Abstract
This highly recommended study of probation's occupational culture is a heartening rejoinder to those opportunist asset strippers who may want to denigrate the enduring worth, resilience and dedication of front line probation practitioners. It comes at a time when the service is facing what is arguably the greatest threat to its future existence following the Government's decision to impose wholesale market driven commissioning, competition and payment by results approaches. The series of 60 semi-structured interviews with probation workers up to chief officer grade who joined the service from the 1960s to the present day underpins the basis for the book. It provides an enriching exploration of probation workers and their work environment and is ably shaped and enlivened by sound sociological, criminological and organizational approaches.
The opening chapter surveys in a clear and lively manner some of the historic milestones that have marked the organizational pathway of probation and is informed by accessible references to the literature on police and prison officer cultures. The illustrative clarity of many of the observational comments made to the authors will, I am sure, resonate with readers and adds considerably to an area of growing ethnographic interest in probation culture. The authors follow an appreciative approach starting with a socially tainted occupation, namely one that often attracts public and media ambivalence or worse! They acknowledge that the profession is often buffeted by the shifting contours of political change, which gives rise to a bricolage of responses framed by Mawby and Worrall as collective probation cultures.
The authors offer a recognizable typology of three distinct groupings arising from the interview sample. These staff profiles are labelled 'lifers', ‘second-careerists' and 'offender managers' and although broad brush they do broadly conform to the descriptive categories that I could safely recall in the employment mix of a busy urban office when I was working as a probation officer. The text shows how the function of a probation office draws on the key characteristics of each ideal type, be it the idealism and vocation of the lifer, with the skills and commitment to making a difference of the second careerists and the refined attachment to a more vertically accountable public protection ethos of the offender managers. Each profile offers a way of probation work that has, as the categories are often porous, helped to retain a positive sense of identity as probation workers.
The next chapters are informed by forays into some of the differing and often dingy office environments and daily routines in which the work takes place, with pleasing asides to the tyranny of the computer noted! It is clear that desk bound practice has largely replaced what many of longer tooth might well see as the near autonomous, community engaged (less accountable?) operational culture of recent times. Partnership working is well covered as are areas of practice that often merit scant academic interest such as approved premises and unpaid work.
The public perceptions and misrepresentation of probation are then explored via a brief résumé of probation in the popular media, much of which will be readily familiar to readers, and offers some intriguing snapshots at moments in time when probation found its profile raised in film and latterly TV dramas. That the service does not fit well with such dramatic representations is perhaps unsurprising, given the complexities and invisibility of practice, but with the possible denouement of the service now fearfully close, perhaps the standing of probation workers in the criminal justice field does need to be urgently dramatized.
The chapter on diversity and difference looks in a critically informed way at voices within the probation service including the influence of the foundational religious impulses that remain present in practice. The role of Napo (and Probation Journal) which offers practitioners a space for critical reflection is well covered, as is the voice of ethnic diversity and the female practitioner (arguably the dominant voice in probation). The historic and developmental progression of diversity in service delivery and organizational practice, as well as the future implications of these facets of probation as valued organizational features, is admirably documented. Although just what shape future staff training and professional development might be like is hinted at rather than fully explored.
The concluding chapter brings together many of the disparate themes arising from the preceding pages, the common values that continue to enliven and motivate the practices of probation workers in retaining the belief in the possibility of change and the workers’ role in making a difference are writ large. The presence of distinctive cultural iconography such as that in policing, prison and the courts has of course no cultural equivalence for probation and has arguably contributed to the poor public understanding and perception of probation's role in criminal justice. The resilience, good sense and unwavering belief that by working with many of the most demanding and vulnerable in our communities, probation contributes in inestimable ways to a humane and functioning criminal justice system shines through in these pages. Surely any constructive reform of criminal justice that does not also more deeply engage with the visions and values expressed by probation workers may well falter in the end. Maybe the authors can forward a copy to Mr Grayling to remind him of what he risks losing?