Hello,
It’s been a funny old week.
Last Sunday the half marathon runners completed the course and raised an incredible £11,247 – a huge thank you to everyone who sponsored them.
My slightly odd feeling though was because the 4,000 runners all ran past HMP Exeter. Got me thinking about Josh (blog from August last year).
Josh was released the Friday before the race. Even though Friday release has been banned. The sensible rationale is that release on the day before weekend doesn’t allow much in the way of support to be in place before everything shuts for two days, or worse a bank holiday weekend.
Not so for Josh, he was released on Friday, under the new 70-day early release scheme.
But great to be out of prison.
Not so great to find out he can’t return home to his flat, partner and baby.
Can’t attend his local probation office because it means he would travel through an exclusion zone. So, he is allocated a new office, new area and new a probation officer.
What’s gone wrong here?
Well, if we put to one side the years of financial cuts, prisons full to bursting point, and the loss of experienced and dedicated staff. I believe much of the current issue stems from the triumph of risk aversion over professional judgement in the system.
Counterproductive performance targets and priorities alongside the pressures on the system.
This led to officers becoming overly risk adverse. Completely contrary to what good probation should be.
As risk aversion started to become embedded, it has reduced people making judgments based on experience. It stops common sense.
Over many, many years the system has been slowly stopping recognising people as individuals, and it is so easy to hide behind risk and tick that box.
So, Josh can’t get the train or bus to LandWorks. To reach us he must travel through the exclusion zone!
We have a plan. I am hopeful that using mobile phone technology (texts and tracking) we can mitigate any risk. I believe (hopefully) with a conversation with his probation officer we can agree on a day that Josh can visit and ideally start on a placement.
Common sense.
Perhaps a bit like getting 4,000 people running, you need to use of common sense and not be regulated by risk.
Chris
6th June 2024