| Lancashire Probation Trust | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 2009 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| General nature |
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| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Preston, Lancashire, England |
| Website | |
| www.lancashireprobation.co.uk | |
Lancashire Probation Trust is a criminal justice agency responsible for protecting the public in Lancashire, England by punishing and rehabilitating offenders.
It is one of 35 probation trusts in England and Wales that make up the National Probation Service. The Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom) has overall responsibility for the National Probation Service and is also responsible for courts, prisons and constitutional affairs.
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The Trust aims to:
In Lancashire, the Trust is responsible for the delivery of reports about offenders to the courts and the supervision of offenders in the community. It also delivers programmes and interventions to rehabilitate offenders and reduce the chance of them committing crime in the future.
Lancashire Probation is responsible for the preparation of Pre-Sentence reports for the courts. When an offender is found guilty, the Sentencer has the option to order a report from the probation trust. This is a formal report prepared by a probation officer that includes details on why the offence occurred, the circumstances, the offender’s personal background and an assessment of the risk they may still pose to the public. The Sentencer can then consider the report when making their sentencing decision. Probation staff also prepare bail information reports which assess an offender’s suitability for bail and arrange placements at probation hostels.
A lot of work is centred on those adult offenders that are ordered to serve their sentences in the community as part of a community order. There are twelve possible requirements that can be used to make up a community order and judges can sentence an offender to any combination from them. The twelve requirements are:
Community Payback can be a single requirement attached to a community order or can form part of a larger order. The court can order the offender to complete between 40 – 300 hours of unpaid work depending on the seriousness of the offence. The aim of community payback is to provide opportunity for offenders to make reparation to the community and to reduce re-offending. Trusts work in partnership with local communities to find suitable work placements for the offenders to complete.
The work which is selected:
Nationally-accredited programmes aim to reduce reoffending by getting offenders to address offending behaviour and challenging their attitudes and beliefs. They are intense courses that can last over long periods of time. The programmes that the probation service delivers in Lancashire are:
Lancashire Probation Trust, along with Lancashire Constabulary and Her Majesty's Prison Service work closely together under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements ( known as MAPPA) to manage high risk sexual or violent offenders. The agencies carry out thorough assessments of the risk then prepare and implement plans to minimise it. This work is supported by a range of other agencies which have a duty to cooperate including local authority housing, education and social services, the health service and job centres. [1], and a Youth Offending Team.
Every offender sentenced to 12 months or more in prison is required to be supervised in the community for a proportion of their sentence. Probation staff work closely with HMPS to help prepare offenders for release. This might involve helping to secure accommodation, reinstating family ties and finding employment.
Probation staff also supervise prisoners who have been released on a life licence (usually after they have served part or all of a life sentence). This means that the offender has to regularly meet with probation staff for the rest of their life.
Lancashire Probation Trust employ dedicated victim liaison officers who contact all victims of sexual or violent offences within two months of a prison sentence being given to an offender. Through these officers, victims are updated about the sentence, as well as what will happen when the offender is released, and are able to voice their concerns and contribute to release proposals. [2]
Lancashire now has a dedicated Partnership called HELP to work with the families of victims of murder and manslaughter. The loss of a loved one through murder or manslaughter is something which affects families for many years after the event. Those families need and deserve help to move them out of victimhood and into some semblance of normality. The aim of Homicide Empathy with Lancashire Partnership (HELP) is to ensure that all those involved in victim care, work effectively and most importantly, together The HELP partnership is a collaboration of Criminal Justice and Voluntary Agencies. The partnership was set up by Lancashire Constabulary and Lancashire Probation Trust, and now includes Victim Support, HM Prison Service, Support After Murder And Manslaughter National (SAMM), Lancashire Criminal Justice Board and the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.
Lancashire Probation Trust released a strategy for working with women offenders on International Women's Day 2011. The strategy has the following aims:
their families by ensuring that every woman offender has access to community provision which addresses her needs. [3]