The Voluntary Associate
| Author | Rachel Dixon |
| Published date | 01 December 1976 |
| Date | 01 December 1976 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/026455057602300407 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
121
The
Voluntary
Associate
RACHEL
DIXON
Richmond,
South-West
London
As
one
of
the
earlier
VAs
co-opted
by
the
After-Care
Service
I
wish
to
make
a
plea
for
extending
our
use
in
through-care
and
after-care
with
particular
reference
to
work
with
socially
isolated
prisoners.
Perhaps
I
am
typical
of
the
volunteers
who
were
accepted in
1967.
I
had
little
experience
of
social
work
and
was
therefore
open-minded
to
the
principles
and
methods
of
the
Probation
Service
and
was
most
impressed
by
the
integrity
and
professionalism
shown
by
the
officers
in
caring
for
their
clients.
At
that
time
it
was
stressed
that
VAs
were
appointed
to
help
with
after-care
rather
than
probation
cases.
This
seemed
logical
as
I
soon
realised
that
the
Service
was
well
organised
to
cope
with
the
court
and
probation
work
but
that
prison
through-care
and
after-care
was
often
treated
as
something
of
a
side-issue.
Extra
help
seemed
urgently
needed
for
the
support
of
prisoners
and
ex-prisoners
who
felt
totally
rejected
by
society
for
some
failure
in
just
one
facet
of
their
personalities.
’
The
indications
are
that
imprisonment
is
quite
ineffectual
as
a
long
term
treatment
for
criminality.
The
public
may
be
reassured
to
hear
that
dangerous
men
are
to
be
&dquo;sent
down&dquo;
for
a
specified
period
of
months
or
years.
This
reassurance
is
enhanced
by
the
tacit
belief
that
the
time
will
be
used
for
treatment
and
rehabilitation,
a
belief
shared
by
many
of the
judges
and
magistrates
responsible
for
the
sentence.
In
fact
the
period
is
usually
curtailed
by
remission
and
the
most
effective
training
is
as
a
docile
prisoner
whose
likelihood
to
re-offend
increases
with
both
the
length
and
number
of
sentences.
Informed
opinion
accepts
this
failure
of
prison
to
curb
recidivism
but
more
imaginative
alternatives
have
achieved
no
very
spectacular
improvement.
Thus
with
all
their
limitations
prisons
will
be
with
us
for
the
foreseeable
future
and
improved
methods
must
therefore
be
sought
within
the
system.
The
most
hopeful
indication
of
the
possibility
of
influencing
the
behaviour
of
prisoners
after
release
was
provided
by
the
&dquo;Midlands
Experiment&dquo;
set
up
to
assess
the
potential
influence
of
the
recently
appointment
welfare
Service
in
the
prison
setting.
In
the
Midlands
Ex-
periment
randomly
selected
groups
of
prisoners
from
two
prisons,
Gartree
and
Ashwell
Grange,
were
given
&dquo;extended
contact&dquo;
with
PWOs
during
the
last
six
months
of
their
sentence
and
these
men
proved
to
have
a
mark-
edly
lower
re-conviction
rate
for
the
first
two
years
after
release
than
the
men
in
the
control
groups.
The
most
dramatic
improvement
noted
between
the
experimental
and
control
groups
was
amongst
the
introverts.
These
were
the
isolated
men
with
few
contacts
outside
prison
who
normally
make
least
use
of
the
welfare
service
within
the
prison.
The
re’conviction
rate
for
these
men
was
halved
from
nearly
100
per
cent
in
the
control
groups.
Although
it
drew
no
special
mention
this
remarkably
poor
prognosis
for
the
future
of
socially
isolated
prisoners
was
the
most
shocking
fact
that
emerged
from
the
report.
The
Midlands
Experiment
was
mounted
to
test
the
possible
value
of
the
extended
use
of
prison
welfare
officer.
That
VAs
should
be
used
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