Exploring the application, theory, implications and socio-legal underpinnings of human rights in probation and associated offender management, this book examines the organisation and re-organization of the National Probation Service, from the introduction of the Human Rights Act (HRA) to the end of the Transforming Rehabilitation era. Outlining how the duties of probation officers are interpreted in light of the HRA, this book evaluates applicable case law as a means to exemplify and clarify the direct operation of human rights law in instances of potential human rights violations. Chapters also analyse the current and future infrastructure of probation to demonstrate challenges of awareness, implementation and compliance. Based on qualitative data analysed through a socio-legal lens and a human rights framework, themes explored include crime control and due process, and are reflective of the tensions and imbalances experienced between risk or public protection and human rights. The book also includes case studies of Serious Further Offences that have either shed light on the shortcomings in the area of human rights in probation or highlighted factors linked to human rights, including scapegoating, cumulative systemic failures, miscommunications and over-reliance on risk assessments. Finally, it provides clarity as to what the human rights duties of the Service are, what relevant laws apply alongside the HRA, and how these decisions affect risk and offender management. An important and timely study of probation in England and Wales, Human Rights in Probation will be of great interest to academics of probation, criminal justice, and human rights. It will also be of value to Probation officers (including trainees) and other practitioners working in offender management services.

"[The report] finds that supervision -– probation and parole -– drives high numbers of people, disproportionately those who are Black and brown, right back to jail or prison, while in large part failing to help them get needed services and resources. In states examined in the report, people are often incarcerated for violating the rules of their supervision or for low-level crimes, and receive disproportionate punishment following proceedings that fail to adequately protect their fair trial rights."--Publisher website.

Covers new ideas and concepts as well as the established probation lexicon, including institutional, legal, political and theoretical terms used in the discipline and importing concepts from the disciplines of sociology, criminology and psychology.

This report welcomes the Bill's potentially human rights enhancing objectives of taking measures to protect the public from crime, at the same time as focusing on rehabilitation and extending positive support to those vulnerable people who receive short-term prison sentences. However, it remains concerned that insufficient information was provided by the Government (i) to demonstrate the compatibility of the provisions of the Bill with relevant international standards other than the ECHR and (ii) to support its assertion that the proposals have been considered fully in line with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. The Committee calls on the Government to publish the information which demonstrates this without delay. The Committee welcomes the Government's assurance that private providers of probation services are obliged to act compatibly with human rights law but recommends that there should be statutory provision in the Bill setting out the providers' duties. The Committee calls on the Government to develop clear guidance on the human rights obligations of private probation providers, and to set out how it will monitor the performance of the contracted providers in this regard

"This 72-page report describes how more than 1,000 courts in several US states delegate tremendous coercive power to companies that are often subject to little meaningful oversight or regulation. In many cases, the only reason people are put on probation is because they need time to pay off fines and court costs linked to minor crimes. In some of these cases, probation companies act more like abusive debt collectors than probation officers, charging the debtors for their services."--Publisher's website.

This title presents an account of contemporary probation policy and practice. It also offers an account of probation's history, its values and its principal tasks. It is suitable for the students of probation, and for general readers.

Can our research create conditions for people to flourish? What kinds of questions do we ask about the social world and how knowledge is produced? Does our approach to research itself matter? This edited collection explores and illustrates the nature of research for social justice. Drawing on a diverse range of social research projects, it examines research with and for young people, marginalised communities and those who work to further social justice and human rights goals. Providing key examples of the tools, processes and outcomes of research relevant to social justice, including where and how these frameworks can be used in the design and execution of research, this is a much-needed intervention to social research methodology.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date source of information and analysis about all aspects of the work of the Probation Service. It takes full account of the many changes that the Probation Service has undergone over the last few years, and is currently undergoing as probation becomes part of the broader National Offender Management Service. Contributors to the book are drawn from leading academics and practitioners in the field, drawing upon the best expertise available. Running through the book is a concern with a range of key current issues such as addressing the diversity of offenders and creating effective links with other criminal justice agencies, and it includes perspectives from both probation service staff and from offenders and victims. This book is an essential text for practitioners, trainees and students of probation and those studying it as part of a wider criminology or criminal justice course.