‘The hardest part is working with people who don’t accept the harm they may have caused’ – Inside Wicklow’s Probation Service
The Wicklow PeopleWicklow’s Probation Service faces a complex and growing range of challenges, from rising cases of intimate partner violence to the impact of increased cocaine use. Manager Jan Alvey and her dedicated team work tirelessly to support offenders, help rebuild lives, and manage high-risk cases in a constantly changing social landscape.
Inside the office of Wicklow’s Probation Service, Jan and her team juggle a wide range of responsibilities. As the Probation Service manager for the county, she’s seen her fair share of challenges over her 25 years of service.
The office is a government department that comes under the Department of Justice, with all their direct work coming from the courts.
Who uses Wicklow’s Probation Service?
“You could be referred to the Probation Service at the pre-sentence stage,” explained Jan. “That’s where a court has decided it would like a probation report prepared before it makes its sentencing decision on a case. We meet with someone, prepare a pre-sentence report, and that goes back to the court, where we make certain recommendations that the court can decide to follow or not.
“We supervise people who are subject to different types of court orders. It could be a district court order; it could be a circuit court order.
“You could be someone who's been given the benefit of a suspended sentence, but there will be conditions that you have to come and be supervised by the Probation Service.
“We also work with people who have been sentenced to part suspended sentence supervision orders.
“So, you’ll spend some of your sentence in prison, and some of it will be suspended on the condition that you be supervised by our service. We also oversee the delivery of community service.
“We also work with all life sentence prisoners, and probation officers also work in prisons to support people in managing their prison sentence and preparing for release.”
Wicklow is considered an active area for the Probation Service, with a growing list of social issues leaving the service rushed off its feet. The one office in Bray has to cover all of County Wicklow.
“We’re super, super busy,” said Jan. “Wicklow is quite a diverse area. You have some very urban parts like Bray and some of the bigger towns, but you also have rural parts and the whole issue of west Wicklow, which is 60 kilometres away from the east coast. We cover the district courts for Wicklow and the circuit courts. And then anyone with an address in this county, who may appear in any of the courts around the country, or who has been in prison and is returning to this area.”
Today's News in 90 seconds - 12th August 2025
What does the Wicklow Probation Service do?
There’s no such thing as a typical week inside Wicklow’s Probation Service office. The team juggles court duty, community service assessments, and meeting clients four to five times a week.
"We often meet with other agencies that support our clients and conduct home visits as well,” Jan said. “We cover the whole of the county of Wicklow, so we could be going to see someone in Arklow or west Wicklow."
Working in the probation service means encountering all sorts of individuals from all walks of life. This includes people who have never committed any crime before coming to the attention of the Probation Service, as well as those who have been in the prison system several times.
Probation officers also often give evidence in court, usually in cases where someone hasn't been compliant with the supervision order or their community service order. They often face questioning by defendants’ solicitors. Making referrals and meeting with new offenders to get them acquainted with the process and conditions of their probation is another major component of their work.
“So if they're put straight onto probation without having already met us and having a pre-sentence report done, they don't know us,” said Jan.
"They appear in court, and the court directly imposes the supervision order. In that case, it’s up to us to find them. We’ll write out to them, and if they’re not responding, we’ll liaise with the gardaí to try and find them.
"Then, we work on building a relationship with them, ensuring they understand the nature of the court order and our role. We try to build a working relationship, so they’ll want to engage, cooperate, and stick with the court order. People can be put on probation for varying lengths.
"For some, it might only be six months, which is a short piece of work. Others may be on probation for up to five years, and of course, life sentence prisoners can even be on probation.”
The Probation Service often deals with a wide range of complex issues. This can include clients with mental health issues, addiction problems, high-risk violent offenders, sex offenders, and more.
Jan said that she has particularly seen a rise in intimate partner violence cases and sexual offences. “These types of offences have definitely seen an increase,” she said.
Homelessness is also a huge issue affecting clients of the service, which Jan has seen become more prominent in the last decade.
“The lack of services has meant we have to do a lot of advocacy work for clients we’re supervising,” she said. “We really try to support them and link them with other services that can advocate for them. Unfortunately, the Probation Service doesn’t provide any form of housing. So, it’s a huge challenge for clients who are struggling with homelessness.”
One of the biggest shifts seen locally in recent years has been the rise in cocaine use, according to those working on the ground with offenders in Wicklow.
Jan said: “It’s no secret cocaine use is on the rise and has been for some time. Its impact is troubling because it’s people who are referred to us.”
Beyond the difficulty of managing these cases professionally, there are deeper concerns about the harm being caused behind closed doors.
“People who are using cocaine, especially those regularly using it, tend to present in quite an agitated and difficult way. There are real concerns about the level of harm associated with that kind of drug use, particularly in the home and within families. That’s the worrying part. I know there’s been a noticeable rise in it recently in Wicklow.”
The rise has been particularly visible in Wicklow, where frontline probation service workers say the impact of cocaine is becoming harder to ignore.
For Jan, dealing with people who commit very serious, harmful offences is the more challenging end of the work, “especially when we meet with people who don't accept or acknowledge the harm that they may have caused”.
But she adds: “The hardest part of the job is working with people who are in denial, minimising, or not accepting the harm that they may have caused.”
In recent years, she said that there’s been a shift towards working behind the scenes to build real trust with high-risk offenders and getting to the root of harmful behaviours. This takes time and can be incredibly challenging, particularly mentally.
The team at the Wicklow Probation Service prides itself on the procedures they have in place to help combat the stress of the job. They emphasise the importance of staff having hobbies and interests outside of work to avoid burnout and stress.
When times get tough, Jan says she is motivated by remembering her own privilege.
“I suppose, like, in a lot of ways, we’re the lucky ones,” she said. “We have jobs, we’ve had the benefit of education and opportunities. It’s important to recognise how lucky we are. We also get to meet someone new every single day, different experiences, different stories.”
Success stories are one of the big motivating factors behind working in the Probation Service. Jan’s measure of success is helping guide her probation clients into education and giving them a chance to rewrite their story.
“Sometimes we meet people who, through a variety of circumstances, didn’t get to stay in school, and their confidence is affected by that,” she said. “Through working with us and building trust, we can refer them to probation-funded projects. Some people we’ve worked with have taken that leap of faith, trusted us, and it’s been life-changing for them. They’ve really been able to move on from the offending behaviours they were involved in.”
While the probation service isn’t a traditional career path, Jan always knew she wanted to work with people.
“I always knew I wanted to be a social worker, and I wanted to work with people. I always knew that.”
It was the conscious feeling she had towards the excluded and the reasons for that exclusion that drove her to help.
“I always knew that. But there was something about the additional levels of social exclusion that a lot of people, particularly those within the criminal justice system, experience, that drew me to this area of work.
"I’ve always been conscious of people in society who are excluded and the reasons why they end up being excluded. I just wanted to tip the balance in their favour.”
As Wicklow’s Probation Service continues to navigate these growing challenges, it’s clear that the team’s commitment to making a difference remains unwavering.
Through building trust with clients, working alongside partner agencies, and adapting to new and evolving issues, they play a crucial role in shaping a safer and more rehabilitated community.
For Jan and her colleagues, each day presents a new opportunity to positively impact lives, no matter the obstacles that may arise.