The Government claims progress towards what it calls a radical new system for the more effective management of all offenders.
Ten new Regional Offender Managers (ROMS) have been appointed across England and Wales.
According to the Home Office, the ROMS will play a role in driving forward reforms to the way offenders are managed in prison and by the Probation Service as recommended in Patrick Carter’s independent review and announced by Home Secretary David Blunkett in January.
The appointments follow the bringing together of the Prison and Probation Services into the new National Offender Management Service, which is at the centre of what the Home Office calls a fundamental overhaul of the correctional services designed to cut re-offending rates and increase rehabilitation, it is claimed. Mr Blunkett announced a £312m increase in spending on the Prison and Probation Services, including the recruitment of 1,800 extra probation staff and more than 3,500 new prison places.
The 10 appointees – one for each of the nine English regions and another for Wales – will direct work in their regions, the Home Office adds, to develop and introduce the concept of offender management in both the Prisons and Probation Services to ensure that work done with an offender in custody is built on when they are released into the community.
