A LEADING charity has slammed the government’s intentions to hand probation services in Dorset over to a new company.

The Ministry of Justice has announced that Working Links, a public, private and voluntary company, is the preferred bidder to run the Dorset, Devon and Cornwall Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC).

But penal reform charity the Howard League has hit out at the decision to recommend the contracts be handed to private firms – believing the decision is both reckless and ‘fundamentally undemocratic’.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “As we expected, the big winner of the probation sell-off is not the voluntary sector but large private companies run for profit.

“A public service is being destroyed without any evidence that the fragmented landscape created will perform any better or help make communities any safer. Indeed, reforms aimed at imposing compulsory support to those leaving prison after short sentences are certain to set people up to fail.

“Given we are close to a general election, it is particularly disgraceful that these contracts include ‘poison pill’ clauses preventing a future government from revising these untested and ill-thought-through reforms if and when they fail. That is not just reckless but fundamentally undemocratic.”

Statistics released by the Ministry of Justice this week show the proportion of offenders who re-offended during 2012 in Dorset was 22.4 per cent – while the average number of previous offences per offender was 12.52 for the same period.

In Weymouth and Portland – 29.4 per cent of offenders reoffended in 2012. In West Dorset, the proportion was 23.3 per cent – while in Purbeck the rate was only 12.4 per cent.

Nationally, the government spends around £4bn a year on prison and probation, but there has been almost no reduction in reoffending rates over the last decade. Working Links are expected to agree terms with the government by the end of the year, and will work in strategic partnership with Innovation Wessex, a probation staff mutual organisation – set up by current probation staff.

It is thought Working Links will take over in February 2015, with the government hoping the contractors will spend a full year after the release of every prisoner working with them to try and stabilise their lives and help protect them from reoffending.

The decision to announce Working Links as the preferred bidder has been welcomed by the Dorset, Devon and Cornwall Community Rehabilitation Company.

Chief executive Rob Menary said: “We welcome the announcement of the preferred bidder to run the services of our community rehabilitation company.

“This marks a real opportunity to take forward a rehabilitation programme to have safer communities and fewer victims by helping our service users stop offending and leave the criminal justice system.

“We expect contracts to be signed by the end of December and for the new owners to be actively involved from February 2015. This will be a challenging time for us as it will also coincide with new legislation that will require us to supervise all prisoners for a minimum of a year as well as giving us responsibility of improving the transition of prisoners from custody into the community.”

The new National Probation Service (NPS) will be responsible for protecting the public from high-risk offenders.

A statement from Working Links read: “We have the experience and working knowledge to manage caseloads, effectively and efficiently, with the aim of delivering services which will reduce reoffending at a saving to the taxpayer.

“We look forward to working in partnership with probation workers and other criminal justice professionals in all three regions to deliver the Transforming Rehabilitation programmes on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, helping more people turn their lives around for the better and building safer, stronger communities.”