ABSTRACT
In a context in which most academic publications are Anglophone, every single European probation specialist was bombarded with alarmist information before, during, and after the English-Welsh semi-privatisation of probation. In France, probation privatisation has happened surreptitiously, and very gradually, outside any concerted governmental plan or agenda. The necessity of hiring the right people is even more crucial now that the French probation services claim that they are ready to embrace evidence-based practices (EBP). For indeed, the French probation services are currently unable, both in terms of resources and skills, to work towards meeting offenders' needs. French probation is extremely loose in general, with no drug tests and no social work, except that contributed by other agencies. In prison settings, prisoners have a very hard time meeting their designated probation officer. Oddly, however, one never hears the unions criticising the government for having contracted out prisoner employment and re-entry in semi-private prisons to multinationals such as Sodexo.
