More probation ’ reports

Press, 20 September 1982, Page 4

More probation ’ reports

Christchurch probation officers wrote a record 239 probation reports last month, ana are working to clear a backlog. The number of people referred to the Probation Office by the courts had increased over the last few months, the district officer. Mr D. D. Leech, has said. July and Augut had been particularly busy, with 235 reports written in July and 239 in August. There had been 44 outstanding reports at the end of August.

In some cases where a defendant had been remanded on bail for the usual period of two weeks, officers had not had time to complete a probation report for the

court, said Mr Leech. In these cases, a letter had been written to the court inviting the judge to dispose of the matter in some other way. or to grant a further remand for the report to be finished. All cases had been remanded for a further two weeks. Mr Leech said.

Priority had been given to High Court probation reports. reports for persons involved in District Court jury trials, and reports for prisoners remanded in custody. The Probation Office had not had to refer any of these cases back to the court, said Mr Leech.

The office was "in the process of catching up" the outstanding cases and would have done so by the end of

the month, he said.

Probation officers throughout New Zealand had been particularly busy recently because more people were appearing in the courts. Backlogs had occurred at other centres. The Auckland office had 91 outstanding cases at the end of August.

The situation had been unproved by the reinstatement of part-time probation officers, said Mr Leech. The Justice Department stopped the use of part-time officers about three weeks ago. They were reinstated earlier this week.

The two part-time probation officers employed by the Christchurch office wrote 12 to 15 reports a month.

The 19 full-time officers at the office spend about 75 per cent of their time interviewing people and writing reports. he said. One report could mean six hours of work.

The Christchurch staff had spent “considerably more" time on writing probation reports this vear than in 1981.

Mr Leech said that the office would not take on any more staff to cope with the increased work load. "Our staff is adequate to deal with the number of cases, but inadequate to cope with the number of reports required." he said. "It is a matter of imbalance in some areas. The extra court reports are picked up by the part-time officers."