Comment
| DOI | 10.1177/026455057502200201 |
| Date | 01 June 1975 |
| Published date | 01 June 1975 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
COMMENT
Children at Risk
The
recent
report
by
a
local
commit-
tee
on
the
Godfrey
case
of
child-
battering
highlights
the
considerable
involvement
of
the
Probation
Service
in
many
such
cases.
Outside
the
re-
port,
there
has
been
ill-informed
criticism
of
the
part
played
by
the
probation
officers,
who
acted
in
a
most
conscientous
and
caring
way
in
the
always
difficult
situation
of
a
multi-
problem
family.
Those
who
judge
the
actions
of
workers
placed
in
this
high-
ly
emotional
position
frequently
speak
with
considerable
hindsight-it
is
fair
to
wonder
what
different
action
such
people
would
have
taken.
Following
the
Maria
Colwell
Re-
port
the
flurry
of
activity
allegedly
intended
to
prevent
similar
tragedies
has
reached
mammoth
proportions
in
some
quarters.
Agencies
(including
our
own)
have
evolved
complex
administrative
and
bureaucratic
procedures---but
one
cannot
help
wondering
that
these
seem
basically
designed
to
exonerate
agencies
from
the
sort
of
criticisms
made
in
the
Maria
Colwell
Report.
What
is
being
done
realistically
to
help
the
families
where
problems
of
stress
and
need
exist?
Indeed,
do
social
agencies
have
the
necessary
resources
at
their
disposal
to
help?
These
are
the
questions
we
should
be
asking
as
we
fill
in
the
special
registers
and
send
off
numerous
memos
in
triplicate.
And
hands
up
those
who
remember
the
Finer
Report... !
t
Rights
of
Prisoners
The
Home
Secretary
has
recently
been
requested
once
more
to
abolish
the
censorship
of
prisoners’
mail.
Such
a
proposal
is
attractive
on
the
surface,
but
it
is
far
from
being
a
clear-cut
issue.
There
could
undoubtedly
be
security
problems,
albeit
in
a
very
small
number
of
cases.
Then
welfare
officers
know
of
the
advantages
for
the
prisoner
and
his
family
of
inter-
vention
when
a
&dquo;bad&dquo;
letter
comes
in
or
is
written
out.
Maritat
relation-
ships
can
be
prevented
from
worsen-
ing
if
appropriate
letters
are
referred
by
the
censor
to
the
welfare
ofhcer.
It
would
be
good
to
think
that
mail
censorship
could
be
abolished
com-
pletely,
but
in
reality,
is
it
possible
to
have
any
such
thing
as
privacy
in
the
prison
system?
We
wonder
what
the
effects
have
been
of the
experimental
abolition
of
censorship
in
certain
prisons.
A
further
matter
of
concern
in
the
prisons
is
the
accessibility--or
more
accurately,
the
lack
of
accessibility-
of
prisoners
to
legal
representation.
In
adjudications
by
the
prison
governor
or
visiting
magistrates,
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