Probation officers’ union Napo has said that changes to early-release rules for prisoners that are designed to ease the prisons capacity crisis fail to appreciate the huge workload issues being faced by staff.
Earlier this week, No.10 and the Ministry of Justice confirmed that new exemptions on planned early-release will be applied to some categories of criminals, such as those convicted of “serious” child-sex offences and grooming.
However, early releases of some 5,000 prisoners are still due to begin in October to ease pressure on prison places.
Napo, which is currently holding an indicative ballot on its members’ appetite for strike action, said the latest plans would see “thousands of domestic abuse perpetrators and stalkers” released early from prison, posing “real issues of public protection”.
The union said it is “not clear” whether new PM Andy Burnham and new justice secretary Alex Norris understand that the Probation Service is ill-equipped to take on the additional work that the early releases will require.
General secretary Ian Lawrence said the stated aim of the latest early release measures – freeing up cells in adult male prisons that are now at 98% capacity – missed the wider point about what happens when convicted criminals are released early.
He said a properly-resourced Probation Service is crucial to managing offenders in the community.
“Everyone is talking about prisons, and yes it is bad, but the crisis in probation is far worse,” Lawrence said. “But yet again, our members are being overlooked while all the attention is on prison. Without probation none of this can happen, so the service needs to be front and centre to this discussion.”
Napo said Burnham and Norris had “failed to acknowledge” the workload crisis that has afflicted the Probation Service for more than two years.
According to Napo, there are “huge numbers of vacancies” in victim liaison roles, making it unclear how the additional Victim Contact Scheme work that the planned early releases will generate can be undertaken.
It said there is also no additional funding to retain experienced probation staff, despite “endemic staffing problems in many key roles across England and Wales”.
Earlier this week the MoJ said “tough new probation measures” would deliver a stricter punishment package in the community, creating “a prison outside prison for offenders” as part of the new waves of early releases.
Among the measures designed to better protect the public are “near real-time electronic monitoring for probation staff to track offender movements” and random drug testing for 1,000 offenders every month.
The MoJ also reiterated previously-announced plans to hire an additional 1,300 probation officers, which the Probation Service launched a recruitment drive for last month.
Napo’s indicative strike ballot in its dispute with HM Prison and Probation Service – which is part of the MoJ – is open until Monday 10 August.