ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at the history of probation in England and Wales. It presents a context, showing that arrangements and practices, as well as contemporary policy debates, can often only be understood once their history is appreciated. After looking at one way of telling probation's story, as a series of phases characterised by different ideas and practices, another way of approaching the subject is considered. Probation in England was transformed from a service devoted to the saving of souls through divine grace to an agency concerned with the scientific assessment and treatment of offenders. Public protection has, arguably, displaced or at least qualified the priority of rehabilitation through effective practice, and the assessment and management of risk is now set as the single most important of probation's objectives. The extent to which sentencing and the institutions of punishment 'belong' to Courts or to the legislative is a live debate with constitutional implications.