JMcK54/2008
JMcK/CMcG

22nd February 2008

The Right Honourable Jack Straw MP
Secretary of State for Justice
Ministry of Justice
Selbourne House
54-60 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6QW

Dear Jack

Following your reported comments on the Prisons’ crisis in today’s Guardian, I attach, for your information, a copy of a letter I today sent to the Guardian Editor.

Napo welcomes your recognition of the effectiveness of the Probation Service in reducing re-offending and supports your encouragement to magistrates to consider the use of community sentences in place of custodial sentences.

The current resources crisis facing the Service however means there is a very real danger that magistrates will get frustrated when they find that Probation Services are no longer able to support all the community sentences they may seek to impose.

As stated in the attached letter, it will take some years to build new prisons. You could however have an instant impact on the viability of Probation Service provision by urgently finding the necessary resources to reverse the cuts currently in hand.

If the Service continues as planned, to lose around 500 experienced operational staff in this financial year and another 2000 in the next two years, the Service will develop a skills gap from which it will take many years to recover. This skills gap will be compounded further by the loss of current Trainee Probation Officers, many of whom are already being told they will no have jobs when they qualify.

You were the Home Secretary who took action to address the “Howard Gap” when you came to office in 1997. You will therefore understand the importance of acting quickly if another similar gap is to be prevented.

Given the current crisis in the prison capacity, please consider how you might act as a matter of urgency to prevent a similar crisis in the capacity of the Probation Service.

Yours sincerely

JUDY McKNIGHT
General Secretary

The Editor
The Guardian,
119 Farringdon Road
LONDON EC1R 3ER

22 February 2008

Dear Editor

The Probation Service is Full

Jack Straw’s praise for the work of the Probation Service, (22 February), and his appeal to magistrates to use non-custodial sentences instead of short-term prison sentences, is welcome, but needs to be backed up by the necessary cash and resources.

Not only are prisons full, but the Probation Service is also full. Cuts in Probation resources mean that many Services are struggling to fulfil their statutory duties.

This position is set to get worse over the next two years as the Service is losing approximately 500 qualified staff this financial year and around 2000 more in the next two financial years. Trainee Probation Officers, whose training costs are £76,000 each, are being told they will have no job when they qualify.

The imminent loss of skilled and trained staff from the Probation Service is set to lead to a major skills gap from which it will take many years to recover.

It takes years to build new prisons, but if Jack Straw moves quickly to reverse the cuts, the Probation Service skills gap could be prevented and the Service could very quickly stand ready once again to provide the full range of community sentences.

Judy McKnight
General Secretary
Napo