Probation in Prison

• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X8202600103
• Published date: 01 January 1982
• Date: 01 January 1982
• Author: Colin P. Archer
• Subject Matter: Articles

Probation in Prison
Colin P. Archer
&dquo;What is a prison?&dquo; &dquo;A place where people are locked up.&dquo;
&dquo;Its a place where you go if you’re naughty enough&dquo;. These are two
answers of a child I asked recently. Behind the innocent matter of
fact rational answers were, nevertheless, a whole range of fears
and wonderings, some of which were made explicit in subsequent
questions. &dquo;What do they do there Daddy?&dquo;. What do you do
there? &dquo; An air of mystery, a sense of excitement, and a climate of
anxiety, were evident from the difficulty in responding to the
interest of other children at school in the comment that &dquo;My dad
goes to prison every day &dquo;. &dquo;Can I come with you to see what it’s
like? &dquo; is a question illustrating an awareness that prisons contain
those whose behaviour is unacceptable, and an unfailing curiosity
to know, in a nutshell, what can be done and is being done about
human badness, either felt by the individual or projected by society
at large.
It was the problem of understanding and responding to human
behaviour which led to court appearances, that resulted in the idea
of probation as a concept, and the foundation of the Probation
Service in the U.K. At its most basic level, the belief and assumption
is that human beings are bom, live and die in the context of
relationships with other human beings, which influence individual
behaviour, and vice versa. The introduction of a probation officer,
into a person’s life, with consent and an agreement, which may be
more or less explicit, offers the chance of an experience of a
relationship which is intended to influence behaviour and vice versa.
Beliefs about the inherent worth of the individual, capacity for
growth and change, and the value of encouragement and praise
rather than discouragement and scorn are central to the character
and tradition of the Probation Service. Advertisements for staff have
emphasised the opportunities for influence, the use of individual
initiative and the level of responsibility that is carried. It is a sine
qua non that the staff is the paramount raw material in an endeavour
which seeks to influence behaviour through relationships.
After the hulks-old ships which housed the criminals-and
transportation-which was mainly to Australia-came the prisons.
(Of those in current use, Shrewsbury was opened in 1795. H.M.
Prison Lancaster, part of a castle with a Norman Keep, having been
used as a County Gaol from 1788). They were similar in that they
separated the criminals from the environment and the relationships
they were accustomed to: but were different in the sense that initially
every prisoner had his own cell, and would leave prison at some time
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or other. Few
who went to Australia could return, and the conditions
in the hulks meant that large numbers perished. It was believed that
the experience of isolation, from fellow prisoners as well as those
outside prison, would enable a man to dwell on his behaviour, and
result in a resolve to live a good and useful life subsequently. Such
relationships as he experienced were with individual warders, the
chaplain, governor, and perhaps the occasional visit. Life was
characterised by locked doors and barred windows-&dquo;A visit to the
gaol will show how great a change has come over the treatment of
prisoners in recent times. Winchester is certainly a model establish-
ment, though at one time almost too comfortable for purposes of
correction&dquo; 2-bearing in mind man’s nomadic origins, and the
time taken to create settlements, the beginnings of our present
civilisation,~ this represented a very abnormal pattern of living. It
was intended to hurt; pain was a necessary part of the experience.
This was for the less serious crimes. Murderers always secured an
officially approved entry to the grave.
While there have been changes in attitudes affecting prisons,
it remains the first task of any prison to regulate with absolute and
unfailing precision the movement of people, especially prisoners
between inside and outside. Open prisons are able to place less
emphasis on this, but only slightly less. Society appears to expect
that this is achieved, whatever its implications. &dquo;Hardware&dquo; i.e.
buildings, locks, reinforcements, walls, wire, alarm systems, is seen
as the prime resource for creating a clear boundary between in and
out (i.e. preventing movement across that boundary) and &dquo;software’
i.e. people, as a resource to enable regulated movement across it in
both directions. Rules, routines, orders, procedures, are necessary
to ensure a high rate of success in achieving the primary task.
Certainty, rigidity, security and the comradeship that arises among
groups involved in a job with some dangers, unpleasantness and
relative isolation from the outside world, characterise the Prison
Service. (There is some comparison with the miners as an occupa-
tional group). Advertisements for prison officers refer to job security.
Those for Governor grades talk of man management and add
something about social work.
The decision to put probation officers inside prisons to act as
prison welfare officers...