By NAOMI LARKIN
Hardened criminals sentenced to community service or periodic detention are getting off without doing even an hour's work.
A lack of staff and resources means it is not uncommon for offenders in South Auckland to slip through the system and avoid their sentences altogether, two former Auckland-based Community Probation Service workers have told the Herald.
PD and community service sentences are handed out for offences ranging from burglary and drink-driving to violent assault and sex crimes.
One of the workers - a probation officer with 10 years' experience - said he knew of 25 South Auckland offenders who did not do any of their community service last year.
On several occasions, last year and this year, up to 40 PD workers were sent home from the Papakura centre because there were not enough staff to supervise them, the officer said.
"They were walking away scot-free and nothing had been done. And these weren't just Joe Bloggs naughty boys - they were hardened criminals.
"Even I had to do it [let them go home] myself when I was running PD because we weren't given the staff."
The allegations follow the Herald's revelations in March of sex and drug scandals within the service.
Other claims included officers using people on PD or community service to clean friends' houses and mow their lawns.
The former probation officer said it was well known within the service that some offenders used friends to "sign off" their community hours. Because of low staff numbers it was impossible to check the signatures or visit workplaces to see if a criminal had fronted up.
The officer said he had warned management of the staff shortage but nothing was done.
"They knew about it. Requests were made to management for more staff but they never did anything. The whole thing comes back to lack of staff and lack of resources."
The service's general manager, Ann Clark, said she had received a letter from the pair this week outlining their complaints, but she needed to investigate further before commenting.
"I haven't got the facts in front of me. I've got their view of events."
The service was in the middle of a review of both the PD and community service operations and a report was due at the end of the month, she said.
The two former workers said they resigned from the service this month because they were fed up with their heavy workloads.
"At one stage I was responsible for 236 community service clients covering three service centres - Manukau to Port Waikato. An officer in a similar area such as South Auckland had 60," the officer said.
"I couldn't hack the pressure no more. They just burned me out."
According to the service's general information manual, if offenders do not follow their sentence conditions it is the probation officer's job to take enforcement action. A breach of PD is punishable by imprisonment.
Ann Clark said the service took about 7000 prosecutions "in any one year" against people who did not meet their conditions.
"We are very active in pursuing offenders who don't carry out the requirements of their sentence."
The other worker - an administration clerk who was with the service for three years - said ongoing inefficiencies with the Department of Corrections computer system meant sentenced offenders "slipped through the cracks."
The officer also said he had people arriving for PD who were not recorded anywhere in the system.
Ann Clark said the system, which cost $13.8 million and was introduced to the service last year, was "only ever as good as the information staff put into it."
The earlier scandals the Herald revealed involved a South Auckland male manager being sacked after having sex with a male offender and two female probation officers from the Otahuhu office allegedly involved in a drugs-for-favours racket.
The two women, who are still suspended, are among 12 staff the service has investigated this year for code-of-conduct breaches.
Criminals escape PD
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