Domestic abusers ‘go unchecked after jail’

Social affairs correspondent

JAILED domestic abusers are not being monitored at home after their release, a report by HM Inspectorate of Probation has found.

Many who should have been visited at home have instead been met by often overstretched probation officers in public settings such as libraries and cafés.

The report found that private community rehabilitation companies, which deal with low to-medium risk offenders, were not putting enough of them on the only accredited domestic abuse programme, Building Better Relationships, and in many areas “enthusiastic” officers were delivering courses they had found or devised themselves without any evidence that they actually worked.

Dame Glenys Stacey, HM Chief Inspector of Probation, said that the results of the inspections were of “grave concern”. She said: “There are, without a doubt, more women and children afraid and at risk here than should be the case.”

The audit of five areas in England and Wales in April and May found that a home visit had only taken place in a fifth of cases where this should have been done.

Home visits allowed probation officers to assess the offender, meet the partner and any children, she said. Rory Stewart, the prisons minister said: “We are taking action to improve CRCS by ending current contracts and investing £22million.”