Northern Ireland

Meet the Probation Board NI forensic psychologists spearheading radical changes in criminal justice

Senior Psychologist PBNI Twylla Cunningham left and Geraldine O'Hare PBNI director of rehabilitation talk to the Irish News Picture by Hugh Russell.
Senior Psychologist PBNI Twylla Cunningham left and Geraldine O'Hare PBNI director of rehabilitation talk to the Irish News Picture by Hugh Russell. Senior Psychologist PBNI Twylla Cunningham left and Geraldine O'Hare PBNI director of rehabilitation talk to the Irish News Picture by Hugh Russell.

THEY'RE the hidden figures within Probation Board NI (PBNI) who are involved in every aspect of the criminal justice process - increasingly even before an offence has been committed.

The 12-person team of forensic psychologists shy away from the spotlight, but it is this unit that provides the invisible framework upon which hang radical changes to the way this jurisdiction deals with its criminals.

Geraldine O'Hare is director of rehabilitation with PBNI and has seen first hand the pioneering changes spearheaded by the bold decision taken a quarter of a century ago to embed psychology within the organisation.

"A way back 25 years ago I give great credit to the Probation Board for having the vision to employ forensic psychologists," she said.

"They were looking to the future of probation services, they recognised the very complex nature of the people we work with. A lot of individuals have serious mental health problems and addiction problems.

"We were the first probation service to directly recruit and employ forensic psychologists. No other psychologists are directly employed by any probation service.

"In England and Wales people come in on seasonal basis or work through the trusts.

"In the south they have very recently been working with the prison service. They have one psychologist across prison and probation."

So what is on offer in Northern Ireland is indeed a unique service.

Although they have different backgrounds - including clinical - their place in the criminal justice system brings them under the umbrella term of forensic psychologists.

It has been a slow process to build the team to the level it is today, starting with just two more than 20 years ago and that in itself has been a challenge.

"They are very scarce on the ground," Dr O'Hare explained.

"There is no training programme in Northern Ireland, you have to go to England and Wales. It's a real shame. The issue with us in Northern Ireland is young people have an interest and have to go away to pursue it and then they stay away. They don't come home."

The Board has now created a system of in-house training to equip probation officers with new skills in a changing criminal justice landscape.

Psychologists are there from the very beginning of the criminal justice process, carrying out assessments of offenders for their probation officer colleagues for reports ahead of sentencing, making recommendations on the treatment and management of offenders and designing training and treatment programmes for their rehabilitation.

It involves meeting the offender and carrying out an assessment, including a risk assessment - something that is key to winning public confidence, should a non-custodial sentence be under consideration.

Members of the team are based in hubs in Belfast (where there are three offices), Newry and Ballymena.

From these bases they provide cover across the region to all teams - rural and urban - including Omagh, Enniskillen, Mid Ulster and Derry, working closely with probation officers in each area.

"Officers will come to us if they have identified a particular issue that they need assistance with," Dr O'Hare said.

"Particularly with certain types of offenders, murders or rape, our work complements their's and feeds into the report that they are already doing, guidance with recommendations for sentencing and additional requirements."

Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland, Brendan McGuigan is clear about the benefits of their work.

"The services it provides by PBNI are critical to the functioning of the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland and it has a track record of forming effective working partnerships which help offenders to address the cause of their offending behaviour and can deliver results for the benefit of the community," he said.

More than two-thirds of people supervised by probation through a community sentence do not go on to reoffend within one year.

For many of the people they assess, it is the first time their complex mental health needs have been looked at in their totality and it can be revelatory.

"A lot of people have been in services but maybe dropped out due to mental health or the chaotic nature of their everyday lives.

Twylla Cunningham, PBNI principal psychologist, elaborated further.

"A lot of them have been expelled from services, from schools. We try to pull everything together and have a holistic overview. They may have moved from (health and social services) trust to trust. Different people know different bits.

"Services are very Trust specific and a big part of our role is pulling all those bits together."

"A lot of times they have drifted and been so chaotic," Dr O'Hare agreed.

"It may be the first time they have had that support that's constructed in a way that they can be managed. The lifestyle issue is a critical one. you can never overestimate how chaotic their lifestyles are.

"If you don't have proper family support, you don't have a home, it is very difficult to get your life regulated never mind your emotions.

"Adverse childhood experiences play a very part, living in a family where there is alcohol, abuse, domestic violence - children who experience significant childhood adverse circumstances (CAC) are more likely to enter the criminal justice system."

In fact, research shows that experience in four or more of these CACs make a person 20 times more likely to enter the criminal justice system.

"It doesn't take very much to rack that up. We have to be thinking what are were destining our children into? We don't want to see people entering the justice system."

Dr Cunningham said few cases "fit neatly into a label" but they are seeing "a huge amount of people (who have) underlying mental health problems".

The forensic psychologists make out individualised `pathways' for each offender with "no two the same". They run for the length of the probation period.

Among the issues treated are anger management, severe and enduring (mental) illnesses and self harm. There is also a hate crime specific programme to address sectarianism called `Accepting Differences' and dealing with sex offences - including internet specific crimes - domestic violence and other violence.