 I would like to take a moment to welcome you to this website for County Durham Probation Area.
Within these pages I hope you will find some interesting and informative information about our service and how we work with offenders – those in the community and on licence from prison. County Durham Probation Area is one of 42 across England and Wales and we are part of the Ministry of Justice. The work we undertake is both varied and complex and we are often described as a ‘behind the scenes’ service, as a great deal of what we do goes unpublicised and is therefore often unknown to the general public. For example, did you know that the Probation Service is part of the Criminal Justice System (CJS). Along with the Police, Youth Offending Services, the Courts, Crown Prosecution Service and Prisons, we serve County Durham and Darlington as a law enforcement agency and are responsible for public protection, reducing crime, rehabilitation of offenders and reparation. We have a local probation Board which is appointed by the Home Secretary which is responsible for governance and day to day oversight of the services we provide. (Board Business) Our work includes supervising offenders who work in the community on Unpaid Work projects (once known as Community Service), or the accredited programmes we facilitate which help offenders to address problems such as drug and alcohol use, domestic violence, thinking and behaviour and education and employment. We also work with offenders in prison and those released on licence once the custodial part of their sentence comes to an end. In partnership with Durham Police Force, we supervise and monitor people on the Sex Offenders Register as well as those offenders deemed to be the most violent and dangerous in County Durham & Darlington. (MAPPA & MARAC) It is in fact very difficult to summarise exactly what we do in a few short paragraphs, so I hope you will take some time to look around this website, using the easy to navigate panel on the left. Here you will find not only information about the work we do with offenders, but also details about the people who work for us, the role they play and also the current vacancies we may have within the service. (Jobs & Careers) I hope you find the content of this website interesting and useful and if you would like any further information on County Durham Probation Area, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Many thanks, Russell Bruce – Chief Officer County Durham Probation Area. |
