Hon Ed's 'Pious Comment' Dear Sir
| Author | E.P. Lee |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455058202900117 |
| Date | 01 March 1982 |
| Published date | 01 March 1982 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
33
whole
article
has
that
very
flavour
of
&dquo;knowing
best&dquo;,
to
the
extent
that
all
probation
officers
are,
apparently,
un-
arguably
precluded
from
&dquo;recommending
custody&dquo;
or
&dquo;administering
penal
sanc-
tions
in
the
community&dquo;.
I
can
think
of
at
least
two
types
of
case
which
I
have
recommended
custody
(to
save
life
-
extreme
addicts,
and
frail
dossers
in
winter);
and
any
sanctions,
of
course,
would
be
felt
&dquo;penal&dquo;
by
some
clients.
The
whole
article
was
pro-client
and
&dquo;nothing-more-to-be-said&dquo;.
Secondly,
the
NASPO
affair,
where
I
heartily
agree
with
Mr
Whidby’s
letter
in
Dec
1981
Newsletter.
To
take
action
against
NASPO
members
(or
such
as
can
be
identified)
on
grounds
that
they
&dquo;may
be
guilty
of
conduct ...&dquo;
is
a
principle
unknown
to
English
law,
and
totally
objectionable.
More
to
the
point,
the
catch-all
phrase
&dquo;prejudicing
interests
of
NAPO&dquo;
could
easily
be
used
to
expel
anyone
who
merely
criticised
NAPO-such
as
hap-
pens
routinely
in
large
unions.
Is
this
what
we
want?
Must
NAPO’s
once
fair
outlook
de-
generate
into
the
whinings
only
too
familiar
among
the
Labour
left,
com-
plete
with
re-defining
of
terms?
Yours
unhappily,
JOHN
GOSLIN
Vice-Chairman,
Wessex
Branch
NB:
the
editorial
’Comment’,
is,
as
pre-
viously
pointed
out
in
these
columns,
an
expression
of
the
Hon
Ed’s
views,
and
not
thase
of
NAPO.-Hon
Ed.
Hon
Ed’s
’Pious
Comment’
Dear
Sir,
Your
editorial
comment
in
the
Decem-
ber
issue
of
the
Journal
on
’Punishment
or
Help’
really
cannot
go
unchallenged.
Your
central
argument
appears
to
be
based
on
the
assumption
that
any
form
of
control
’beyond
the
necessary
mini-
mum’
is
contrary
to
social
work
values
and,
therefore,
intolerable.
Such
a
con-
tention
raises
further
inevitable
ques-
tions,
such
as:
Where
does
the
con-
sensus
lie
when
we
talk
about
values?
Who
sees
control
as
intolerable?
How
do
we
define
the
boundaries
of
the
neces-
sary
minimum?
I
would
suggest
that
different
probation
officers
would
answer
these
questions
very
differently.
Yes,
some
of
us
(Them?)
who
are
inflexibly
hidebound
by
political
generalisations
may
well
insist
that
ideo-
logical
dogma
always
supercedes
the
need
of
individual
clients.
Others
per-
haps
conditioned
by
exclusive
theories
of
psychopathology,
may
contend
that
all
clients
are
by
definition
’sick’
and
that
sociological
realities
are
irrelevant.
Both
extremes
of
view
are
equally
narrow
and
nonsensical,
but
their
respec-
tive
adherents
would
maintain
that
their
own
values
represent
absolute
truth.
When
we
talk
about
controlling
other
people,
is
it
perhaps
the
operator
of
such
control
rather
than
the
recipient
who
sees
it
as
intolerable?
Most
of
us
have
come
across
colleagues
who
are
reluctant
to
exercise
control
because
it
makes
them
feel
uncomfortable,
and
who
appear
unable
to
acknowledge
that
some
clients
are
crying
out
for
someone
to
care
enough
to
provide
them
with
the
external
behavioural
constraints
which,
for
one
reason
or
another,
they
cannot
integrate
without
insistent
help.
And
if
that
ultimate
cop-out
phrase
-
’the
necessary
minimum’ -
is
to
have
any
meaning
at
all,
surely
it
can
do
so
only
by
reference
to
differential
individual
need.
Some
need
more
control
than
others;
words
like
’paternalistic’
and
’authoritarian’
are
merely
emotive.
Incidentally,
while
we
are
talking
about
the
unacceptability
of
punitive
sanctions
and
the
inviolability
of
per-
sonal
freedoms,
how
does
your
pious
editorial
comment
square
up
with
the
NASPO
fiasco?
Yours
sincerely,
E.
P.
LEE
Senior
Probation
Officer,
HM
Prison,
Portland
A
Counterblast
to
Walker
&
Beaumont
Dear
Sir,
During
the
course
of
my
final
place-
ment
in
Inner
London
as
a
student
probation
officer,
I
have
read
Bill
Beau-
mont
and
Hilary
Walker’s
book
’Proba-
tion
Work:
Critical
Theory
and
Socialist
Practice’.
As
a
result
I
am
writing
this
letter.
I
have
been
the
victim
of
a
decep-
tion
By
the
time
I
had
reached
the
end
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