Probation and Supervision

Abstract

The past twenty years have seen a considerable growth in the functions and responsibilities of the probation service. We now find probation officers staffing the welfare departments of prisons and involved in conciliation schemes; there are hostels and day centres run by the probation service; probation officers have had to absorb an increasing amount of work resulting from prisoners released on statutory licences. The methods of working have also changed: probation officers can be found working in pairs or groups, and with pairs or groups of clients. The arena in which this contact takes place has changed as well, and nowadays we can sometimes be found in community centres running coffee mornings, or doing outreach work ‘on the streets’. Every summer the mountains of Wales hum with the sound of probation officers and their clients involved in outdoor ‘activities’ in the countryside.