Some probation services performed by private firms have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are to be returned to government ownership. Private firms and voluntary organisations - community rehabilitation companies - will no longer be able to bid for running probation services from June next year. Justice Secretary Robert Buckland made the announcement this morning.
My own view is that it is immoral for private profit to be made from the consequences of decisions made in the criminal justice system. People who have offended and have been convicted should be punished by the State not by contractors to the State. It is time for prisons to be taken out of private operation and management.
There has been a belief which has prevailed since the days of Margaret Thatcher that a profit-driven enterprise will always be more efficient than a public sector organisation in financial terms - this may possibly be so but prisons best serve society by being run effectively not efficiently. (The franchisement of the railway system hasn't been all that successful either.)
