Probation members of the Parole Board: a case study
This case study is about a probation member, who brings to the Parole Board skills in managing risk in the community.
Probation members use their professional knowledge of managing risk in the community to assess whether a prisoner’s release arrangements are satisfactory and to reduce the risks to future victims.
They must be able to demonstrate extensive and broad-based achievements within the Probation Service and the ability to gain the confidence and respect of fellow members and prisoners.
Barbara Parn
I joined the Parole Board as a probation member in 2003 and am currently seconded as a business requirements manager to the NOMIS Programme (National Offender Management Information System). NOMIS is an information technology (IT) programme, which at first sight would appear to have little to do with the Parole Board, but as the new system will in due course replace much of the Parole Board IT provision, it is a useful link for all parties.
Four years into my appointment as a member, I am now able to undertake the full range of Parole Board work, thus drawing on my past experience in the Probation Service where I worked in public protection teams with sex offenders and life sentence prisoners and also managed a victim contact unit. I am also a member of the Review Committee, whose task is to examine all cases where a prisoner, released on parole, goes on to commit a serious offence while on licence.