Book Reviews : Employment and Parole
| Published date | 01 March 1975 |
| Date | 01 March 1975 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455057502200115 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
30
Process
of
Casework
is
a
collection
of
twelve
cases
(suitably
disguised)
demonstrating
the
interaction
be-
tween
social
workers
and
their
clients.
It
includes
consideration
of
psycho-social
diagnosis
and
treatment.
The
cases
are
grouped
in
five
sections,
each
with
an
introduction,
a
commentary
and
a
bibliography
(in-
cluding
helpful
journal
articles)
by
the
author
who,
formerly
a
PSW,
is
now
a
senior
lecturer
in
Applied
Social
Studies.
The
five
sections
embrace
some
of
the
significant
elements
of
personality
disturbances
with
which
clients
face
social
workers:
anxiety
and
symptom
formation;
severe
disturbance
in
reality
testing;
the
borderline
between
neuroses
and
psychoses;
character
disorders;
and
loss,
grief
and
depres-
sion.
-
The
section
devoted
to
character
disorders
will
be
of
particular
interest
to
probation
officers,
whose
caseloads
tend
to
include
a
high
proportion
of
&dquo;Clients
who
translate
thought
into
action
due
to
their
need
for
immedi-
ate
gratification
and
inability
to
tolerate
frustration&dquo;.
In
this
section
examples
are
given
of
work
with
a
mother
of
a
multi-problem
family,
with
a
mother whose
son
was
acting
out,
and
with
a
delinquent
boy
in
a
residential
setting.
The
stated
purpose
of
Process
of
Casework
is
&dquo;to
give
students
a
grounding
in
the
dynamics
of
human
behaviour,
and
to
provide
a
deeper
understanding
of
disturbed
function-
ing
and
ego
psychology,
which
will
help
individuals
with
their
prob-
lems&dquo;.
In
fulfilling
this
purpose,
the
book
is
essentially
practical
and
will
be
of
considerable
interest
and
value
to
social
work
practitioners
as
well
as
to
students
and
their
teachers.
DAB
Employment
and
Parole
Soothill
and
Pentney
Apex
Trust,
9
Poland
Street,
London
W1V
3DG.
40p
(incl.
postage)
.. ,
..
- ,
This
short
booklet,
though
produced
in
a
rather
unhandy
fashion,
should
be
of
interest
to
all
probation
officers.
Briefly,
its
theme
is
that
the
possi-
bility
of
employment
is
not
a
relevant
factor
at
the
time
of
parole
applica-
tion.
It
may
be
important
later-the
authors
say
&dquo;the
time
for
seeking
a
specific
job
is
when
one
knows
one’s
date
of
release&dquo;,
and
suggest
that
if
procedure
could
be
streamlined
to
allow
three
months
before
release
to
be
used
in
sorting
out
employment
arrangements.
Indeed,
they
go
further
and
invite
consideration
as
to
the
total
relevance
of
employment
in
considering
the
granting
of
parole.
They
point
out
that
there
is
no
requirement
in
law
for
any
man
or
woman
to
undertake
employment,
and
ask
whether
it
would
not
be
better
to
offer
general
help
to
a
parolee
rather
than
to
try
to
enforce
the
&dquo;outdated
ethic&dquo;
of
work,
although
obviously
it is
needed
to
provide
income.
Messrs
Soothill
and
Pentney
probably
know
more
about
the
employment
of
ex-prisoners
than
most
people,
and
their
knowledge
is
derived
from
practical
experience
rather
than
acadcmic
statistics.
They
generously,
however,
include
some
interesting
statistics-probably
as
a
sop
to
research
departments
who
live
on
them.
This.
is
an
interesting
and
challenging
little
pamphlet-we
com-
mend
it
especially
to
the
Home
Office
and
Parole
and
Review
Boards.
WLH
Social
Work
in
Prison
Home
Office
Research
Unit
Report
HMSO, £1.45
There
are
two
reasons
why
this
study
of
successful
casework
in
prison
will
not
be
acclaimed:
First,
casework
is
unfashionable.
It
does
not
fit
in
with
current
socio-
logical
theories
which
remove
respon-
sibility
from
the
individual
and
place
it
on
society.
Secondly,
total
institutions
such
as
prisons
tend
to
resist
the
outsider.
If
they
cannot
reject
him
entirely,
they
try
to
render
him
an
emasculated
insider.
The
Report
demonstrates
that
following
a
process
of
regular
case-
work
sessions
with
prison
welfare
officers,
a
group
of
prisoners
at
Ash-
well
and
Gartree
prisons
attained
a
reconviction
rate
substantially
below
To continue reading
Request your trial