Probation service now urges community involvement

Press, 12 September 1986, Page 17

Probation service now urges community involvement

By

GARRY ARTHUR

One hundred years ago, when New Zealand became the first country in the British Commonwealth to adopt a statutory probation system, a handful of prison jailers and senior policemen were appointed to supervise the pioneer probationers — 103 of them in 1886. Today, a large body of professional probation officers administer a radically different probation system, in which the emphasis has recently shifted to community involvement. In Christchurch, 25 field

than 700 “clients,” helped by up to 10 report writers who work on contract. In a typical month they will write about 270 probation reports at the request of the courts. Probation officers also supervise those sentenced to terms of six months to two years community service. These offenders have to report to a probation officer regularly, and “I may have to fulfil special conditions, such as taking treatment for alcoholism or budgeting advice, with the aim of giving attention to those areas that led to the offending. At any one time, probation officers can be supervising 500 such offenders. The community service itself is done under the direct supervision of volunteers or sponsors from the community, who ensure that the prescribed hours of work are completed. This might entail cleaning at an old folks’ home or a hospital, working with a sports club or voluntary organisation, or perhaps teaching swimming at a club pool. “The idea is to give them something they can do after they finish their community service,” says Kevin Foley, a senior probation officer with 15 years service. Probation officers are also responsible for the new community care sentence, in which an offender is placed with a group or person — for example, on a six months programme with Gamblers Anonymous, if that is appropriate to the offender’s problem. The Probation Service and the community group work out a programme together, and it then has to be approved by the judge. An offender might be placed at the Nga Hau e Wha Marae on a programme that involves alcoholism counselling, cultural activities, and being available for work. A drug user was sentenced to three months community care at the Polydrug Centre, together with an educational programme at the Probation Service providing remedial writing, School Certificate mathematics, and getting a drivers’ licence. Periodic detention also comes under the Probation Service. Of-

fenders are placed in the custody of a warden for a certain number of hours each week, and go out to work in supervised work gangs on Saturdays. Their work covers such things as painting houses for old people, improving club rooms for scouts, surf clubs, and other groups, and refurbishing the Christchurch Arts Centre. “They are still living in the community and are not cut off from making decisions,” says Mr Foley. This system has been going on for 20 years, but it has changed since the recent introduction of the policy under which property offenders are no longer sent to prison. “We’re getting a pretty heavy type of offender now,” Kevin Foley says. “The thing has become more difficult to run.” Prisoners released on parole are supervised by probation officers, too. Prisoners are eligible for release after serving half of their sentences. The Probation Service prepares reports on such prisoners for the District Prisons Board, after visiting prisoners in jail, and prepares a release programme in liaison with appropriate community groups. Once the prisoner is released, the probation officer has to see that the provisions are kept to. “Prison work is one of the major changes, and a worthwhile one,” says Kevin Foley. "It’s an attempt to break the cycle of offending and imprisonment. If there are no offences in six months, we’re well on the way.” Last month, there were 190 prisoners on parole in Christchurch, including more than a dozen “lifers” and some who had been sentenced to preventive detention and could be let out only at the discretion of the Parole Board. All were being supervised by the Probation Service. Much of the probation officer’s time is spent writing reports for the courts, each of which takes a nominal six hours, but may in practice take much longer. “We will see the person, then we may have to take him to the Salvation Army’s Bridge pro-

gramme for alcoholics, or to the marae, and set up a programme that’s acceptable. Then we write up the report and send it to the court” Kevin Foley sees a paradox in the probation officer’s role. “It’s both care and control,” he says. “On one hand we’re trying to help them and stop their offending. But if they breach the court order, we are the enforcers. We have to prosecute them.” The new community care sentencing started less than a year ago, but Kevin Foley believes that it will be effective if the present emphasis continues for five years. “We have to involve the community more in the criminal justice system,” he adds. “You can’t just wave a wand and stop people offending. Crime is a community problem.” But he finds that since probation officers have learned more about community groups, they have come to realise that many of them were already doing some tremendous work. He says there have been a lot of failures with community sentencing — many offenders are going back to prison — but there have also been some remarkable successes. “There’s a couple of guys who went through the Salisbury Street Foundation (a Probation Service rehabilitation centre). They were heavy burglars, old lags, and if it was not for the parole programme and Salisbury Street, it’s a dead cert they would be back in prison. They came out in August last year and they’re still out” Reparation is a feature of the new sentencing policy, recognising the victim and getting him involved for the first time. Probation officers prepare the reparation reports.

“If the victim wants to come in and the offender wants to meet the victim, we bring them together,” says Kevin Foley. “If they can agree on reparation, we tell the court and it may approve. It does not happen often, Victims don’t often want to meet the offender, and there’s also the fact that the victim has usually been paid by the insurance company. “It’s good to have anti-social actions personalised, but there are practical difficulties. The victim may have gone away, or the victim may be a corporate body, such as the Department of Social Welfare.” If there is no agreement between .victim and offender, the probation officer assesses the offender’s ability to pay and makes a recommendation to the court.