The Correctional Administration and Specialist Services
| Published date | 01 June 1976 |
| Date | 01 June 1976 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000486587600900201 |
AUST
& NZ
JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY
(June
1976) 9 (65-66) 65
EDITORIAL
The
Correctional Administration
and
Specialist Services
Recently a
quite
senior prison officer,
who
had
recently
returned
to
duty
from
a
one
month
course in a psychiatric hospital, was
heard
to say that (a)
the
hospital only
took
the
persons easiest to manage,
the
prisons taking the
more
difficult
and
aggressive individuals
and
(b)
when
the
hospital patients
"played
up"
the
staff
simply "talked to them",
the
prison officer feeling that if such
behaviour
had
taken
place
in his Division (the psychiatric Division)
the
offending
individual
would
have
been
in trouble.
The
officer expressed his
views to a senior psychiatrist,
who
had
no
immediate
involvement in either
the
hospital or the prison.
The
psychiatrist
replied
that
perhaps
the
reason the
hospital
appeared
to
take
only the less difficult cases was
because
the
staff
had
a
greater ability, through "know-how", to
manage
and
.control the potentially
aggressive
and
non-conforming persons.
It is
submitted
there
is considerable insight expressed in the reply,
and
if this
be
accepted
then
the
role of the psychiatrist in
the
~
correctional setting, the
forensic psychotherapist, is two-fold: to
treat
the suitable individual prisoners in
terms of their
idiopathology
and
to
"educate"
or
"treat"
the
correctional staff
that they
might
be
the
better
able
to "cope", "treat", or
"deal"
with
the
prisoners
in their charge.
To
date
there
has
been
a
very
limited
endeavour
to
be
involved
with the individual
psychopathology
of
the
prisoner;
the
major
technique
used
has
been
pharrnacotherapy.
Some small
amount
of
time
has
been
spent in
one-to-one
psychotherapy
and
rather
more
time
in
group
psychotherapy.
Behavioural modification techniques.
would
rarely
appear
to
have
been
used. In
other
words
the
major
therapeutic
approach
to
have
been
used in no
way
involved personalities directly, either prisoner or correctional staff.
Whether
psychotherapy
is of value or
not
in
terms
of
the
individual offender's
psychopathology
is simply
not
really
known
as it has
never
been
properly
used
and
evaluated.'
What
may
be
said
about
the forensic psychotherapist dealing
with
the
correctional staff
and
becoming
involved in
the
overall correctional
programme?
Smith- has
indicated
the
uncertainty that exists
regarding
psychiatry
in the minds
of
some
(most?) correctional administrators
and
has written:
"The
role
of
psychiatry in corrections continues to
be
highly controversial. While psychiatrists
and
some of their
medical
colleagues
debate
the
proper
place
of psychiatry in
medicine
and
society, correctional administrators
ponder
the
extent
to
which
they
can
usefully
employ
psychiatric expertise in
the
conduct
of their
programmes.
Although
some
authorities
have
expressed
the
opinion
that
psychiatry
can
make
important
contributions to correctional
treatment
programmes,
the
current
involvement of psychiatry in corrections is
very
limited; its potential has
yet
to be effectively
demonstrated."
If the psychiatrist, or
any
other professional
worker
in correctional institutions,
viz educationalists, social workers, chaplains, etc, is to
have
a
proper
chance
to
prove
his
worth
(or otherwise) he has to
be
an integral
part
of
the
total
programme
and
not
be
seen simply as a source of
doubtful
expertise to
be
called
upon
at the
time
of
the
occasional stressful situation.
Rather
he should
be
involved in staff training,
the
most junior to
the
most
senior.including
the
Head
Office administrators, as well as
the
treatment
of prisoners including the
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