Letter: We Warned that Privatising the Probation Service Would Cause Problems

Published on: 1 Jul, 2021
Updated on: 1 Jul, 2021

Mike Adams outside the Woodbridge Road Office in November 2013.

From Mike Adams

In response to: PCC Lisa Townsend Welcomes New Probation Service

As the man holding the placard in your photo from 2014, I very much welcome the reunification of the Probation Service this week back into the public sector.

The comments from PCC Lisa Townsend are positive, but let us not forget it was her Conservative party, under the then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling, which was responsible for bringing about the disastrous privatisation of more than two-thirds of the Probation Service in the first place, seven years ago.

This was despite warnings from every main criminal justice organisation at that time. Let us hope lessons have finally been learned from this costly experiment.