and now for a Probation Service that is fully-funded, properly staffed and can genuinely rehabilitate offenders, reduce crime and protect the public.
- ‘Undercover – Can Probation Keep Us Safe’ available on BBC iPlayer
