Criminals to be referred to as ‘people subject to probation services’ in prison guideline shake-up – Telegraph.co.uk

Criminals will no longer be called offenders by the probation service under a move to reset the language and create an inclusive culture.

Instead of being known as an offender, anyone under supervision will be referred to as a person subject to probation services.

It will cover both criminals serving community sentences for low-level offences as well as prisoners released on licence to serve the remainder of their sentence in the community.

As part of the reform, the term Offender Manager will be replaced with Probation Practitioner, while Offender Management will become Sentence Management.

HM Prison and Probation Service announced the new terminology as part of a blueprint for the future of probation. The change reflects the fact that people on probation are expected to have stopped committing crimes.

The report, called A Draft Target Operating Model for the Future of Probation Services in England and Wales, sets out how the Government will reverse its failed part-privatisation and reunite probation as a single national service.

It states: We are using this document as an opportunity to reset some of the language in the probation system so that we can build an inclusive culture which staff from both Community Rehabilitation Companies and the National Probation Service can relate to

Utilising terminology that resonates with stakeholders, and best reflects the intentions behind the new model and the benefits that we are seeking to achieve.

David Green, director of Civitas, said it was political correctness gone rife. If inclusiveness is the top priority then why not abolish the distinction between law-abiding and law-breaking people? he said.

From now on, someone who calls the police to say that their house has been broken into will be known as a person subject to police services and so too will be the person who broke in, if they are unfortunate enough to one of the few burglars who are arrested. If charged, the burglar will become a person subject to court services.

Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and adviser to Government on extremism in prisons, said: Prisoners and offenders dont need labelling changes, they need practical help. It is symptomatic of a culture that is completely adrift from the practical realities of managing crime and criminals.

It follows similar moves in the prison service which has experimented with terming prisoners as men and calling cells rooms to help rehabilitate offenders.

The project at HMP Berwyn, the largest jail in England and Wales, aims to create a more domestic environment by renaming prison blocks communities, calling holding cells waiting rooms and providing inmates with laptops when they arrive and facilities for tea and sandwiches.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: We will carry on using the term offender, but those who commit crimes have the chance to lose that label if they work to turn their life around.

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Criminals to be referred to as 'people subject to probation services' in prison guideline shake-up - Telegraph.co.uk