Improving Pre-Release Work with Lifers
| Date | 01 December 1996 |
| Published date | 01 December 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059604300402 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
187
Improving
Pre-Release
Work
with Lifers:
Lessons
from
PRES
Drawing
on
three
years
experience
as
a
seconded
prison
probation
officer
with
responsibility
for
lifers,
including
those
in
a
Pre-Release
Employment
Scheme
(PRES)
hostel,
Susan
Barter,
now
Lecturer
in
Social
Work
at
the
University
of
Bath,
identifies
the
unexpectedly
high
level
of
change
and
uncertainty
in
the
final
phase
of
long-term
imprisonment.
Wide
variations
in
the
quality
of
community-based
practice
and
management
suggest
the
importance
of
vigilance,
effective
co-working
and
anti-discriminatory
practice.
Though
the
PRES
scheme
is
to
end,
it
offers
valuable
lessons
in
counteraction
complacency
and
carelessness.
t
has
been
standard
practice
for
lifers
to
spend
at
least
six
months
in
a
PRES
hostel
as
the
final
stage
of
their
prison
sentences.
Designed
to
assist
them
to
readjust
to
work
within
the
community,
to
save
some
money,
to
renew
family
relationships
and
to
establish
social
connections,
PRES
was
particularly
useful
for
lifers
without
community
ties.
Apart
from
conforming
to
predictable
hostel
rules,
PRES
lifers
lived
in
conditions
which
most
closely
simulated
’normal’
life
in
the
community.
PRES
was
also
the
final
opportunity
to
test
out
readiness
for
release
and
potential
risk
to
the
community.
The
obvious
tension
in
the
dual
’care
and
control’
role
of
staff
who
helped
lifers
to
’get
out’
whilst
wielding
the
power
to
’haul
them
back
in’
required
careful
management.
The
location
of
many
PRES
hostels,
including
the
one
in
this
study,
at
the
gates
of
closed
prisons,
was
an
unsubtle
reminder
that
immediate
reincarceration
was
the
sanction
for
misconduct.
Following
the
1995
restrictions
upon
home
leaves’,
the
Home
Secretary’s
negative
response
to
media
coverage
of
serious
offences
committed
by
dangerous
men
who
slipped
through
the
risk
assessment
net,
PRES
hostels
were
used
less
for
lifers.
In
May
1996
it
was
announced
that
the
PRES
scheme
would
end2.
Adequate
resourcing
of
PRES
hostels,
the
constructive
approach
both
to
protecting
the
public
and
to
helping
long
term
prisoners
adjust
to
freedom,
was
not
considered.
Lifers
will
now
be
granted
resettlement
licences
to
ordinary
probation
hostels,
ill-equipped
for
their
needs,
where
failure
rates
are
likely
to
be
high.
Caseload Demands
As
the
designated
lifer
probation
officer
for
the
prison,
I
worked
with
some
50
men
in
closed
Category
B
conditions
and
with
up
to
ten
PRES
lifers,
the
latter
task
being
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