Property News · August 21, 2010

A working life: The probation officer


Meeting murderers and violent offenders is an everyday occurrence for Kelly Grice but, as she tells Leo Benedictus, if she transforms a life, it’s worth itAsk people why they do the job they do, and they will often rummage lengthily for an answer. Ask Kelly Grice, however, as I just have, and the response is clear and immediate. “I’m actually really attached to this job,” she says. “It’s the kind of job that, at the end of the week, as hectic as it will always be, I’ll have that sense of having actually achieved something. I’ve done something that has had an impact on someone, or has made a meaningful contribution in some way.”Though firmly made, this something of an understatement. By working with offenders to help them stop offending, probation officers are actually required to transform people’s lives. Indeed it would be hard for them not to. At the end of one of Grice’s weeks, her advice to a court might have sent somebody to prison – or kept them free to find another victim. Surely there are very few jobs where the impact of being wrong is greater, and yet the odds of always being right are so vanishingly slim? At times, being a probation officer must feel like working for the National Scapegoat Service. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
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