Public protection puts Reid on back foot

The Home Secretary, John Reid, has called for an urgent review of bail hostels following allegations that former prisoners are not being monitored properly upon their release, including convicted killers and sex offenders who have gone on to re-offend.

His call comes after the BBC`s Panorama programme, Exposed: the Bail Hostel Scandal, revealed two hostels in Bristol where a convicted paedophile and child killer were being inadequately supervised. The documentary revealed that their actions outside of the hostel displayed a clear risk to public protection.

The BBC documentary revealed a released sex offender befriending children and another sex offender was seen taking pictures in a busy shopping centre and loitering around public toilets.

Andrew Bridges, chief inspector of probation, was asked by Dr Reid to review whether the management and operation of the premises in the program should be investigated.

“These are serious allegations and I am totally committed to protecting the public,” Dr Reid said.

A BBC spokesperson said that while filming, they twice contacted police to report the released offender associating with children. After the third call officers acted, and the individual is now back in prison.

A senior bail worker was secretly recorded admitting: “We can keep an eye on them until they walk to the end of the path. Once they turn left or right we haven`t got a clue what they are doing.”

The Home Secretary later reiterated his concerns for public protection when he declared that the National Probation Service (NPS) is “not working as well as it should”.

Addressing NPS employees and inmates at Wormwood Scrubs prison, Dr Reid said that he wanted the NPS to draw on its “passion for reforming criminals as well as its expertise”.

He said the NPS “needs rejuvenation, a reinvigoration, putting back a bit of the passion into the cause in which we are all serving, so that you become valuable members of society.

“Just as I ask offenders to face up to their responsibility, I also ask us together to face up to that together. If we don`t face up to the problem, we`re not going to deliver a better service either.”

Martin Wargent of the Probation Boards` Association believes Dr Reid`s criticisms are wrong. She said: “I wonder why the Dr Reid needs to talk down the probation service. It`s the Government and the Home Office that decides the system that is releasing so many high-risk prisoners.”

But Harry Fletcher, General Secretary, National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) has admitted that they cannot offer a “24-hour surveillance” of those offenders considered to be dangerous.

He said: “The Home Secretary needs to look at why, if prisoners are deemed dangerous or are a risk to the public, they are being released in the first place. Hostels are not, and cannot legally be, prisons. The majority of residents are ex-prisoners, and nearly half are convicted sex offenders.

“All residents must observe hostel rules, such as a night-time curfew and a ban on drugs and alcohol. Any individual who breaches these rules risks being returned to custody.

“The Panorama programme does not criticise probation practice. If the Home Secretary wants more intensive supervision then he must supply considerable numbers of additional trained and experienced staff.”