Forty years and counting - communicating probation

Abstract

This chapter explores ways of communicating probation policy and practice over a 40-year period. It adopts a biographical approach using the author’s various locations in and around the criminal justice system since 1975. Taking the basic axiom that policy and practice can only be improved by reflective and critical thinking, the chapter shows how this approach was utilised by the author whether employed as a practitioner, manager, trainer, academic, researcher, policy implementor or consultant. Taking the Gramscian notion of ‘permanent persuader’ the chapter focuses on the change in communicative modes employed by the author to achieve influence and impact over policy and practice in the world of probation. It offers a unique insight into the life-time experience of someone who has continued to touch on the world of probation throughout his working life maintaining a focus on real-world interventions and in recent years utilising the growing influence of social media outlets to permeate thinking and impact on probation policy and practice.