A stronger staff complement is expected to ease pressure on the Probation Service, with seven new officers joining to bring its total to 16, Chief Probation Officer Dr Angela Dixon has said, raising hopes for quicker report preparation and more focused supervision across the criminal justice system.
She told Barbados TODAY that while concerns have been raised about delays in preparing pre-sentencing reports, the recent recruitment drive is expected to ease some of the pressure the department is experiencing.
“We were privileged to get seven new officers this month, so I would not be in a position to tell you whether or not having those seven officers is going to have right now, because they’ve just come. What I can tell you is that yes, it’s definitely going to help, and it is going to help us to reduce the backlog.”
The addition of new staff means the department can now overhaul the way it operates, Dr Dixon said.
She noted that probation officers have traditionally functioned as generalists, handling a wide range of responsibilities including report writing, programme delivery and supervision.
“We are in the process of restructuring how the probation does business, because before we had those new officers, we were generalists, everybody was doing everything, everybody was writing reports, everybody was running programmes, everybody was supervising, everybody was doing everything.
“Because we have the additional staff, we can now look at restructuring the organisation. How we do things, we can look at having people specifically directed towards court reports and attending courts. We can have persons specifically directed towards supervision. We can have persons directly targeted towards programming.”
These changes would allow the department to better assess its impact and address gaps within the system, she said
“We will now be able to see the impact that we’re having; we’ll be able to address some of the gaps that we have been seeing in the system.”
While welcoming the additional personnel, she acknowledged that further expansion will likely be necessary.
When asked how many officers the department ideally requires, she responded: “I would say a lovely number would be 20 to 25 persons, and then we’ll be able to do what we need to do, but again, I do not want to speculate on a number, given the fact that we have not done any research or any information, we haven’t collected any data to be able to determine exactly what the impact these seven have had and how many more we need to make a greater impact, so I don’t want to speculate on the exact number.”
Dr Dixon also highlighted the department’s continued push towards greater technological integration across the criminal justice system through specialised case management software.
The department currently uses Enterprise Supervision, a platform provided by Tyler Technologies, which forms part of a broader suite of criminal justice software solutions.
She said: “The ideal thing would be to have all of our stakeholders, if not able to log in and interface with our system, at least have another piece, so that we will be able to transition smoothly and be able to identify the clients that we share in common, and then we’re able to flag them, as the minister had said, and then be more proactive in our approach, and how we are dealing with the clients that we get.”
The software was introduced shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic, and agencies were invited to explore its capabilities and potential benefits, she said.
“We got Tyler Technology just after COVID, so I would say 2022, perhaps. So, when we went live with our software, what we did is we invited our stakeholders to come a day and log in on a day and see exactly what the different pieces of the software were, to see whether or not it would have been something that would have been beneficial to their respective organisations.”
Although the initial response was positive, momentum slowed over time, she said.
“They were very enthusiastic and were very appreciative of the software, but unfortunately, time passes, situations change, funding opportunities, so we weren’t able to follow up and follow through.”
The Probation Service has also extended the concept regionally, introducing the platform to probation agencies in 16 Caribbean countries.
“They have two options as to whether or not they want to participate,” said Dr Dixon. “They can … use what already exists that probation has here in Barbados, and then simply purchase licences.”
The response from regional counterparts has also been encouraging:
“They have been enthusiastic, I will say, but again, it is all about the political will. It’s about the funding, it’s about getting the right people in the room, and again, it’s about recognising the role that probation plays for your government to make sure that it is an integral part of their plans going forward.” (LG)
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