Working with Offenders PDF
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PRACTICAL SOCIAL WORK Series Editor: Jo Campling (BASW) Social work is at an important stage in its development. All professions must be responsive to changing social and economic conditions if they are to meet the needs of those they serve. This series focuses on sound practice and the specific contribution which social workers can make to the well-beingof oursocietyin the 1980s. The British Association of Social Workers has always been conscious of its role in setting guidelines for practice and in seekingto raiseprofessionalstandards.Theconceptionofthe Practical Social Work series ~rose from a survey of BASW members to discover where they, the practitioners in social work, felt there was the most need for new literature. The responsewas overwhelmingandenthusiastic,andtheresultis acarefullyplanned,coherentseriesofbooks.Theemphasisis firmly on practice, setin atheoreticalframework.Thebooks willinform, stimulateandpromotediscussion, thusaddingto the further development of skills andhighprofessionalstan dards.Allthe authorsarepractitionersandteachersof social workrepresentingawide varietyof experience. JO CAMPLING PRACTICAL SOCIAL WORK (BASW) PUBLISHED FORTIiCOMING SocialWorkandMental SocialWorkandChildAbuse Handicap DavidBallandDavidCooper DavidAnderson ThePreventionandManagement SocialWorkandMentalIllness ofViolence AlanButlerandColinPritchard RobertBrown,StanleyButeand PeterFord ResidentialWork SociologyinSocial RogerClough WorkPractice WorkingwithFamilies PeterDay GillGorellBarnes WelfareRightsWorkintheSocial SocialWork withOldPeople Services MaryMarshall GeoffFimister StudentSupervisoninSocialWork AppliedPsychologyforSocial KathyFordandAlanJones Workers PaulaNicolsonandRowan Social WorkwithComputers Bayne BryanGlastonbury WomenandSocialWork SocialWork withDisabledPeople JalnaHanmerand MichaelOliver DaphneStatham WorkinginTeams SocialWork withEthnic MalcolmPayne Minorities AdoptionandFostering: AlunC.Jacksonand WhyandHow LenaDominelli CaroleR.Smith CrisisInterventionin SocialServices SocialWorkwiththeDyingand KieranO'Hagan Bereaved CaroleR.Smith SocialCareintheCommunity MalcolmPayne CommunityWork SocialWorkwithJuvenile AlanTwelvetrees Offenders WorkingwithOffenders DavidThorpe,NormanTun, HilaryWalkerandBill DavidSmithandChristopher Beaumont(eds) Green Working with Offenders Edited by Hilary Walker and Bill Beaumont M MACMILLAN ©British Association of Social Workers 1985 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1985 978-0-333-36840-4 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions ofthe Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1985 Published by Higher and Further Education Division MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Working with offenders. -(BASW practical social work) 1. Corrections-Great Britain 2. Rehabilitation of criminals-Great Britain I. Walker, Hilary II. Beaumont, Bill, 1945- III. Series 364.6'0941 HV9644 ISBN 978-0-333-36833-6 ISBN 978-1-349-17739-4 (eBook) DOI 10 .1007/978-1-349-17739-4 Contents Acknowledgements V1l ListofAbbreviations viii 1 DevelopingProbationWork 1 Hilary WalkerandBillBeaumont 2 CourtWork 15 MargaretPowell 3 ProbationandSupervision 32 KevinKirwin 4 Prison-basedWork 48 NigelStone 5 Women'sIssuesinProbationPractice 66 Hilary Walker 6 Probation,Workingfor SocialChange? 83 BillBeaumont 7 GroupworkwithOffenders 101 PaulSenior 8 DayCentres 118 PaulJames 9 DevelopingProbationPractice 134 BillBeaumontandHilary Walker References 142 Notes onContributors 148 Index 149 Acknowledgements Bill Beaumont and Hilary Walker would like to thank the contributors for their commitment to this co-operative pro ject and acknowledge the support of others with whom we discussed the ideas in, and progress of, this book. We ap preciatetheeffortsof all thosewho haveworkedhardto help prepare the manuscripts. Ourthanks also go toJoCampling who suggested that we might try again! Paul James's thanks go to Barbara for her support, encouragement and advice, and to Liz Harris for making sense of his scrawl and typing Chapter 8intoreasonableEnglish. Kevin Kirwin'sthanksgo to allthesecretariesandprobationofficersat NottingHillfor their help and encouragement, and particularly to Rascha Martellfortypinghis chapter. Alsoto JeanMcEvoyandJane Burke for their constructive comments on the first draft. Margaret Powell's thanks go to Anne Thomas for typing Chapter2. List of Abbreviations BASW BritishAssociationof SocialWorkers CHAR CampaignforSingleHomelessPeople CHE CampaignforHomosexualEquality crn CriminalInvestigationDepartment CP CommunityProgramme CPAG ChildPovertyActionGroup DHSS DepartmentofHealthandSocialSecurity ECP EnglishCollectiveof Prostitutes LAG LegalActionGroup MP Memberof Parliament MSC ManpowerServicesCommission NACRO NationalAssociationfor theCareand Resettlementof Offenders NALGO NationalandLocalGovernmentOfficers Association NAPO NationalAssociationof ProbationOfficers NARS NationalActivityRecordingStudy NCCL NationalCouncilforCivil Liberties NHS NationalHealthService NYB NationalYouthBureau POA PrisonOfficersAssociation PROP TheNationalPrisonersMovement PROS ProgrammefortheReformof theLaws on Soliciting RAP RadicalAlternativesto Prison TUC TradesUnionCongress YTS YouthTrainingScheme 1 Developing Probation Work HilaryWalkerandBill Beaumont In thisbookwe hopeto provideapracticetextwhichdevelops and complements the ideas contained in Probation Work (Walker and Beaumont, 1981). There we concentrated on setting out a critical theory of probation workandwere able to payonlylimited,generalisedattentionto its consequences for a socialist probation practice. We believethatit isneces sary and important to make specific and detailed links be tweentheoryandpractice, andhavetakentheopportunityin this book to present a practice-oriented text. We have been able to gathertogether agroupof practisingprobationoffic ers with knowledge and experience of specific aspects of probation work, who share a basic political orientation. In thiswayit hasbeenpossibleto examinedifferentpartsof the jobin somedepth. When planningthis bookwe were consciousof thepoten tial drawbacks of using this compilation structure. We were anxiousthatthebookshouldnotjustbeacollectionofloosely connected articles and through our method ofworking have tried to avoid this pitfall, hoping that as a result the book would be more cohesive. The group of writers assembled sharedenoughviewsto provideabasefromwhichtoproceed in a semi-collectiveway.We met together, circulateddrafts, discussed and commented on each other's work as writing proceeded.Itwouldhavebeenusefulto meetmoreregularly but limitations of time,distanceandexpenseintervened.We areall practitioners andunionactivists; meetingsandwriting havehadto befittedintoalreadyover-committedsparetime. 2 DevelopingProbation Work This meant that we were unable to work in atrulycollective way, but tried to make best use of what opportunities were available. Itwillbeevidentfrom readingthechaptersthatwe differtheoreticallyandpracticallyonsomeissues.Moretime during meetings to debate some of these areas would have been welcome. However we are pleased that the group was able to contain any such differences and work collectively despitedisagreements. Fromtheorytopractice The critical theory of Probation Work provides the agreed startingpoint for the contributions in thisbook.Theauthors deliberatelyconcentrate on probation practice, andwe were anxious that they should not have to devote space to re stating this theoretical base. In the event some chapters, in ourview, do significantlyaddto anddevelopthatanalysis,but all maintain a firm focus on practice issues.It maytherefore be useful to start by recapping briefly on the main points of thetheoreticalframeworkwhichprovidesthecommonbasis. Probation officers every day encounter serious problems and dilemmas which are not readily explained. We find ourselves powerless and ineffectual in the face of the social andeconomicproblems affectingourclients;there appearto beno realsolutions;anyimpactwecanmakefeelsbothminor andmarginal;thesameproblemsrecur.Thehelpwecanoffer individuals is limited, but even there we feel we are only patchingupdeeperproblemsandat worstengaginginspecial pleadingforourclientswhichmaydisadvantageothers.Many probation officers experience a divergence between their personal views and values and those they are expected to uphold in theirwork- theyareexpectedto 'advertise' values ofthrift, hardwork,constructiveuseofleisureandobedience in aharshsocialandcriminaljusticesystemwhereinjusticeis rife and discrimination endemic. They feel 'used' within the system, cooling out problemswhichrequiremorebasicsolu tions. Some of the structures of the job-conditions, restric tionsandrequirements- seemto hamperthedevelopmentof usefulworkingrelationshipswithclients.
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