The danger of your inadequacy a day on probation ;s

 

I got told in all essence not to speak today by the second in command of the probation office that I attend in Leicester ;o

The supervisor seemed in a little difficulty speaking with a young man whom was not only reluctant to work but seemed to want to have a verbal confrontation with this lovely woman a grandmother about the rights and wrongs of the world and why he felt that he could and should do whatever he wanted to or not ;s

After listening to this for a while I thought it was getting out of hand when he was told to use a pair of scissors appropriately and stated that he knew how to use them as a weapon ;o and that he was on probation for a knife offence ;s

At this point I spoke up and told him that that was inappropriate and could be construed as a threat which gave him the chance to change his direction of focus towards me and letting the poor woman have a chance to breath.

This young man then went on to tell me and the rest of the group about how good he was at manipulating others and having things his way and how he shouldn’t be on probation as it was his intention to be put away so that in the future he would be able to talk with others about prison.

Ok alarm bells ringing now ;s I continued to do my cutting out and listened and occasionally when allowed contributed to the speech that he wanted to give us about how intellectual he was and how he would do those things in life that he wanted to and still end up with what most people spend their whole lives working for ;s rich kid waiting for his parents to die syndrome ;o

At lunch time he was seen by both heads of the probation service and asked to leave think about what he was saying and return tomorrow hopefully in a better frame of mind.

At the end of the day I was pulled to one side and told that I should not have engaged with the young man. I only asked one question should I have stood by and watched this woman being intimidated by this young man to which I got no direct response but was told that the situation could have got worse.

What crossed my mind while this manager was trying to save face and show authority was that the young man should be in a psychiatric unit, that he should not be in a room with women and others laid open to his desire to manipulate others with verbal confrontation and hints at a willingness to cause harm without regret to say nothing of his warped view of what is social for all to him are there for his manipulation to achieve his own ends.

Had I the time or inclination I would have asked who did his risk assessment for that person as by their inability to recognise even the most basic of psychotic behaviours had put everyone else in that room at risk and ultimately my intervention possibly saved a graver situation and highlighted that which should not have come about and thus I was told to keep quiet in future.

If I were to keep quiet I would be you, inappropriate and willing to take a chance with the wellbeing of others I am neither and will not keep quiet for individuals that need assistance should be given it and in this instance it was him as much as it was the probation service that needed that assistance. People should not be in a place of authority if they are not capable to doing the job but hay the ways of this world…..!