In a previous job, I did some work on probation issues. The Probation Boards Association have kept me on their mailing list, which has come in handy a few times, and is how I came to find out about their annual lecture.
Each year they invite a distinguished person who's not from the criminal justice sector to speak on issues of crime and punishment, redemption and rehabilitation.
This year's speaker was Lord Puttnam - who is an ex-movie mogul. Colleagues around the office know that I almost never go to the cinema or watch films, but I'd actaully seen a few that he'd produced: Chariots of Fire, The Mission, Local Hero and The Killing Fields.
So what does a film producer know about crime? Well, in one sense, not much - but that wasn't the point he was speaking as a well-informed citizen - about the relationship between politics, the press and the people in our thinking on crime. He argued that this dialogue had become both too emotive - based more on panic than evidence, and too distant - with politicians and Whitehall understanding little abot the everyday lives of the people they serve.
He applauded the Probation Boards for their principles of keeping justice in the community, of wanting to keep a local presence through the non-executive boards composed of local people in the face of an increasingly nationalised probation service.
There was also quite a distinguished panel of academics, a journalist, MP and perhaps most interestingly for me Molly Webb of Demos. Molly's work includes building up communities using web technologies- just like we're doing with PM Partner. She talked about the new dialogue between politicians, press and the public through the internet and particularly through blogging. All very exciting stuff.
(And go check out the Demos blog)
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The lecture followed the PBA Annual conference. I had a quick look at the annual report. Usually these are pretty dry documents, but the PBA's annual report is a pretty fiery warning against removing localism from criminal justice. They also set out their 5 key principles, which I've selectively quoted below:
1 Commission close to the business
A successful probation service protects the public and engages with it to reduce re-offending. Operational matters need to be commissioned locally, close to the business where the risk is.
2 Strengthen local governance
The purpose of having local people responsible for probation is to provide the best possible service to communities and courts.
3 Build partnerships with the not-for-profit and the private sector
4 Maintain a professional service
The skills and experience of probation staff must be developed to the highest level to maintain the confidence of and credibility with, the courts, partners and the public.
5 Develop the strategic potential of NOMS
The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) should be the over-arching policy body in the Home Office and should avoid duplicating management functions.
The principles were set out on nifty-looking perspex columns.
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