The Guardian reports that the chief inspector of probation, Martin Jones, urges ministers to reduce the caseload of the probation service by up to 40,000 offenders. Prisons in England and Wales are dealing with an overcrowding crisis with plans to release thousands of prisoners early. 

In order to decrease the workload, Chief Inspector Jones suggests ministers could stop asking the officers to monitor people released from short custodial sentences. He claims this may be relieved if youth services could monitor 18- to 21-year-olds who were released from prison. The youth justice service is a stable service, and it could raise the age cutoff of 18 to supervise other young adults and aid with the overwhelming caseload.

Currently, the watchdog warns that 97% of probation units are failing to meet the standards for good practice. This can be attributed to the ‘unmanageable’ caseload of the staff, with 55% of working days lost to staff sickness due to mental health issues. One probation service officer planning to quit stated to The Independent, ‘We are completely overwhelmed, morale is low, and we have multiple people in our offices on long-term sick leave- so six months or more- because it is so stressful.’

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced her plan for an early release of thousands of inmates to aid with the overcrowding crisis on Thursday. Jones claims that the probation system currently in place is ‘not sustainable’ as there are not enough officers to properly monitor those released. This scheme will place the utmost importance on the probation service with concerns of potentially dangerous criminals being released early.

Mahmood pledged to employ 1,000 new recruits for the probation service to fix this issue. Yet, Jones maintained that these recruits need the time to gain experience to do the job effectively, given the nature of the work. He is doubtful that these recruits will be put in place once the early release scheme begins in September. 

Jones welcomes Mahmood’s plan to employ new officers recognizing the high demand for officers before the scheme starts. The required staffing level of full-time probation officers sits at 6,794, but as of March, only 5,113 officers were in post- 25% below the required level.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice stated, ‘The prison system is in crisis, which is putting significant pressure on the whole justice system. We are gripping the situation and supporting our hard-working staff.’