Offender Engagement Research Bulletin

This bulletin describes the
research on supervision skills
and offender engagement
currently being carried out by
Swansea University staff in
collaboration with the Jersey
Probation and After-Care
Service. This is one of a number
of studies done by Swansea
researchers in the Channel Island
of Jersey, which is self-governing
with its own legal system and
a small Probation and AfterCare Service closely aligned
with the Courts, as Probation
Services in England and Wales
were until 2001. Previous work
in Jersey has concerned risk/
need assessment and the
effectiveness of supervision (see,
for example, Raynor and Miles
2007), and the present study
grew out of a shared perception
that developments in evidencebased practice in England and
Wales had not yet paid sufficient
attention to the impact of skilled
one-to-one supervision.
In Jersey we were particularly
influenced by the concept of ‘Core
Correctional Practices’ (CCPs)
developed by the late Don Andrews,
and we had already applied the
concept of CCPs in a study of
Parish Hall Enquiries, which are a
very successful method used in
Jersey to resolve offences informally
and locally. Would it be possible, we
wondered, to carry out a systematic
study of the skills and methods
used by probation staff in individual
supervision?