Probation officers fail to properly identify the risk offenders present to the public and prevent violent and sexual offences like murder and rape, according to a new report.
HM Inspectorate of Probation looked at 86 serious further offence (SFO) cases by offenders who are under probation supervision or have very recently been under probation supervision at the time of the offence.
The findings (pdf) reveal a drop in quality of SFOs by probation staff, with 44 percent of their risk harm assessments to be “inaccurate or incomplete.”
Forty-two percent of those assessed as posing “medium” risk and 44 percent as posing “high risk” went on to commit further offences….