Prisoners — A Poem

I want to thank my close friend, Charlie Ryder, for bringing my attention to this poem by Judge Dennis Chaleen.

Now, although it’s written about people in prison, I saw a lot of comparisons to people with convictions who are trying to get on with their life, so I…

Opening the criminal justice market — Who is the customer?

In the Summer of 2012, the editors of the Probation Journal contacted me, on the recommendation of Fergus McNeil, to ask whether I’d be interested in writing an article for their special issue, “Opening the criminal justice…

Peer mentors

I’ve been planning on writing about the recent announcements to increase the use of peer mentors in the community. It raises a number of tensions on my head, including the fear that we’re setting mentors up to fail, expecting them to do too much, using them as a replacement for probation officers, and…