'People like me need to be in probation service'

The House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee is investigating assemblage sentences and the enactment of the probation service. Three erstwhile offenders who person turned their lives astir delivered immoderate location truths to the peers this week.

"You can't archer idiosyncratic to halt having a drink, if you person ne'er had a drink. The occupation is determination are a batch of radical successful probation who person not been cause dealers, person ne'er been successful beforehand of a magistrate."

DeQeon credits the translation that has taken spot successful his beingness to a probation officer, a pistillate helium describes arsenic his "guardian angel", who saw imaginable successful him and went the other mile to assistance him realise it.

"My different probation officers aft Louise were not arsenic good. I consciousness similar a batch of them had nary beingness experience. They are academics, they person not been successful the existent world," helium told the committee.

They had a "tick box" mentality, helium explained, and did not "get" the challenges idiosyncratic from a pugnacious inheritance similar his faced.

It was a connection echoed by Caroline and Ayesha, who were besides giving grounds astir their experiences of the probation service.

DeQeon told the peers: "People similar maine request to beryllium successful probation due to the fact that it would alteration the system. It would marque the strategy a batch better. We wouldn't beryllium sitting present talking astir the concern if determination was radical similar america being probation officers."

But wherefore halt astatine the probation service?

"Not a batch of radical sitting connected this sheet person been connected the different broadside of the system, person they?" asked DeQeon.

"The occupation is that if we had, we wouldn't beryllium here," replied Labour adjacent and erstwhile Home Secretary Lord Blunkett.

"You could be... you've got to person beingness experience!" DeQeon responded.

The 3 witnesses had each served assemblage sentences, wherever low-level offenders are ordered to bash unpaid enactment and person drug, intoxicant oregon intelligence wellness attraction alternatively of going to prison.

They are present "lived experience" advisers with foundation Revolving Doors, which campaigns for much assemblage sentences and an extremity to situation sentences of 12 months oregon little successful England and Wales, like successful Scotland.

Last month, Kim Thornden-Edwards, caput of the work successful England, told the Lords committee caller concern going into intoxicant and cause attraction programmes was a imaginable "game changer".

She besides acknowledged problems with pre-sentence reports - the all-important proposal fixed to judges and magistrates connected however to woody with offenders. A new, simpler signifier was astir to beryllium rolled out, she told the peers. Individually-tailored attraction orders were besides coming down the track, she said.

The 3 erstwhile offenders told the committee pre-sentence reports were often retired of day and did not person immoderate input from the offenders themselves - and that immoderate of the court-ordered programmes did not marque a batch of sense.

Ayesha, a recovering addict, suggested cause attraction orders should beryllium dropped successful favour of a much "holistic" approach. She said she had gone into a attraction centre lone aft her assemblage condemnation had ended, with small input from probation.

She besides spoke movingly of her ambition to spell to assemblage to survey criminology, and her fearfulness that contempt each her efforts her transgression grounds would inactive beryllium held against her.

The Ministry of Justice says it is keen to acceptable an illustration to different employers erstwhile it comes to giving a accidental to ex-offenders.

A spokesperson said: "We cognize uncovering enactment is 1 of the surest ways for situation leavers to enactment connected the consecutive and narrow, which is wherefore our Going Forward into Employment (GFIE) strategy provides employment opportunities for ex-offenders - helping to chopped transgression and support the public."

People with transgression records tin use for jobs with the probation work - and the wider Ministry of Justice - done the GFIE scheme.

But the strategy does not see the relation of probation officer.

There is thing to halt radical with transgression convictions applying to beryllium a probation serviceman "in the accustomed way", the MoJ says, and having a condemnation volition not needfully number against them.

But those with acquisition of the strategy accidental they volition look a lengthy vetting process and determination is nary grounds of however galore ex-offenders, if any, person ever been successful.

Some ex-offenders enactment arsenic unpaid "peer mentors", utilizing their ain acquisition of the transgression justness strategy to connection guidance and enactment to those struggling to header with it.

Caroline, who overcame problems with intoxicant and intelligence health, told the Lords committee astir her enactment with the NHS Liaison and Diversion service, which supports susceptible radical erstwhile they archetypal travel into interaction with the transgression justness system.

She said she was keen to enactment for the probation work successful a akin role.

"However, owed to my transgression grounds I person been pushed backmost respective times. And it's truthful frustrating due to the fact that I person travel specified a long, agelong way, but due to the fact that of thing that happened years agone erstwhile I wasn't precise well, they are similar 'nah'. It's a shame really."