Devolving Probation Services: An ethnographic study of the implementation of the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda

英格兰和威尔士的缓刑服务机构是一个公共机构，在刑事司法系统中发挥着关键作用。该部门有100多年的历史，负责监督在社区服刑的罪犯以及在监狱服刑结束时接受强制性监督的大量罪犯。目前，缓刑服务处管理着社区中约220,000名罪犯，雇用了16,000多名工作人员。2013年，司法部宣布计划实施一项政策，将公共缓刑服务处开展的大约70%的工作外包给包括私营部门公司在内的其他服务提供者。这一进程的第一阶段涉及创建21家“社区康复公司”(从2014年4月1日起)，这些公司将由司法部拥有，为期几个月，然后出售给包括私营公司在内的各种潜在提供者。该项目将审查该国一个地区的这一重大发展，为大多数缓刑服务的“下放”提供案例研究。它将在一个大都市地区详细研究将大部分缓刑工作(和工作人员)从公共缓刑服务机构转移到未来不确定的社区康复公司的过程和影响。该项目将寻求从不同的角度了解这一过程，包括参与管理公司的高级管理人员和负责监督罪犯的缓刑工作人员的角度。研究人员将出席和观察管理会议，收集和分析政策文件，并与组织内各级工作人员进行面谈。这项研究将提供刑事司法系统的重大发展的详细图景，以及更广泛地说，“外包”公共服务的过程。

The Probation Service in England & Wales is a public body which plays a key role in the criminal justice system. The Service is more than 100 years old and is responsible for supervising offenders subject to community-based sentences as well as large numbers of offenders who are subject to mandatory supervision at the end of a prison sentence. Currently the Probation Service supervises approximately 220,000 offenders in the community and employs more than 16,000 staff. In 2013 the Ministry of Justice announced plans to implement a policy which will see approximately 70% of the work carried out by the public Probation Service being outsourced to other providers, including private sector companies. The first stage in the process involves the creation of 21 'Community Rehabilitation Companies' (from 1 April 2014) which will be owned by the Ministry of Justice for a period of several months, prior to being offered for sale to a variety of potential providers, including private companies.This project will examine this significant development in one part of the country, providing a case study of the 'devolution' of the majority of probation services. It will look in detail, in one metropolitan area, at the process and implications of moving the bulk of probation work (and staff) from the public Probation Service to a Community Rehabilitation Company with an uncertain future. The project will seek to understand this process from a variety of perspectives, including those of senior managers involved in running the Company and probation workers engaged in supervising offenders. The researchers will attend and observe management meetings, collect and analyse policy documents and conduct interviews with staff at all levels within the organisation. The research will provide a detailed picture of a significant development in the criminal justice system and, more broadly, the process of 'outsourcing' a public service.