Delivering McJustice? The Probation Factory at the Magistrates’ Court

Despite playing a pivotal role in thousands of defendants’ experiences of criminal justice every year, the role of probation workers in the English and Welsh Magistrates’ courts has been neglected by researchers for several decades. This article presents the findings of an ethnographic study of the work of probation staff in two such courts. The study suggests that probation work in this context is being squeezed into an operating model which bears all the hallmarks of a process described by Ritzer as ‘McDonaldization’. It is argued that the proximate causes of McDonaldization in this sub-field of probation work lie at the intersection of parallel Government-led reform programmes – Transforming Rehabilitation and Transforming Justice – which have respectively focused on creating a market for probation services and enhancing the administrative efficiency of criminal proceedings. Until now, almost no attention has been paid, either by researchers or policy-makers, to the intersection of these programmes of reform in the probation suites at the Magistrates’ courts

The meaning of place and space in a probation approved premises

In a previous paper the author explored how the social life of resident offenders in a Probation Approved Premises was structured around social group identities; noting that these groups were reflected in the way space within the institution was used and imbued with meaning. This paper develops on these observations from an ethnographic case study of a Probation Approved Premises, highlighting the interplay between residents’ social and place-identities and the fundamental importance appreciating the meaning of places within the institution has to understanding the cultural experience of being a resident within this criminal justice context

Managing Sex Offenders in the UK: Challenges for Policy and Practice

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