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8 Prob. 1 (1956)

handle is hein.journals/probj8 and id is 1 raw text is: Probation JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PROBATION OFFICERS VOLUME EIGHT NUMBE R ONE . MARCH 1956 WHAT I EXPECT FROM THE PROBATION OFFICER By GILBERT PAULL, Q.C. Recorder of Leicester City Quarter Sessions and Deputy Chairman of Berkshire Quarter Sessionls I WANT to speak on this subject from the personal angle: to say what it is that strikes me when I sit, as I have to sit, in a 'judge's' seat; what strikes me as being useful, md what strikes me as being useless. Probation officers Tave a hard and difficult task. I have said to my principal >robation officer - If you did not want a difficult and hankless task, why did you join the Probation Service, >ecause that is what you get. I want to say this. I sit on the Bench : there I am and here is the case to be tried before me. There is first of all :he trial itself. Is the man guilty or not guilty -unless, ndeed, he pleads guilty. That part I find easy. It is the Fury's responsibility to say whether the man is guilty or Tot. I have to try to hold the reins of justice easily and luietly, and then explain to the Jury both sides of the story. I do not look upon that part of the case as my difficult ask. Quite true, I often make mistakes. If I err in my rule >r direction, there is the Court of Appeal above me. It is when the Jury have delivered their verdict, or after the -nan has pleaded guilty, that there comes what I look upon is the really difficult task, namely the sentence. It is a Teavy responsibility on the man who sits on the Bench. In two minutes you can blast a man's whole life. Quite ;imply, I sometimes put it this way. I look at the man in he dock ; the man in the dock looks at me. I do not know what is going on in his mind, nor he in mine. The man who Ippears not to care may be the very one who really does :are. He may be quaking inwardly and saving to himself, ' If only I could have another chance never would I >e here again. The other man so plausible, apparently veeping - sometimes that man is saying to himself at the )ack of his mind, Wonder if I can put it over with that ;o-and-so! . In two minutes from that moment - prison >r not prison, Borstal or not Borstal, Approved School or iot Approved School ? And if one says prison, for how ong is it necessary to send that man, in order to protect :he community and to try to do something to prevent the >ossible beginnings of a life of crime ? I know a neurologist in town, and one day we were :alking. When I said I had to go to Leicester to sit in :ourt, he said he supposed I had an atavistic desire for revenge. If that man sentenced 200 people a year and tried to do his best, he would not talk that sort of nonsense. Sometimes one is worried afterwards and wonders whether one has done right. On more than one occasion I have telephoned the Prison Governor and told him, I am going to reduce the sentence from three to two . It is worrying, and there is no one who sits in the seat of judgment in a case which involves prison or not prison, or liberty or not liberty (unless he is devoid of human sentiment) who is not worried about his sentences. The Probation Officer What do I expect from the probation officer ? I expect him or her to take some of the responsibility off my shoulders. Of course, you may say that it is not our job. We are not paid to take your responsibility. But aren't you ? There is a little red book called The Probation Service , and I have been reading this. On page 7 it says Con tents of this Issue WHAT I EXPECT FROM THE PROBATION OFFICER . I Gilbert Paull, Q.C. THE PROBATION OFFICER AND CONCILIATION . 3 C. H. Stanley IN PARLIAMENT . . . . . 6 PROBATION IN WESTERN GERMANY . . . 8 Thomas Burke AFTER CARE . . . . . 9 How DEEP IS YOUR CASE-WORK . . 10 Oedipus' ACROSS~ THE PRAIRIES . . . 12 Miss C. M. Willis BOOK REVIEWS: Prediction Methods . . . 13 Social Case-Work in Marital Problems . 14 Flogging - Yes or No?' . . 14 Mental Health and Infant Development . 15 OBITUARY . . . . . . 15 HONOURS - ANNUAL REPORT OF P.C.M. . . 16

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