Groupwork in Prisons

DOI10.1177/026455059304000411
Published date01 December 1993
Date01 December 1993
Subject MatterArticles
208
RESEARCH
Groupwork
in
Prisons
Following
an
earlier
pilot
study
of
32
prisons
which
showed
that
probation
officers
were
participating
in
more
prison
groupwork
than
any
other
single
professional
group,
Graham
Towl,
Head
of
Forensic
Psychology
at
Highpoint
Prison,
undertook
a
further
survey
of
senior
probation
officers
in
128
prisons
and
reports
on
the
returns
from
84
(66%).
o .
i
%
9r
~A
if
f~
%’,lr,a
I~’
o
,.
%
&dquo;
is
t
fP
e..,~~ge~~~P
,’’:
Eighteen
(21%)
of
the
sample
reported
that their
establishment
was
undertaking
no
groupwork
whatsoever.
As
indicated
by
the
pilot
survey,
the
most
common
types
of
groupwork
were:
offending
behaviour
and
alcohol
issues
(each
undertaken
in
40
(48 % )
of
the
sample
institutions),
drug
issues
(42 %)
and
anger
management
(33 %o).
Male
training
prisons
and male
young
offender
institutions
shared
the
highest
provision
of
groups,
for
example
offering
alcohol
groups
in
around
60 %
of
establishments
in
that
category.
Anger
control
groups
appear
to
show
the
greatest
increase
in
provision.
The
four
next
most
common
types
of
group
were:
lifer
issues
(23 % ),
social
skills
(21%),
sex
offending
(17%)
and
anxiety
management
(8%).
The
comparatively
few
numbers
of
anxiety
management
groups
seems
surprising
at
face
value
but
the
macho
subculture
of
prisons
may
not
be
conducive
to
individuals
revealing
or
sharing
their
anxieties,
particularly
in
a
group
setting.
cosml=
w
Probation
officers
still
do
considerably
more
groupwork
than
any
other
professional
group,
participating
in
83
out
of
the
143
groups
addressing
the
four
most
prevalent
topics.
This
is
a
considerable
input
in
the
66
prisons
reporting
groupwork
activity.
loss:=
,
~~.,
,.
Focusing
on
the four
most
prevalent
areas
of
groupwork,
we
were
able
to
calculate
approximate
probabilities
of
groupwork
attendance
by
dividing
the
reported
number
of
prisoners
on
each
group
per
year
by
the
CNA
(certified
normal
accommodation)
for
the
prison.
Given
’throughput’
rates,
this
calculation
is
liable
to
over-estimate
the
likelihood
of
group
attendance.
Given
that
caveat,
young
offenders
are
shown
as
the
group
of
prisoners
most
likely
to
participate.
Though
alcohol
control
groups
featured
in
only
two
of
the
six
women’s
prisons
in
our
sample,
it
seems
that
women
are
more
likely
to
attend
such
groups
where
available
than
other
types
of
groupwork
and
are
also
more
likely
to
attend
such
groups
than
men.
MEMO=
z
Groupwork
invariably
takes
place
within
the
context
of
a
particular
culture
at
a
particular
time.
The
current
political
zeitgeist
in
the
public
sector
involves
a
great
deal
of
emphasis
on
the

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