Knowing the true cost of probation

Knowing the true cost of probation

We must calculate the size of the gap between what is available and what is required in probation services

By David Ramsbotham



I have argued many times that one of the own goals scored by the criminal justice system is that no one knows the cost of imprisonment. That is not to say that no one knows how much money is granted each year by the Treasury to the Ministry of Justice, by the Ministry of Justice to the National Offender Management Service (Noms) and by Noms to individual prisons. But no one knows how much it would cost to do all the things that ministers say that they want to do with and for prisoners to better protect the public by reducing re-offending.