New report released: 'Understanding the experiences of Gypsy and Traveller people in probation.'
Our latest report ‘Understanding the needs of Gypsy and Traveller people and their experiences of probation’ highlights growing evidence that the criminal justice systems, specifically probation, are not set up to meet the needs of the community, and exacerbate the barriers and exclusion they face in society.
You can read the report here.
The report is a consultation project done in partnership with Yorkshire and The Humber Probation Service, written by Leeds GATE Criminal Justice Advocate Heather Binns.
We surveyed a number of our members across West Yorkshire as part of this consultation project, to establish their experiences, aspiration and solutions to issues and barriers they faced. Our report aims to improve their experiences and support probation staff to better understand Gypsy and Traveller people and communities.
Voices of Gypsy and Traveller community members interviewed are featured throughout the report, highlighting their barriers and solutions in their own words for the first time.
Leeds GATE Services Manager Tom Gaffney explained “Having the opportunity to develop this unique consultation project has provided real life, first-hand experience of probation from members of Gypsy and Traveller communities. We feel the insight it offers is so important to add to the very little research available on these experiences within the Criminal Justice System. This project gives the community a voice, and provide member-led recommendations on how those interviewed feel the probation experience should look and areas to consider.”
Numbers of Gypsy and Traveller people in the criminal justice system are incredibly disproportionate to the number in the population.
Gypsy and Traveller men and women make up 5% and 6% of UK prisoners respectively despite making up only 0.1% of the general population. However for numbers of those in touch with the probation service, there is little information. Numbers may also be an undercount as our project found low numbers in the community share their ethnicity with the probation service.
44% of those Leeds GATE surveyed said they did face barriers to disclosure of ethnicity, for fear of being treated differently or lack of engagement from probation staff.
50% of participants report that they didn’t feel that their practitioner understood their heritage and background and felt that they needed to be more educated to be able to better manage their supervision – with a majority wanting to be able to discuss this with their probation worker.
As captured in the report there were some positive experiences, however some of the barriers and views shared mirror the barriers to accessing other mainstream services. It is evident from these findings that more work needs to be done around cultural understanding when a community member is working with the probation service and help provide clarity on the different roles within services that make up the Criminal Justice System.
An individual or family's life experiences of accessing a service can greatly impact on future willingness to use the relevant services, so it is paramount that when working with someone that these experiences are explored and make solutions person-centred.