A young, or at least inexperienced, London Probation Officer had a caseload of 127 offenders to manage, just 9 months after qualifying
That means that she would be able to devote well under two working days per year to each case - & that includes everything: travel, report writing, court appearances, as well as face to face contact & interviews
One of these ‘cases’ was Dano Sonnex whose return to prison was badly delayed, leaving him free to carry out the horrifying murder of 2 French students Laurence Bonomo & Gabriel Ferez
London’s Chief Probation Officer “quit his post” in February this year because of these organisational failings, an event which seems to have gone unreported, at least by The Times, in stark contrast to December’s media storm over the sacking of Sharon Shoesmith who was in overall charge of Children’s Services in Haringey when the equally horrific murder of Baby P took place
Behind these lie stories of major ‘reorganisations’ – in 2001 & again in 2007 for the Probation Service - & bitter complaints about over-ambitious, unwieldy (& failed) all-singing, solve-it-all IT systems
Labour ministers & political advisers must be in despair, feeling the scars inflicted on their backs by this ability of dopy public servants to frustrate their clever plans to be tough on crime & its causes
