Inside the coaching room: Working with probation
After prison, comes probation. For some, this transition can be confusing - even frustrating - and there are significant consequences if it goes wrong. In this blog, Senior Lead Coach Amrit explains why it’s important that we talk about the challenges and opportunities of working with probation during our three-week course in prison.
Leaving prison marks the beginning of a significant transition, a step back into society that comes with its own challenges and opportunities. For many, probation serves as a vital bridge during this period, offering support and guidance to help rebuild lives. However, this isn’t always an easy relationship to navigate, and the lack of staff means that resources are stretched, and probation officers aren’t always able to provide the standard of care they would like to.
Probation officers hold a unique role, whereby they support individuals, but also supervise them. Many people leaving prison have had a negative experience with the criminal justice system, leading to a lack of trust in probation officers and the support they offer. Building a positive relationship with probation staff is crucial, but past negative interactions can make this difficult.
The reason this relationship is so important is, if someone breaks the rules of their probation, they risk being sent back to prison - ‘recalled’. The proportion of people in prison because they have been recalled has been steadily rising over recent years – one in three people on probation after release from prison are recalled to custody. However, most recalls do not happen because someone has committed a new offence; the most common reason for recall is non-compliance (in 77% cases), followed by failure to maintain contact (34%)*.
Unfortunately, these are the realities of a very overwhelmed service and as coaches, we’re all too familiar with stories of recall and frustrations with the system. And so, we realised – with the help of our Experts Beyond Bars – that talking about the realities of this and how to effectively work with probation surely deserved a space on the programme.
Facilitating this content is not always easy, but in line with our value of being courageous, it’s a challenge we tackle head on. Some participants in the room may be back in prison due to a recall from Probation that felt unjust, possibly with major knock-on effects and feelings of resentment. Others may never have worked with probation before and find the prospect overwhelming (lots of the terms won’t have been explained to them before) or daunting – especially after hearing some of the horror stories on the wing!
However, for most, engaging with probation is not optional – so we discuss with the group how they can ensure that they have a positive relationship with Probation and, in turn, how they can complete their license without further complications. To do this, we split the session into three main areas:
Understanding what the Probation Service does.
Understanding what to expect.
Understanding what you can’t control, and taking charge of what you can, when working with probation.
It’s important to say that we do also draw on the positive experiences participants have had with probation officers because, as we know, it’s not all bad! The main takeaway of this section is to maintain focus on the bigger goal, and to remember that although they are no longer in custody – they are still serving the rest of their sentence. We recognise that although the Probation Service at times can be unsympathetic, it is never down to one individual and there are struggles on both sides, with circumstances that are not ideal for anyone.
When designing this content, we spoke to various probation officers to understand how we can all work towards the same outcome, so our top tips come from the professionals themselves! But as always, the power is in our participants’ hands – we draw on other aspects of the course including using effective communication and how we can use the power mentality to have some control over the result.
As much as it’s challenging, this is one of the course topics I can see has a huge impact on our participants. Having an honest conversation about the realities goes a long way and ultimately the more prepared we are, the better decisions we make.
Amrit, Senior Lead Coach at StandOut
*Offender Management Statistics Bulletin, England and Wales, March 2024