The series portrays the day-to-day work of probation officers across the country, monitoring and rehabilitating a range of cases, from people with minor offences, to dangerous criminals and high-risk sex offenders.
Every day 10,000 people on probation, often for serious crimes, are free to walk our streets in an attempt to keep them from entering or re-entering the overcrowded prison system.
We meet Alan Hughes who works in the youth division of the probation service known as YPP (Young Persons Probation) and is based in North Dublin.
It was set up as a specific division in 2004 and Alan joined in 2010.
He works with youths aged between 12 and 18 and can have between 25 and 30 clients at any one time which he says is a lot to take on but an adult caseload could be anything up on 50 plus.
Part one airs tonight at 9.35pm on RTE 1
Listen back to the interview in full here:
