PLANS to privatise York’s controversial Southview probation hostel have raised fears over public safety.
York council leader James Alexander has written to Justice Secretary Ken Clarke to highlight concerns about the potential impact if a private company was appointed to run the hostel in Boroughbridge Road.
He said concerns had already been expressed over the years about Southview, but he believed it was well run.
He said: “I think concerns will rise if the facility is run by a company that could cut corners to make a profit.
“I am concerned about the potential transfer of the management of high and very high risk of harm offenders in the community to the private sector and I fear less resources will be put into running this facility by reducing costs to make a profit.”
In his letter to Mr Clarke, Coun Alexander said he was concerned about a private company reducing costs to make a profit and called for the Government to put a stop to probation service privatisation.
One resident, who asked not to be named but said he was speaking on behalf of Manor Drive residents who live near the hostel, said: “I object to it being there, so does everyone else. Having a surgery and two junior schools in the vicinity is not the ideal place for the bail hostel to be. Whoever is on the sharp end of dealing with it needs to be on top of it so everybody in the area can be assured of their safety.
“I would be worried that they could cut corners – that’s the kind of thing that happens with privatisation.”
Samantha Stubbings said: “When we moved in we did not know the hostel was there, but there have been a few incidents since we got here. I have got two young children so I do not let them play at the front of the house. This could be a concern for the future.”
Another resident, who asked not to be named, said: “We have never had any trouble with the thing. It helps people get on with their lives, but a lot of people do not like the proximity to Poppleton Road School.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said privatising such premises was under consideration but no final decision had been made, and he said there was no evidence to suggest that savings made to the Probation Service would compromise public protection.
He said a number of such “approved premises” were already run effectively by independent organisations, and all providers had to meet the same rigorous standards.
Southview has repeatedly hit the headlines over the years over incidents involving residents staying there. In 2009, The Press reported how a resident who went to the hostel after serving nine years of a 14-year sentence for raping an eight-year-old girl was able to groom and then sexually assault a 14-year-old girl. Also in 2009, a convicted child rapist was let out of jail early and sent to live at the hostel, which is situated only yards away from Poppleton Road Primary School.
But the hostel was hailed in a report last autumn by MAPPA, North Yorkshire and York’s Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements, which said it gave significant protection to the public when sex and violent offenders were released from prison and stayed there.
It said offenders were more tightly monitored and lapses of behaviour more likely to be detected than if they were released directly into the community.
Fears over hostel privatisation idea
THERE has to be some mechanism for re-introducing prisoners back into society when they have served their time.
We can’t simply keep rapists and murderers locked up for life, however much some may want to. It would cost too much, for a start. And a tolerant society always has to give those who have paid their dues a second chance.
Much better that the release of such people should be closely managed than that they should simply be allowed to go where they want. That has always been the philosophy behind probation hostels – the supervised re-integration of offenders back into the community, under conditions where they can be closely monitored.
Nevertheless, and quite understandably, York’s Southview probation hostel has always been a source of discomfort to local people: never more so than in 2009, when The Press reported how a man staying there who had been released from prison after serving a sentence for raping an eight-year-old girl was able to groom then sexually assault a 14-year-old.
Last year, however, the hostel was praised for the level of protection it provided for the public. But concerns will have intensified following the revelation today that it may be privatised.
As council leader James Alexander says, there would be real fears that a private company may cut corners to increase profits.
The Ministry of Justice says no decision has yet been made – and that anyway several such hostels around the country are already successfully run by private organisations. Here in York we will take some persuading of that.
We accept the need for a hostel of this nature: but it needs to be run by professional probation staff whose priority is public protection, not by some private security firm out to make money.
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