Three Aspects of Penal Treatment
| DOI | 10.1177/026455055900900405 |
| Published date | 01 December 1959 |
| Author | Frank Dawtry |
| Date | 01 December 1959 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
53
is
an
embarrassment
to
her
thesis
and
so
she
does
not
refer
to
it.
There
are
many
points
of
conflict
between
Lady
Wootton’s
fiction
and
the
reality
situation,
but
this
is
not
to
say
that
social
work
theorists
can
be
complacent.
If
it
does
nothing
else,
this
chapter
demands
that
social
work
literature
should be
purged
of
its
obscurantism
and
should
say
what
it
has
to
say
in
an
unpretentious
and
unambiguous
manner.
In
an
appendix,
Rosalind
Chambers
looks
at
Profes-
sionalism
in
Social
Work.
Her
narrative
contains
some
factual
crrors
and
she
seems
to
be
so
hostile
towards
generic
training
that
she
doesn’t
even
get
the
facts
right
about
it.
She
examines
four
branches
of
social
work,
Almoning.
Family
Casework.
Psychiatric
Social
Work
and
Moral
Welfare
Work.
and
decides
that
the
last
two
named
have
a
more
justifiable
claim
to
the
term
&dquo;professional&dquo;
than
either
of the
other
two.
This
sort
of
exercise
is
like
making
hay
with
inferior
grass - you
only
do
it
if
you
are
desperate.
There
is
one
untrodden
way
which
she
and
Lady
Wootton
could
have
explored
with
more
prolit.
No
one
has
yet
assessed
the
effects
or
likely
effects
of
the
increasing
sectional
clamouring
for
professional
status
amongst
social
workers
and
others,
on
the
development
of
social
work
and
the
social
services.
Professional
Associa-
tions
seek
privileges
for.
themselves,
very
often
at
the
expense
of
the
common
good.
It
can
he
a
limiting
rather
than
a
growing
thing
and
it
could
strangle
the
social
services.
The
third
section
of
the
book
may.
in
the
long
run.
prove
to
be
the
most
valuable.
(n
it,
Lady
Wootton
makes
recommendations
for
future
research
and
highlights
thc
difficulties
of
planning
a
programme
of action
when
there
is
insufficient
evidence
to
determine
what
that
action
should
be.
Before
recommending
changes
in
the
penal
system
we
should
know
if
the
current
increase
in
crime
is
attributable
to
recidivism
or
to
the
cmergence
of
new
entrants
to
the
criminal
ranks - but
the
relevant
statistics
just
do
not
exist.
This
is
one
example
of
many
which
Lady
Wootton
cites.
This
book
is
a
certain
cure
for
complacency.
Read
it
carefully
and
enjoy
it.
Read
it
carelessly
and you
may
he
seduced
by
the
beauty
of
its
language
into
un
acceptance
of
ull
that
it
has
to
say.
THREE
ASPECTS
OF
PENAL
TREATMENT
By
FRANK
DAWTRY
This
Report
is
reproduced
by
kind
permission
of
the
Howard
League
for
Penal
Reform
A SEMINAR
held
in
Strasbourg,
arranged
by
the
Internatronal
Penal
and
Penitentiary
Foundation
in
conjunction
with
the
Council
of
Europe
attempted,
within
one
week,
to
discuss
three
aspects
of
penal
treatment-the
observation
of
prisoners,
their
treatment,
and
their
return
to
normal
life,
referred
to
as
rehabilitation,
re-adaptation.
or
more
graphically
&dquo;reinsertion&dquo;
into
civil
life.
The
subjects
were
separate
but
obviously
not
able
to
be
kept
entirely
so;
for
observation
must
be
the
basis
for
treatment
and,
as
was
soon
made
clear,
treatment
in
most
modern
prisons
is
intended
to
fit
the
prisoner
to
return
to
civilian
life.
while
it
was
also
clear
that
the
part
played
by
social
workers
in
rehabilitation
was
continuous
and
ran
through
all
three
sections
of
the
discussion.
If
a
full
social
report
can
be
obtained
before
a
prisoner
is
sentenced
that
hrings
the
social
worker
into
contact
with
the
home:
the
report
then
prepared
should
accompany
any
offender
sent
to
prison
and
be
a
guide
to
the
social
workers
there,
and
of
course
valuable
to
the
other
experts,
administrative,
psychiatric
and
medical:
and
the
prison
social
workers
may
call
upon
the
outside
worker
to
help
by keeping
in
touch
with
the
family,
and
for
after-care
purposes.
In
cases
where
release
is
conditional
the
supervision
of
the
prisoner
on
his
discharge
will
also
involve
a
social
worker.
As
Mr.
Ernest
Lamers,
the
Director
General
of
the
Netherlands
Prison
Administration,
said
in
an
excellent
report
made
as
a
summary
of
reports
from
many
different
countries.
&dquo;When
the
penitentiary
treatment
during
detention
has
succeeded
in
yielding
the
desired
results
and
when
the
return
to
free
society
has
been
well
prepared,
all
con-
structive
effort
is
jeopardised
if
the
family
or
the
rela-
tions
of
the
delinquent.
to
whose
I111CIst
he
is
to
return.
have
not
undergone
the
same
evolution.
The
after-care
institution
that
is
entrusted
with
the
care
of
the
delin-
quent
after
his
release
from
prison
should
extend
its
activities - even
before
release - to
his
family
and
relations,
and
it
should
also
prepare
and
guide
his
reception.&dquo;
The
now
recognised
place
of
social
work
in
the
treat-
ment
of
crime
was
a
noticeable
feature
of
this
seminar.
though
there
are
many
patterns
of
it
and
it
was
agreed
that
no
model
could
be
set
for
the
whole.
In
some
coun-
tries
voluntary
(but
often
subsidised)
bodies
provide
pre-
sentence
reports
and
undertake
after-care
but
social
work
in
prison
is
carried
out
by
welfare
officers
who
arc
members
of the
prison
staff:
in
other
countries
there
are
no
pro-sentence
reports,
in
some
the
prison
social
workers
follow
their
own
cases
for
after-care
purposes.
But
social
workers
in
prison
are
now
general
and
the
need
for
them
fully
appreciated
as
being
in
accord
with
the
modern.
forward
looking,
conception
of
prison.
In
this,
we
in
Britain
tag
behind
and
even
now
we
are
finding
more
workers
for
locul
prisons
than
for
the
prisons
where
long
term
work
is
carried
out
and
from
which
prisoners
will
be
released
under
supervision.
Yet
good
preparation
of
u
man
to
face
his
problems
also
needs
preparation
of
his
family
to
receive
him,
or
other
adjustments
of
the
milieu
into
which
he
will
return,
all
of
which
demands
the
attention
of
social
workers.
The
seminar
made
clear
not
only
the
value
of
social
work
in
prison
but
the
need,
whatever
the
administrative
arrangements
might
be,
for
the
closest
collaboration
between
the
social
workers
deal-
ing
with
prisoners
before
and
after
sentence,
and
those
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