Probation Service - Ministers back off...a little
WORKERS, MAY 2006 ISSUE
Faced with massive criticism and opposition to privatisation proposals for the Probation Service, the Home Secretary has backed off for the immediate future. Proposals to place the service in the hands of private companies and voluntary organisations have been shelved for 18 months while a "rigorous performance assessment" is carried out across the 42 probation authorities in England and Wales.
But this is not going to stop Charles Clarke introducing "intervention" programmes run by business-oriented probation trusts, still in the public sector but being groomed for hiving off at a later date. The Probation Boards' Association registered 740 objections out of 748 responses received to the government's proposals.
The body swerve by the government has still left them talking of "contestability" – Blairite gibberish for selling off the service in 2008. Joint action by NAPO and Unison to resist the privatisation and introduction of a probation and prison service like that in the USA continues. The failure of the government's strategy over crime reflects in Britain's prison population reaching record levels – yet again – nearly 80,000, nearly 25% higher than when they came into power in 1997.