Inspector says monitoring after short sentences could be stopped and youth services could take on some cases
Ministers should consider reducing the caseload of the probation service by up to 40,000 offenders if they are to ease the overcrowding crisis in prisons, a watchdog has told the Guardian.
Martin Jones, the chief inspector of probation in England and Wales, said the current model was “not sustainable” and suggested ministers should free up capacity by no longer asking probation officers to monitor people released from prison after short custodial sentences for crimes such as shoplifting.
He suspects that each of the probation service’s 12 regions in England and Wales are already struggling to cope with the number of cases.
Approximately two-thirds of the cases his staff inspect fall short of the standards that have been set to keep the public safe.
97% of probation delivery units examined by the watchdog were falling below the standards set for good practice.
He is drawing up an inspection programme for probation hostels – halfway houses for high-risk offenders – because at present there is no independent oversight of their work.
