New research by HM Inspectorate of Probation, analysing thousands of probation cases, has found that higher-quality probation supervision leads to significantly better sentence completion rates and reduced reoffending.

For cases getting high-quality probation supervision, the sentence completion rate was 24 percentage points higher, and the reoffending rate was 14 percentage points lower than for cases where supervision was judged to be inadequate by our inspectors.

Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell explains why this research is important:
“This vital research demonstrates the difference that high-quality probation supervision can make to reoffending rates… we’ve shown that where probation staff engage well with people on probation and ensure that the factors driving their offending are identified and dealt with, people are more likely to successfully complete their sentence and less likely to commit further crimes.”

For more information go the to the HM Inspectorate of Probation website where you can find more information in the press release and you can read the reports in full here.