Comment
'Solving crimes is a lot easier than solving people'
Jason Hardy's compelling and revelatory account of working on the front line for the New Orleans Probation and Parole Department, evoked many memories.
Comment
A life interrupted
Having just read a keenly awaited book that offers a lively and compellingly original scholarly foray into sentencing research, Sentencing: A Social Process: Re-thinking Research and Policy by Cyrus Tata, I was particularly struck by a phrase he used in the book, 'demographic distance’, denoting the experiential and social distance between those caught up in criminal proceedings and the professionals working in the court setting.
News
Our Director in Probation Quarterly
Read Richard Garside on accidental liberalism and criminal justice trends
The latest edition of Probation Quarterly features a piece by our Director, Richard Garside, on criminal justice trends in retrospect and their signification of a flawed, accidental and incomplete liberalism.
Tackling fluctuating police numbers, the dangerous condition of...
Podcasts
Mike Guilfoyle reflects on his time as a probation officer
This week Neala talks to long-term friend of the Centre, Mike Guilfyole, about his time as a probation officer.
Comment
Ending up with 20 years in the Big House
I recently read a challenging but stimulating scholarly book by David Hayes - Confronting Penal Excess. Retribution and the Politics of Penal Minimalism.
News
In the news this week
Our Director, Richard Garside, has been quoted in the New York Times and The Times this week.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on London Bridge last week by Usman Khan, The New York Times quoted Richard on sentencing policy. On the controversy surrounding Mr...
Comment
Meeting Nala
I recently re-read Peggy Giodano's important scholarly work, Legacies of Crime, which explores the lives of seriously delinquent girls and boys in the United States who were followed over a 20-year period as they grew to adulthood. A book that left an abiding impression on my understanding of how some women become embroiled in the criminal justice system.
Project
The future of probation
We are working with a network of professional groups, trade unions and civil society organisations to press for an improved structure and working arrangements for the probation service.
Led by the Probation Institute , and with the informal title of the Probation Alliance, the initiative is pressing for the reunification of probation, and the recreation of of publicly-owned service, following the disastrous part-privatisation under the former coalition government. The Alliance...
News
State is failing young people leaving custody
Youth resettlement – final report into work in the community, the latest report from HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons, has prompted calls for more support for young people released from custody. Our Director, Richard Garside is amongst those calling for the state to address it failures.
The report found that children leaving custody are not being given adequate support as they re-integrate back into life in the community. Both ITV News...
Comment
The tantalising hope of recovery
Mike Guilfoyle remembers 'Blaine', a former client trying to overcome alcoholism whilst on probation
Comment
What supervision in the community should look like
This month Mike Guilfoyle reflects on an unsual supervisory experience
Comment
Vignettes from a probation conference
This month Mike Guilfoyle remembers a probation event at Lake Windermere