Evidence-based Probation in a Microstate

Probation services throughout the world have difficulty in assessing the risks and
needs presented by offenders, in evaluating the effectiveness of supervision, and in
enabling practitioners to assess the impact of their work with individual offenders.
This paper describes how these problems are addressed by the comprehensive
and relatively successful approach to evidence-based probation that has been
developed since 1996 in the small Probation and After-Care Service of the British
Channel Island of Jersey. In conclusion, the authors discuss whether such approaches could work in other jurisdictions, and suggest that this depends partly on
context. In particular, the example of England and Wales shows how potentially
successful approaches can be frustrated by over-centralization, managerialism and
the politicization of criminal justice.