Christine Lawrie, previously Chief Officer of Kent Probation and Chief Executive of the Probation Association, gives her views in the latest in a series of interviews about the MoJ’s probation reform programme: Transforming Rehabilitation. Christine applauds the fact that TR makes rehabilitation as important as punishment in the criminal justice system but is disappointed that the public sector was not allowed to compete.

She is concerned that there will in effect be two probation services (the National Probation Service and the new Community Rehabilitation Company) in each every area, leading to a cumbersome system. She says we may well “spend more time making the system work than doing the business of rehabilitating offenders.”