SALUTARY THOUGH the Government's determina- tion is to withstand irresponsible
wage claims, I cannot help thinking they have made a mistake in reducing the wage increase recommended for pro- bation officers. This is a service which was con- ceived by vocation out of charity; and like all such, it has always been regrettably underpaid. But now that the penal system is becoming yearly more dependent on prevention, and less on imprisonment, the need for more and abler pro- bationers is increasing; and in relation to the responsible and difficult work they are now called upon to undertake, their salaries are ridiculously small. True, the amount by which the increase has been reduced is not great; but that it should be reduced at all is another instance of the Home Office's nineteenth-century mentality in such matters. As the General Secretary of the Probation Officers' Association put it, the total amount saved to the taxpayer represents the annual cost of keeping nine youths in Borstal 'when an effec- tive and fully staffed probation service could well save that amount for the country many times over.'
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