Probation leading the way in reducing re-offending
Lower re-offending rates among offenders stand out as a success for probation in Northern Ireland.
The Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI) supervises around 4,300 people. It works at all stages of the criminal justice system: in courts, in the community, in the three prisons in Northern Ireland and with victims of crime. Its aim is to make local communities safer by challenging and changing offenders’ behaviour.
Every probation officer employed by PBNI is social work qualified and registered with the Northern Ireland Social Care Council. We believe that this experience enables staff to better assess and manage the risk posed by offenders and keep communities safer. Probation in Northern Ireland is very much about delivering services in local communities and we continue to do that through carrying out home visits with offenders, where we can see for ourselves and verify their circumstances and speak to family and colleagues as necessary. Our role is to change and challenge behaviour and attitudes. We take that responsibility extremely seriously.
We know that what we do works. Fewer people in Northern Ireland under supervision re-offend in comparison to England and Wales. The vast majority of research confirms that group programmes and interventions that use the cognitive behavioural approaches and methods are the most successful in order to effect change and to reduce re-offending. However, we are not complacent and we want to do more.
To be truly effective we need a partnership approach to reducing crime and preventing people becoming victims. That is why we particularly welcomed the development of the Department of Justice’s Strategic Framework for Reducing Offending. We have contributed to the development of this strategy and will play a key role as it is implemented.
PBNI works in partnership with community, voluntary and statutory organisations. We have a presence in every provincial town thereby delivering local solutions to local problems and we provide over £1 million in community grants annually to assist in preventing re-offending. We also work in a range of partnerships to reduce re-offending including the Public Protection Arrangements, the Inspire Women’s Project and Reducing Offending in Partnership.
We have staff assigned to each Policing and Community Safety Partnership and look forward to taking up our seats and helping to deliver local solutions to local problems. This partnership work extends our role and reach into communities and enables us to make a significant contribution to community safety.
The Probation Board itself is an independent body made up of members from the community whose role it is to hold staff to account and ensure the efficient and effective running of probation here. Newly appointed Board members took up their seats in December and have clear priorities and objectives for the coming year.
Those priorities include continuing to play our role in helping to ensure speedy justice. We have already contributed to helping to reduce delay in the criminal justice system by introducing new reports which can be supplied to judges on the day of conviction. We fully believe that justice delayed is justice denied. We have also overseen the introduction of a pilot scheme to require offenders to undertake unpaid community work instead of going to prison for short periods.
We believe that we have much to contribute and through increased partnerships and sharing of experience and expertise, we can continue to help make local communities safer.
To contact the Probation Board for Northern Ireland
Email: info@pbni.gsi.gov.uk
Web: www.pbni.org.uk
Tel: 028 9026 2400
