A Benchmark Review Chris Needham, Senior Probation Officer at Frankland Prison, gives a flavour of the Woolf Report
| Published date | 01 September 1991 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059103800301 |
| Date | 01 September 1991 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
106
UPDATE
A
Benchmark
Review
Chris
Needham,
Senior
Probation
Officer
at
Frankland
Prison,
gives
a
flavour
of the
Woolf
Report.
Lord
Justice
Woolf
and
Judge
Tbmim
put
a
broad
interpretation
on
their
remit
of
’inquiring
into
the
serious
disturbance(s)
beginning
on
the
1st
April
1990
...
and
the
action
taken
to
bring
it
to
a
conclusion’.
They
urge
that
their
recommendations
be
viewed
as
a
whole.
The
twelve
prime
recommen-
dations,
if
enacted,
could
lead
to
a
radically
different
prison
system
based
on
smaller
community
prisons
with
clear
expectations
on
the
prisoner
and
the
prison.
Throughout,
a
central
theme
is
the
essential
balance
between
security,
justice
and
control.
Another
theme
is
the
responsibility
of
the
prison
to
provide
’choices’
for
prisoners
and
the
responsibility
of
the
prisoner
to
make
choices
and
to
accept
the
consequences.
Respect
and
respon-
sibility
in
relationships
within
the
prison
-system
is
a
central
objective.
Buildings
Woolf’s
recommendations
on
buildings
are
the
most
fundamental
and
the
costliest
to
implement.
A
maximum
of
400
prisoners
is
urged
for
any one
prison,
with
a
cogent
argument
presented
for
the
subdivision
of
ex-
isting
larger
establishments
into
smaller,
self-contained
prisons.
Distinct
regimes
for
differing
units
within
prisons
should
hold
from
50
to
70
prisoners.
As
most
of
the
current
estate
is
built
around
units
of
100
to
120,
this
will
re-
quire
a
significant
shift
in
thought
and
planning.
Humane
Regime
Recommendations
on
regime
could
have
been
drawn
from
the
’liberal’
literature
of
the
past
30
years:
more
home
leaves,
better
visits,
extended
family
visits,
telephones,
the
abolition
of
censorship,
cell
TVs,
equal
pay
for
education
and work,
personal
officers
for
all
prisoners
and
sentence
planning.
A
minor,
but
significant
proposal, is
the
use
of
the
word
’facility’
rather
than
’privilege’.
All
these
changes
should
be
implemented
with,
and
indeed
flow
from,
the
more
radical
proposals
but
I
suspect
they
will
be
introduced
without
any
of
these
more
fundamen-
tal
but
costly
changes.
There
are
some
rather
startling
omissions.
Prison
officer
training
(nine
weeks
plus
four
weeks
obsema,#Qn)ls
said
to
be
adequate,
but
what’
it
ade-
quate
for?
Nowhere
could
I
kl cdhi-
ment
on
the
quality
or
aptitudes
the
Prison
Service
requires
of
its
prison
of-
ficers.
Criminal
Justice
Regrettably,
the
Report
does
not
at-
tempt
any
full
analysis
of
sentencing,
though
it
repeats
that
fine
defaulters
and
the
mentally
disordered
should
not
be
sent
to
prison.
Woolf
clearly
ad-
vocates
an
enhanced
role
for
Probation
in diversion
from
prosecution
(public
interest
case
assessment)
and
from
remands
in
custody
(more
bail-based
work
and
hostel
placements).
An
interesting
recommendation
is
that
the
prisons
should
provide
pre-
sentence
reports
on
those
remanded
to
their
care,
rather
in
the
way
of
school
reports
for
juveniles.
Inter-agency
co-operation
is
stress-
ed.
At
one
point
Woolf
appears
to
be
about
to
advocate
a
’Corrections
Agen-
cy’.
However,
he
compromises
by
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