Judy McKnight's Napolog

Web log of Napo's general secretary

June 29, 2007

Dear Jack

So Jack Straw returns as Secretary of State for Justice. He was previously Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001.

I have written to him welcoming him to his position and asking for an early meeting.

I said in the letter that we remained “appreciative of many of the measures you introduced when you were previously Home Secretary. We particularly welcomed your re-introduction of the Probation Training qualification, after the “Howard Gap”, and we fully supported the outcome of the Prison-Probation Review which led to the re-structuring of the Probation Service from 2001.
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Ironically, at the time of writing, we remain concerned at the potential for another training gap for the Probation Service. We are also concerned that all the progress that emerged from your Prisons-Probation Review - which has led to the Service performing better than ever against all targets – could be seriously undermined by the introduction of the changes set out in the Offender Management Bill.”

I will also be writing to Charlie Falconer thanking him for his contribution as Secretary of State for Justice for the past few weeks.

He may only have been “our boss” for a matter of weeks, but he went out of his way to be positive about Probation and praise the work of probation staff.

Posted by jmcknight at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)

June 27, 2007

Dear Gordon

Here is my first missive to Gordon Brown as Prime Minister.

Well, we can only ask for commonsense to prevail.

I had very positive dealings with Gordon in the early 1980s, without revealing my age too much, but time will tell if we will succeed!

Download file

Posted by jmcknight at 08:55 PM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2007

Early Release

Herewith a copy of our press release on the early release of prisoners - also reproduced under Press Releases on the Napo website.

I have also written to Roger Hill asking what action is being taken to address the resource implications of this for the Probation Service.

Press Release

Embargo: 16.30 hrs, 19 June 2007

Early Release of Prisoners

Commenting on today’s Ministry of Justice announcement Harry Fletcher, Assistant General Secretary of Napo, the Probation Union, said:

“Prison overcrowding is a problem of the Government’s own making. It has known that prison numbers have been predicted to rise for the last 10 years, yet they did not build more jails, did not ensure that less offenders were sent down, and they failed to fund alternatives to custody. “

He added:

“We need assurances that suitable accommodation and resources for resettlement will be made available to the Probation Service to assist with early release. Unfortunately there is no sign that additional resources will be made available. It is therefore highly likely that the prisoners will reoffend and be returned to custody in a matter of months. Napo has been urging the extension of the use of release on temporary licence for months, it is disappointing that Ministers have allowed this crisis to heighten. The use of early release will ensure that the courts do not implode in the very near future.”

Posted by jmcknight at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)

June 19, 2007

Bishop speaks up for Probation

NOMS organised its own centenary for Probation on Monday of last week including holding a Service in Westminster Abbey and a mini Conference in the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre.

Here are the Conference speeches of Lord Falconer and Roger Hill and the Abbey speech of the Bishop of Worcester.

The Bishop of Worcester made a very supportive and political speech at the Abbey service in favour of Probation. He opposed the demolition of the Service and the introduction of competition and spoke of why we should talk of "clients" rather than "offenders". I suggest that without prejudice to ones religious beliefs or otherwise, this speech will cheer you up!

Here is just one extract from the speech:

“This is why a Probation Service needs qualities of solidarity and mutual support so much. If the environment in which you are to work puts persons of compassion in competition with each other for work – and it starts to look that way – then the vision of human flourishing for which the service stands involves as never before the disciplines of mutual support and supervision that will enable disappointment when it comes not to debilitate and embitter. And if there is, as it seems, to be no National Probation Service to represent to our society the vision of human flourishing which this service represents, then it will be for you in your National Association to continue to hold before us all a vision of what it takes for human beings to grow and change.”

Members may also be aware that Roger Hill is seeking volunteers to work on the so called “Lord Falconers Challenge”, as referred to in Lord Falconer's speech, to contribute to the future direction of the Service. We have asked for Napo to have a voice in this process.