Community Orders and Prison Licences
People who have been sentenced by the Court to a Community Order or who are released from custody on a Prison Licence should have an opportunity to say what they think will help them to stay out of trouble. Probation Service staff should discuss pre-sentence and pre-release from Prison what is expected under supervision and also what people under supervision should expect from Probation staff.
Each individual will have different reasons for offending and there will be different needs and ways of meeting those needs for each individual in order to stop them re-offending in the future. The Probation Service will discuss issues that are relevant to offending and will make an assessment by using an assessment tool known as OASys (Offender Assessment System). This tool helps Probation staff identify the things that may contribute to offending such as alcohol, drugs, emotional wellbeing, accommodation, relationships, thinking skills, employment, etc. The OASys tool will also help to identify the risk of re-offending and also the risk of harm that the person may pose.
This assessment will help Probation staff to identify areas of concern and what could be done to help meet needs that could affect offending and to write a supervision plan. It is important that offenders make full contributions to these assessments so that they can be accurate and so that offenders can take responsibility for their supervision plan. The supervision plan is reviewed regularly and those under supervision should also contribute to the review process.
