UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, has written to Home Secretary John Reid, following his Wormwood Scrubs speech on probation, calling on him to re-think changes to the probation service because the union believes they
will not improve it.
During the course of his speech, the Home Secretary referred to a television programme that claimed offenders were not being adequately supervised in probation hostels. And used this as an opportunity to criticise and announce
a review.
Dave Prentis points out that monitoring the movements of hostel residents has to be authorised at the highest level and competes with the surveillance requirements of fighting organised crime and counter-terrorism. When UNISON
members accompany high profile offenders outside the premises, extra funding has to be obtained from the Home Office public protection unit. He writes: