Some would argue that the Probation Service is at the heart of the Criminal Justice System (CJS), maintaining that when giving an account of the CJS, the work of probation, amongst other agencies, should be fully considered (Canton & Dominey, 2017).
Due to the position that probation occupies within the CJS, probation practitioners are well placed to effect change in the lives of service users. This is because for the time they are serving the sentence imposed by the court (whether that’s in custody or in the community), service users work very closely with their probation Responsible Officer (RO). The RO’s job is to manage risk, reduce reoffending and support the rehabilitation of the service user, focusing on their risk to the public, individual criminogenic needs and being responsive to any changes in behaviour.
One way to achieve rehabilitation and reduce reoffending is by referring service users to structured group-work programmes delivered by probation practitioners within interventions teams. Accredited Programmes and structured individual interventions are designed to support desistance from offending and in the recent Her Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) Target Operating Model (HMPPS, 2021) there is a clear recognition of the importance of both activities within service users’ desistance journeys away from crime. One such intervention is that of Restorative Justice (RJ). In terms of understanding RJ, it can be seen as a process of communication between victims of crime and perpetrators which aims to repair the harm caused by the crime.
