Letter: On probation
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: The Home Secretary criticises the Probation Service for the inadequate enforcement of community penalties (report, 22 July).
Community penalties will always pose difficulties of enforcement. This is because punishments in the community require people to do something - report to an officer, work, pay a fine - or at least to refrain from something, and this entails a possibility of default. Prison makes no such demands. Probation officers must try to motivate and encourage as well as use negative inducements to secure compliance. Probation officers must also make a judgement about whether (for example) a failure to attend is, in the circumstances, reasonable or not. Merely counting absences cannot answer questions of this kind.
The Home Secretary's apparent assumptions that every missed appointment is reprehensible or that an officer's failure to return the probationer to court is negligent or "soft" are facile and unfounded. A fairer criticism of the service would be that too little is known about the way such judgements are taken.
ROBERT CANTON
Special Lecturer in Criminology
University of Nottingham
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments