Probation working through the challenges of Covid-19
With a newly appointed Director, Mark Wilson, at the helm, the staff of the Probation Service have continued to provide a range of vital services in communities nationwide throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Probation Service is the lead agency in the assessment and management of offenders in the community in Ireland and works with over 10,000 offenders on any given day. With over 400 staff working in over 50 community and prison settings, we support public safety by assisting the judiciary with sentencing decisions and by supervising offenders in their community, aiming to bring about positive change in the behaviour of those we work with. In 2019, the Probation Service completed over 16,000 Probation Assessment reports for the District, Circuit and Central Criminal Courts.
As the newly appointed Director of the Probation Service, I am committed to ensuring high levels of collaborative working with our criminal justice partners. My career to date, including a position as Deputy Director of Operations in the Irish Prison Service, has given me many opportunities to develop and recognise the value of such collaboration.
I am particularly focused on the need to strengthen the joint approach to offender management across the criminal justice system, further improve public safety and achieve better outcomes in the management, rehabilitation and integration of offenders.
Indeed, during an earlier period of my career in the Probation Service, I contributed to the setting up of both the Sex Offender Risk Assessment and Management (SORAM) and the Joint Agency Response to Crime (JARC) models of joint offender management, examples of interagency work at its most effective.
Covid-19 and the Probation Service
Being appointed to this position in the midst of a pandemic has certainly been a dynamic and challenging experience. The Probation Service delivers services through and to people, and the impact of various government restrictions have been challenging. However, I have been heartened and inspired by the flexibility, adaptability and resilience of the staff right across the service, which has been nothing short of extraordinary in these already extraordinary times.
Once the effects of Covid-19 on our working practices became evident, the Probation Service reviewed its workload and identified about 1,000 persons whose behaviour needed particular attention during the pandemic in addition to maintaining oversight and engagement with others under supervision. We have also played a significant role in supporting access to justice through our work, by continuing to provide pre sanction assessment reports to the Courts Service to allow for the imposition, by the judiciary, of appropriate custodial or community-based sanctions.
One of our most important tasks during Covid-19 has been to facilitate the early release and supervision of many carefully selected prisoners, in close partnership with the Irish Prison Service, through programmes such as Community Return. This work has allowed for additional space across the prison estate which has contributed in no small part to keeping our entire prison system relatively Covid-free since March. We have seen in other jurisdictions how Covid-19 can run rampant through a prison population, and keeping the virus out of prisons has been a particular success in the criminal justice system’s response to Covid-19.
As the year has progressed, our ‘Return to Work Safely’ protocol, and the control measures in place for each of our offices, has allowed us to continue to deliver our essential public services in a safe manner. All of our work, including community supervision, has had to be adapted in recent months. To allow for the continuation of our essential services, we have implemented changes to ensure our clients can stay safe, as well as introducing new practice guidelines which cover working, supervising and engaging with the people we serve. The Probation Service has been agile and flexible in devising new ways of working, allowing us to provide the best quality interventions and practice in these changed times.
Our Probation Officers are highly trained professionals who use their skills, knowledge and constructive engagement with their clients to provide vital services and effective supervision every day. They work with their clients to bring about necessary change in their lives and to help them choose a different path in life, one away from criminality. Adapting to the challenges presented by the pandemic has, in many ways, demonstrated the essential value of this close connection between our probation officers and their clients, and the communities in which they live.
The work of community service supervisors has also been crucially important during the pandemic, and they have actively contributed to the development of the new ‘Covid specific’ procedures which are key to implementation, review and development of these services. Their collaborative work in this area allowed for Community Service sites to begin to reopen on a pilot basis in Dublin, in mid-July. We have now further developed our operating procedures in line with public health guidance to support the safe reopening of outdoor Community Service sites throughout the country, albeit on a reduced scale.
There has been innovation, flexibility and co-operation in maintaining services and sustaining people through the crisis. It’s important to recognise the broad range of people we work with, many with complicated life experiences, and heightened difficulties some have faced in their lives, particularly during the earlier lockdown phases, including those dealing with mental health, addiction and physical health issues.
We also undertake a lot of work with teenagers and young people, and our colleagues in Young Persons Probation have noted that lockdown was particularly difficult for this group who, like other young people their age, need routine, peer support and to be kept busy. Their regular contact with probation officers and partner organisations in the community throughout the pandemic has helped to keep many young people motivated and their families connected with vital practical and emotional supports.
Technology has also helped in sharing knowledge, working collaboratively and co-operating with criminal justice partners across the island of Ireland, our neighbouring countries and with other probation organisations in Europe. We maintain a strong link with our colleagues in Northern Ireland, the UK and with our many European partners, and it is particularly interesting to observe how the challenges faced within each jurisdiction are so similar.
The Probation Service will continue to adapt to the challenges that our new working reality presents. While there is still a considerable way to go, we can look forward to the passing of this crisis, while learning to manage the post-Covid ‘new normal’. I look forward to continuing to work closely with our criminal justice, government and community partners to progress our shared vision and objectives for the Probation Service into the future.
E: psinfo@probation.ie
W: www.probation.ie
Twitter: @probation_irl
