oasys -evidence based on fact or fiction ?

8/14/2019 OASys -Evidence Based on Fact or Fiction ?

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My husband supposedly agreed with the document - he did not know of the

existence of the document, and therefore could not agree to it, nor sign it.

 The worse thing was discovering that our daughter was erroneously

described as being on the child protection register and/or a 'looked after'

child . This was very upsetting.

And it goes on and on ...

We also discovered that probation and prison OASys formats are different.

We contested the document; we called a meeting with the person who compiled it, andas we got neither an adequate apology, nor even an admission of any errors, we sent ina complaint to the area probation office, along with our findings. We also contacted ourMP and George Jensen, from FACT who has specialist knowledge of this area. The resultwas that the probation officer refused to amend the document until after the nextsentence planning meeting.

During my husband’s first year of imprisonment he remained compliant in every aspect.He undertook suggested courses, he completed all tasks and assignments, and becamea model prisoner with red band status, whilst maintaining his innocence.

Following the sentence planning meeting in March this year the external area probationofficer had a meeting with my husband and presented him with a new OASys document,again written by the same person. It appeared that many of the mistakes had beenamended.

My husband was said to have made good progress through the system and due to anapparent ‘admission of a kiss’ (another untruth) he was, apparently, a ‘new man’ and hisrisk score was reduced from 34 to 17.

Probation had added points to the score because (as was stressed numerous times) ourmarriage will suffer because I didn’t know about this ‘supposed kiss,’ which will causehim and I to have an unstable marriage, and my husband’s emotional state will need

close observation resulting in the need for therapy! What a joke! Our marriage is assolid as a rock, and I have been involved in every aspect of this horrendous situation.

 The most recent addition is a letter from the area external probation officer stating thathe could not find any fault with the original OASys report. The officer concluded that ithas been changed simply because, apparently, my husband has since admitted to someguilt! This is another error on the part of Probation. So, another letter will be winding itsway to the probation service, but maybe this time we may need to take it to the nextlevel.

Our advice then is always request to see your OASys document. As a result of myhusband’s experience many men on his wing have requested to see their OASys andsome are in the process of contesting it. Hopefully, in the future, the document will

actually become open and honest, and based on fact.

Sandra Edwards

November 2008

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