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Offender Management

As an enforcement agency within the Criminal Justice System, Dorset Probation Area supervise adult offenders in the community, aged 18 years or over. This includes those subject to a court order and those released on licence after a custodial sentence of 12 months or more.

Dorset Probation Area will annually supervise between 2,000 and 2,200 offenders.

The Vision of the Dorset Probation Area is:

‘To provide the best possible service for people in Dorset, the victims of crime and the offenders whom we manage’

Our Mission is:

‘To work with local partners to protect the public and to reduce crime and its impact on victims by changing offenders’ behaviour, thus contributing to public reassurance and to making people in Dorset safer’

Criminal Justice Act

The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (alongside the Sexual Offences Act and the Courts Act) is delivery of the Government’s Criminal Justice reforms promised in the White Paper Justice for All published in 2002.

The Act made major changes to the existing custodial and non custodial sentences and had significant impact upon the work of the Probation and Prison Services. The Act introduced a number of new concepts.

The Act created a new single Community Sentence called the Community Order for offences committed on or after 4 April 2005. This new Order replaced all existing Community Orders. The Order gave Courts much greater flexibility in sentencing allowing them to give more appropriate sentences tailored to each individual offender.

Judges and Magistrates are able to give a Community Order with one or more Requirements depending on the seriousness of the offence and the potential for risk of harm and reoffending that the offender poses. Low seriousness and low risk offenders may be sentenced to a Community Order with just one requirement, high seriousness and high risk offenders three or more requirements. The twelve requirements that are available under the Act are:
  • Specified Activity (for example, Education, Training & Employment)
  • Alcohol treatment
  • Attendance Centre (if the offender is under 25)
  • Curfew
  • Drug rehabilitation
  • Exclusion
  • Mental health treatment
  • Prohibited activity
  • Programme (accredited)
  • Residence
  • Supervision
  • Unpaid work (between 40 and 300 hours)

End-to-end Offender Management

Dorset Probation Area staff work within Offender Management Units, and each offender is managed by one Offender Manager throughout their supervision period. This enables us to establish a productive working relationship with each offender and makes a significant contribution towards the likelihood of that offender successfully completing their sentence and reducing their re-offending.

Probation services to Courts

Dorset Probation Area staff work in dedicated teams within the courts to prepare pre-sentence reports to assist sentencing decisions taken by both the Magistrates Courts and Crown Courts.

Proposals for sentence are made within these reports following one-to-one interviews with the convicted offender, based on:
  • The circumstances of the crime
  • The impact of the offence upon the victim
  • Their personal circumstances
  • Their awareness of the impact of their crime
  • An assessment of the likelihood of re-offending

In certain circumstances, the judge or magistrate may request a brief report from the Probation Officer, known as a Fast Delivery Report (FDR). The FDR is often provided where a straightforward community sentence is being considered and can be submitted within hours of being requested. FDRs can also be delivered verbally.

Bail Information Reports may also include information about a defendant’s suitability for bail.

Offender Assessment System (OASys)

The Offender Assessment System, which is usually shortened to OASys (pronounced "oasis"), is a standardised process for the assessment of offenders that has been developed jointly by the National Probation Service (NPS) and the Prison Service.

It improves the quality of assessment by introducing a structured, research-based approach to assessing an offender's likelihood of reconviction, the criminogenic factors associated with offending, and the risk of harm he or she presents.

OASys has been designed to:
  • Assess how likely an offender is to be reconvicted
  • Identify and classify offending-related needs including basic personality characteristics, thinking deficits and social issues
  • Assess risk of harm to others and also to themselves
  • Assist with the management of risk of harm
  • Link assessments with sentence plans
  • Indicate need for further specialist assessments
  • Measure how an offender changes during the period of supervision/sentence

An OASys assessment will be carried out at the stage that the pre-sentence report (PSR) is produced, with further assessments conducted periodically throughout the sentence (whether in custody or in the community) and at the end of sentence. If there is no PSR, OASys will be completed for the first time at commencement of the sentence.

OASys will be used for the following groups:

  • All offenders subject to court ordered pre-sentence reports
  • All adult offenders subject to community penalties
  • Residents of approved probation premises, including those on bail
  • Adults serving six months or more in custody
  • Young offenders serving one month or more in custody
  • Those released from prison on licence

How Does OASys Work?

The main part of OASys examines the following factors which research shows to predict the likelihood of an offender being reconvicted:

  • Offending history and current offence
  • Social and economic factors: access to accommodation; education, training and employability; financial management and income; lifestyle and associates; relationships, drug and/or alcohol misuse
  • Personal factors: thinking and behaviour; attitude towards offending and towards supervision; emotional factors such as anxiety or depression.

The impact that each of these factors has on the offender's risk of reconviction is highlighted, as well as the risk of his causing serious harm to others or indeed to himself.

OASys also contains a section on sentence planning as well as a self-assessment questionnaire which the offender is asked to complete. The latter is an important opportunity for the offender to comment on how he sees himself and his offending. (Evidence suggests that offenders often recognise their problems; whether or not they do is of interest to the officer conducting the assessment). OASys will, where appropriate, trigger the use of further specialist assessments on such issues as basic skills, violence and substance misuse.