Professionalism in Probation by Matt Tidmarsh

Author:Matt Tidmarsh [Tidmarsh, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781000427653
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 57247819
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-08-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Probation practice, architecture, and an art of distributions

This chapter explores probation practice via ethnographic description of the ‘architecture’ of Elizabeth Street, a bespoke office in a large city. The concept of architecture has both ‘literal’ and ‘metaphoric’ significance within criminal justice (Armstrong & McAra, 2006: 26). The former refers to the physical sites in which punishment is delivered; the latter concerns the ‘architecture of penal imagination’ (Armstrong & McAra, 2006: 26) – that is, the political spaces within which analytics of punishment are assembled and authenticated. Physical structures, their form and functions, are thereby significant dimensions of ongoing processes of legitimisation in penal discourse (Armstrong & McAra, 2006). As discussed in the previous chapter, attempts to instate an organisational culture within probation that was commensurate with broader aims – punitiveness, efficiency, risk management, public protection – have partially succeeded in reshaping understandings of professionalism. As the (metaphoric) foundations which braced probation from political interference and upheld professionalism crumbled, the (literal) architecture within which probation work occurs has been rebuilt in accordance with a ‘modernising’ agenda (Robinson, 2013; Phillips, 2014a). Practice was increasingly subjected to centralised control (Burke & Collett, 2015); removed from the communities probation serves (Bottoms, 2008); and reconfigured around information technologies, technicising and depersonalising ‘the humane face of the criminal justice system’ (Phillips, 2017: 211). Accordingly, the architecture of the probation office and its ‘artefacts of supervision’ (Burke & Collett, 2015: 83) have come to reflect a managerial emphasis on efficiency and accountability (Phillips, 2014a). This chapter seeks to visualise the field that is governed (Dean, 2010); it focuses on how the physicality of the research site influences the behaviour of its inhabitants, and its effects on professionalism in probation.

The first part of the chapter discusses the significance of architecture for criminal justice institutions. Like Phillips (2014a), it argues that the punitive, managerial flows of recent decades have seeped into the design of the contemporary probation office. The second part provides an ethnographic description of the research site to show how disciplinary practices are spatially, temporally, and relationally encoded. Here, it draws upon the four facets of Foucault’s (1977) art of distributions – enclosure, partitioning, functionality, and rank – as lenses through which to explore the architecture of the office and its impact on probation work. Enclosure demonstrates how the probation estate has been rationalised to facilitate efficient collection of knowledge on individual clients. Partitioning describes the spatial distribution of key actors and artefacts within the office. Functionality emphasises the ever-increasing importance of information technologies to contemporary practice, inhibiting the amount of time practitioners are able to spend performing face-to-face work with clients. Rank discusses the surveillant role of Interchange Managers and how this impacts power relations. The third part of the chapter highlights how the parent company’s ‘personalisation’ operating model has shifted practice towards an increasingly administrative, standardised modality that depends less upon relationships with clients than on signposting and referrals to other agencies.

The chapter argues that a disciplining art of distributions (Foucault, 1977: 141) at

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