Reviews : Social Work with Adult Offenders (Research Highlights 5) JOYCE LISHMAN (ED) University ofAberdeen,1983; pb; pp 182; £3.50
| Author | Bill Mcwilliams |
| Published date | 01 September 1983 |
| Date | 01 September 1983 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/026455058303000321 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
116
Social
Work
with
Adult
Offenders
(Research
Highlights
5)
JOYCE
LISHMAN
(ED)
University ofAberdeen,1983;
pb;
pp
182;
£3.50.
This
is
a
collection
of
nine
essays
covering
a
range
of topics
related
to
offending
by
adults;
it
also
includes
two
anonymous
contributions
pro-
viding
statistical
information,
one
from
the
Home
Office
and
one
from
the
Scottish
Home
and
Health
Department.
None
of the
pieces
offers
any
maj or
new
insights,
but
the
volume
is
useful
nevertheless
in
bringing
together
the
work
of
a
number
of
interesting
authors,
some
of
whom
will
be
well-
known
to
readers
of
this
Journal.
The
opening
piece,
by
David
Garland,
reviews
the
’crisis
in
the
relationship
of
social
work
to
criminal
justice’.
Garland
suggests
that
there
are
three
options
for
future
social
work
policy:
control,
compromise
and
reconstructurion.
The
control
model,
exemplified
by
the
Kent
Control
Unit,
is
seen
as
problematic
because
it
’would
completely
rob
social
work
of
its
professional
status’.
Equally,
compromise,
as
suggested in the
Non-Treatment
Paradigm,
will
not
fit
the
bill
because
it
rests
on
the
idea
of
unconditional
help
for
clients
which,
Garland
asserts,
is
’a
myth’.
The
option
which
he
favours,
reconstruction,
‘involves
taking
seriously
the
fact that
crime
has
predictable
and
patterned
social
causes’
and
requires’ a
redistribution
of judicial
powers
away
from
the
present
system
of legal
prosecution ..
.
towards
a
form
of lay
tribunal
which
would
be
empowered
to
deal
with
questions
of criminality
and
their
social
causes’.
Although
Garland
says
that
his
essay
offers
‘a
set
of
concrete
proposals’
for
his
reconstruction
policy
option,
this
reviewer
remains
unconvinced:
the
grounds
for
believing,
as
Garland
apparently
does,
than
lay
tribunals
would
be
less
punitive
than
present
sentencers
are
not
stated.
Useful
contributions
on
social
enquiry
reports
and
probation
supervision
are
provided
by
Joe
Curran
and
John
Waterhouse
respectively,
and
Ken
Pease
writes
about
the
tribulations
of
penal
innovations.
Anne
Hollows
and
Chris
Wood
review
research
studies
of social
work
in
prisons;
and
Stewart
Black,
Theresa
Stephenson
and
Alex
Robertson
look
at
aftercare.
Curiously,
both
chapters
ignore
the
research
by
Tony
Fowles
in
Liverpool
Prison,
although
it
is
more
recent
than
many
of
the
studies
which
they
cite.
The
lon2est
essav,
on
mentallv
disordered
offenders,
is
provided
by
Hirschel
Prins;
and
Adrian
Carr
writes
about the
problems
presented
in
the
treatment
of
alcoholic
offenders.
Both
provide
useful
reviews
but,
again
curiously,
Prins
makes
no
reference
to
the
Floud
Report,
although
he
tackles
the
question
of dangerousness’
as
one
of
his
main
topics.
The
final
essay
in
the
volume
is
contributed
by
Howard
Jones
and
is
entitled’ an
overview’.
The
reader
in
a
hurry
who
turns
to
this
piece
for
a
quick
review
of the
book
or
a
succinct
statement
of
the
state
of
play
in
relation
to
adult
offenders
will
be
disappointed:
the chapter
is
a reiteration
of Jones’s
s
defence
of
treatment
or
’correction’,
to
use
the
term
he
prefers.
In
this
version
of
the
defence
Jones
advocates
‘case-orientated
groupwork’ ,
the
expansion
of
commumty
service
orders
which,
according
to
Jones,
’draw
on
the
one-to-one
skills
of
the
supervising
probation
officer’,
and
the
‘wider
use
of
day
training
centres’.
So
far
as
the
moral
critique
of treatment
is
concerned,
Jones
suggests
that
social
workers
muct
’hold
fast
to
their
ethical
commitment
to
contract,
and
to
non-
manipulative
methods,
in
order ...
to
develop
more
effective
methods’.
This
assumes
that social
work
contract’
are
in
fact
morally
acceptable
objects
drawn
up
between
parties
of equal
power:
on
that
point
Jones
is
silent.
In
sum,
this
is
a
useful
book
and
well
produced,
apart
from
a
few
printing
and
referencing
errors.
At
the
price
it
is
a
good
buy -
other
publishers
in
this
field
please
note
what
can
be
done.
BILL
MCWILLIAMS
South
Yorkshire
Community
Service
Assessed
Cornmunaty
Service
-
A
Guade for
Sentences
by
Stephen
Shaw
of the
Prison
Reform
Trust
reviews
the
past
decade
of
this
penal
success
story,
identifies
the
unevenness
across
the
country
of
policy,
imagination
and judicial
confidence
m
CS,
and
seeks
to
bridge
the
gap
between
sentences
and
orgamsers.
Pnce
£ 1.50
plus
50p
postage
from
PRT
Probation
Control
Unit
A
report
on
the
first
year
of
operation,
January-
December
1981,
of the
Kent
Probation
Service
Medway
Centre,
by
the
Kent
Research
Officer.
Available
from
67,
College
Road,
Maidstone,
price
£1.15.
To continue reading
Request your trial