Probation staff from Suffolk Probation Area are seconded to Highpoint, Edmunds Hill, Hollesley Bay and Blundeston prisons. Their main responsibilities are preparing information and risk assessments on prisoners being considered for early release and working on prisoners’offending behaviour. They work with prison staff to plan a structured sentence for the offender while they are inside. They also liaise with probation officers in the offender’s home community to devise a plan to help the offender settle as effectively as possible back into the community.
All offenders over 21 sentenced to over 12 months are supervised by the probation service when they come out of prison to live in Suffolk. Offenders aged 18-21 are supervised for three months if they receive any custodial sentence of less than 12 months.
This is known as being on licence and involves the offender keeping in contact with a probation officer and abiding by certain restrictions on their movement or behaviour, including maybe taking part in accredited programmes to address their offending behaviour. Any offender who breaks the rules of their licence will be returned for prison in a recall initiated by a probation officer. Those on life sentences released into the community remain subject to the life sentence for the rest of their life and can be returned to prison if their behaviour deteriorates.
