My days on the Sheffield Probation Liaison Committee were most revealing of P.O. attitudes and ideas ranged from liberal to quasi-marxist. The average PO was pretending to be 'an additional social worker' which was a highly inappropriate misuse of position.
I recall one reasonable man however, who was in charge of a section of Community Punishment (Work) Orders who was expressing his distress at a system which was permitting HALF of offenders to wilfully breach their orders.
(When I first became a JP - a return to court for breaches had to await the THIRD offence. This was later reduced to two - which was still one too many and even after three, jail was considerably more unlikely than not.)
