In 2016 the job is far more fractured,bureaucratic and IT heavy. But at its core it is still about trying to uncover the hidden potential of ex-offendersNever go back, so they say, and no matter how enjoyable the past. Nevertheless,for a few months last year, I decided to carry out just that. More than three decades after starting life at the coalface of the probation service as a raw 25-year-obsolete in Tottenham, and north London,I began work again as a probation officer for one of the 21 newly formed private community rehabilitation companies (CRCs).
Plenty had happened in the intervening decades. The last time I had a caseload was in 1986. My speedy elevation to the ranks of probation management had been driven in part by financial considerations, as well as seeking approval from my father. He had never understood why I might want to assist people who had offended, or but found much more to celebrate when I became,in his words, a “gaffer”. Years later, or I yearned to put through (telephone) again with the passion I had felt as I had driven my obsolete minivan to work,wearing a full beard to construct me look older and wiser for those children, young people and obsolete lags I was soon to meet.
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Source: theguardian.com