Casework With Prisoners
| Published date | 01 September 1971 |
| Date | 01 September 1971 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455057101700303 |
| Author | F.V. Jarvis,Margaret Shaw |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
74
the
initiative
in
setting
up
the
after-care
groups
have
come
from
probation
officers
and
occasionally
it
is
the
borstal
staff
who
make
the
first
moves.
One
group
has
been
started
inside by
trainees
and
currently
awaits
a
probation
officer
from
that
city
to
join
it.
This
is
indicative
of
a
recent
trend
at
Everthorpe
towards
self-help
by
trainees.
In
May
1971
two
quite
separate
groups
of
trainees,
from
Manchester
and
from
Leeds,
have
recently
formed
self-help
groups
which
they
plan
to
continue
after
discharge.
They
have
organised
Self-Help
Workshops
during
which
they
have
successfully
negotiated
with
youth
club
leaders
and
others
for the
use
of
facilities
in
these
cities
where
they
might
meet.
In
all
these
meetings
the
trainees
have
involved
representatives
from
the
probation
depart-
ments.
These
self-help
groups
differ
from
the
after-care
groups
in
that
they
are
not
necessarily
an
alternative
to
the
individual
after-care
relationship.
They
may
however
in
the
long
run
add
considerable
impetus
to
the
challenge
of
existing
methods
that
has
been
inherent
to
the
Workshop
situation.
CASEWORK
WITH
PRISONERS
Margaret
Shaw
Home
Office
Research
Unit
F.
V.
Jarvis
Leicestershire
and
Rutland
THE
AIM
of
the
so-called
Midlands
Experiment
was
to
examine
the
place
of
social
work
in
prisons.
It
comprised
four
research
projects
which
were
set
up
at
the
request
of
the
Probation
and
After-Care
Department
of the
Home
Office.
An
evaluation
of the
results
is
to
be
published
by
the
Home
Office
Research
Unit.
This
brief
note
is
concerned
with
only
one
of
the
projects,
since
its
preliminary
findings
could
have
a
considerable
effect
upon
the
work
of
probation
officers
within
the
penal
institutions.
The
project
was
designed
to
investigate
the
effect
of
offering
extended
contact
with
welfare
officers
to
a
random
sample
of
men
nearing
release.
The
two
prisons
chosen
for
the
project
were
Ashwell,
which
is
an
open
prison
with
an
inmate
population
of
300
at
the
time
of
the
study,
and
Gartree,
a
maximum
security
prison
accommodating
some
350
men.
For
the
purposes
of
the
experiment,
the
staffing
of
welfare
posts
was
increased
to
a
ratio
of
about
one
officer
to
100
men.
Thus
at
Ashwell
there
was
one
senior
and
three
welfare
officers,
and
at
Gartree
a
senior
and
four
welfare
officers.
A
total
of
88
men
in
Ashwell
and
Gartree
were
selected
at
random
from
all
those
due
for
release
during
1969.
It
was
decided
that
they
should
be
interviewed
for
an
hour
a
week
by
a
welfare
officer
for
the
final
six
months
of
their
sentence.
An
equal
number
of
controls
to
be
released
from
the
two
prisons
at
the
same
time
was
selected
in
the
same
way.
A
member
of
the
control
group
was
not
denied
contact
with
the
welfare
officer,
but
it
was
left
to
him
to
request
an
interview
and
no
specific
attempt
was
made
to
work
more
intensively
with him.
Records
of
the
progress
of
the
experimental
group
were
maintained
by
the
welfare
officers,
and
all
the
men
were
inter-
viewed
by
the
research
worker
one
or
two
weeks
before
discharge.
Extensive
background
information
and
reconviction
figures
were
also
collected
for
both
groups
of
men.
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