The Home Secretary intends to fund 700 new bail hostel beds over the next three years, a dramatic addition to the 248 ex isting places. To promote debate and clearer policy objectives, Giles Payne, a trainee probation officer at Exeter University, outlines the development of bail bed provision and describes his recent initiative to gather better information about the use and effectiveness of bail hostels.
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References
1.
The mixed category hostel was implicitly approved by the Younger Report 1974, para 430, and has proliferated over the years with consequences for the availability of probation places at hostels, confusion over annual hostel data, practical management difficulties in the control of two discrete legal categories of offender, and the moral and ethical dilemmas of mixing the different categories.
2.
Simon, F. and Wilson, S.Field Wing Bail Hostel: The First Nine Months, HMSO, 1975.
3.
White, K.The Use of Bail Hostels. Home Office Research Unit, October 1978. (Also reprinted in White, K. and Brody, S. 'The Use of Bail Hostels', Criminal Law Review, 1980, pps 420-425.
4.
Pratt, JK, Bray, K.'Bail Hostels— Alternatives to Custody?' British Journal of Criminology, Vol 25, No 2, April 1985, pp 100-171.
5.
Hansard, 12 February 1987. Written answer by David Mellor.
