Moving towards the future with music
After reading the powerfully elegiac book by Jeff Hobbs, dedicated to his late friend Robert Peace, I was reminded in many ways (short of the lethal outcome) of my supervisory contact with Arnold (not his real name) when working as a probation officer. I had noted with some interest from reading the case notes, including a very comprehensive pre-sentence report, that Arnold had, as part of his offending profile, some fascinating interactions with the local 'music scene'. At our initial meeting, there appeared to be a promising sense of someone in transition, shaking free from the more negative pressures that shaped his entrée to low level drug -related offending. But before we could properly engage in weekly reporting, he offered a tentative insight into his struggles to continue in his plans to qualify as a doctor. He had opted to withdraw from his intensive training course, feeling ill-equipped to handle the fallout from his offending, and not least the real possibility that his future employability would most likely be curtailed. One of the challenges thrown up by supervision was the real drag that seemed to surface after one of Arnold's music gigs, when he was reluctant to share what I sensed was his increasingly enmeshed position at the centre of 'recreational' drug dealing, a scene that was being reported on in the local press.
Arnold's prestigious academic profile seemed ill-placed alongside many of those on my caseload, whose educational pathways had been thwarted by entrenched social immobility and troubled personal circumstances. There was, I felt, an added frustration weaving its way into our meetings. His promising employment prospects looked like they would be considerably dimmed if he continued to engage in 'small scale' drug use and transactions. Efforts to work towards influencing Arnold to remove himself from this scene were proving more challenging than he had anticipated. A pre-arranged home visit was something of an eye -opener, in the sense that the unmistakably pungent aroma that greeted my arrival lent the meeting a freely offered psychoactive uplift!
The fact that Arnold had been convicted of low-order drug dealing and imagined that he was more in control of his drug taking than he suggested, was also belied by the fact that he intimated that he was being 'hassled' by some' 'heavy characters' who wanted to control the access to drug dealing in the locality. The request that supervision be temporarily transferred came as somewhat unexpected, but Arnold made this request with unusual conviction and offered what appeared to be a viable address, outside London. The motivating factors at first seemed unpersuasive, as I had been made aware that there was some linkage in drug dealing between the two areas. So such a concession, whilst agreed, was I believed more a 'safe passage' to outstay the threats directed towards him from local dealers.
I liaised with my probation colleague who was to assume temporary supervision, but this proved something of a bureaucratic cul de sac, as local staff shortages meant that Arnold would, for the agreed duration, only report to the duty probation officer, at times agreed locally. This arrangement proved from the outset to be unsatisfactory and before long, Arnold's reporting deteriorated to the point of breach action (initiated by myself as the responsible officer). There followed a long hiatus when it seemed Arnold had 'gone to ground', and I could only await his court appearance on the warrant that had been applied for at the local Magistrates’ Court.
It so happened on a particularly busy morning at the office that I was notified that Arnold was in custody at the local court and I was tasked with prosecuting the breach (this occurred prior to the appointment of bespoke breach officers). Arnold appeared before the Stipendiary Magistrate (now District Judges) whose approach to breach action offered scope for some judicial negotiation. ‘Mr Guilfoyle tells me that you merit another opportunity to mend your ways' was his response to Arnold, who looked deflated in the well of the court. ‘Have you anything to say?’, Arnold was unrepresented and did not contest the breach and muttered that he had been thinking of how he had not only violated his medical covenant by his offending, but had also violated the trust of the court and me, ’I value the hope that you have shown me’.
Having paid the fine for the breach, the order remained in force, Arnold opted to transfer to another medical course and at the expiry of his supervision, he voiced the opinion some 'decisions are forced upon you, but my decision is to realise my potential...as the song says Mike "I can't go on living like this!"'