Former prison probation officer says rehabilitation work with inmates has withered since a 1984 government order sidelined it

Anthony Goodman, who worked in a prison probation role and later an aftercare unit for ex-offenders, says staff once met inmates before release to plan their resettlement. He argues probation officers have steadily lost their autonomy ever since. Academic Joe Sim goes further, warning that rehabilitation cannot succeed in a society split by brutal divisions.

Goodman says Whitehall's 1984 'statement of national objectives and priorities' pushed prison work aside.