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The prison community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Extract

Prisons are still being built in this year of grace 1967. They were being built a hundred years ago. The difference probably is that then there was a general belief in prison, not merely as a means of deterring people from crime but also as a place for penance and reform.

Information

Type
Première Partie: Doctrine: De la science penitentiaire à la thérapeutique criminelle
Copyright
Copyright © 1969 International Society for Criminology

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References

(1) Bengt BORJESSON, Att rattsociologiskt forskningsprogram, Stockholm, 1966.

(2) According to the « Plan for a building programme for a central institution for young people », published by the Prison Works Committe in 1967, the institution should have as its chief aim to be an effective means of testing aptitude and working ability… Where young people are concerned, the whole time spent in an institution — i. e. not merely the time spent in the central insitution — can in a way be seen as a time of work investigation. It is further emphasized that « attention must be paid to psychological adjustment to the place of employment. The inmate must by continuous contact with instructors and foremen as well as with his fellow-workers be trained to adapt himself to the necessary hours and duties. Work investigation and training for work thus comprises not merely the technical side of work but also psychological relationships within the place of employment. Given a programme of this kind it becomes legitimate for instructors to function not merely as technicians but also therapeutically. A similar re-orientation is required in adult institutions as well.

(3) It is well known that the neighbouring countries have better educational facilities in their prisons. This is especially true of Denmark. But that is of course the home of Grundtvig and the « people's high school ».

(4) Thomas MATHIESEN has touched on this problem in his report to the Third European Conference of Directors of Criminological Research Institutes in the autumn of 1965, p. 69. Cp. Karl-Erik TORNQVIST, Correction ant the prevention of crime (Scandinavian Studies in Criminology), Oslo, 1965, p. 197.: «If the psychiatrist's opinion should conflict with that of the prison authorities, the question is usually solved by transferring the inmate in question to the Clinic of Forensic Psychiatry, where we ourselves decide upon the treatment. »

(5) Standing orders are (April 1967) under revision. The regulation quoted above ought to be a target for revision. However in practice it is still regarded as strictly binding.

(6) Sten JOHANSSON : Custodialism among staff in a mental hospital : A sociological study. « The aim is now in all mental hospitals to change the attitude of personnel by means of education. The courses given to mental nurses can, at least in the mental hospital we investigated, be described as indoctrination courses in « humanistic » attitudes towards the patients. A psychologist, . Henry VERLINDER, investigated, using our system of measuring attitudes, the effect of this education on the attitude of the pupils. He could show that attitudes changed in the desired direction. Those who went on the courses were less' « custodially-minded » by the time they reached the examination than they were at the beginning of the course. However, the results of our investigation suggest that this change in attitude disappears once these pupils return to hospital again and once they have worked for a time as ordinary nurses We can find parallel results in other fields of sociology. For instance, it can be shown that foremen who taHe «human relations » courses become more psychologically aware and less authoritarian by the end of the course, but that there is a kind of « wash-out » effect when they return to their place of work. After a period of time back at work they are in many respects more authoritarian in their relationships with their subordinates than they were when they began the course.

(7) « An introduction to Group Counselling in Prisons and Borstals » Glasgow Stencil, 1964.

(8) J.-E. BAKER : « Inmate Self-Government », The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Policy Science, n° 1, 1964, p. 39.

(9) Erving GOFFMAN, Asylums, New York, 1961.

(10) Donald CLEMMER, The Prison Community, Rinehart, New York, 1958.

(11) Donald CRESSEY, « Limitations of Organization of Treatment in a Modern Prison ». Theoretical Studies in Social Organization of the Prison, New York, Social “Science Research Council, 1960, p. 93-103.

(12) Gresham SYKES, A Society of Captives, Princeton, New Jersey, 1958.

(13) This probably does not mean that there should be less confidence in the results of his enquiries. But in order that research in this field can be guaranteed to be as objective as possible it is considered from the research point of view that it is better to work as a team than alone. Obviously the researcher or research team ought to stand outside the administrative system which controls the institution under examination.

(14) SYKES, ibid., p. 130.

(15) Report from « Nordisk Kontaktseminar for Fengselsforskning ». 14th, 16th January 1965.

(16) Cf. for instance « Faengselsfaglige Meddelelser », n° 2-1964, which reproduces a number of lectures and discussions from a course organized by the Prison Department, devoted entirely to the subject «The Prison Society.»

(17) The division into democratic and authoritatian institutions has had the merit of being adopted in the debate about the psychology of institutions, but it can lead among other things to a static viewpoint. I have developed this in more derail in an essay «Ideas on the collective institutions as a treatment unit», in Tidskrift för kriminalvard, n° 3-1966.

(18) BOVET, See earlier, p. 23.

(19) POLSKY, See earlier, p. 23.

(20) R. L. MORRISON, « Individualization and Involvement in Treatment and Prevention », Section of a work entitled « Frontiers of Criminology », London, 1967.

(21) The question of whether a psychologist is suitable for this rôle is discussed by Yngvar LOCHEN (See earlier, p. 22). The reasoning outlined by LOCHEN does of course apply to a specific mental hospital, but is not without relevance to the rôle of the psychologist in prison. The psychologist stands outside the daily administrative duties. He has no framework in which to create a system of therapy. He carries out his therapy « anonymously. » He seldom runs the risk of public criticism, since it is other people who are responsible for the management of the institution. The psychologist sometimes feels frustrated, when his point of view does not get a hearing. A change in this would mean a different apportionment of responsibility. It would mean that the psychologist like the doctor-governor would become an executive and a far more public person.

(22) The essential question is not whether it sould be a large or a small institution, but whether within an institution the units are large enough to function independently, on the lines of consulting rooms in a hospital. The building of institutions should be planned with the aim, accepted by the government, of giving scope for activity and taking cognizance of method, staff arrangements, expertise and so on. See also B. Gill HOWARD, « Correctional philosophy and architecture », The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, 1962, n° 3. « To return treatable prisoners to a society in which men live in small family groups, in ordinary dwellings, under normal conditions affecting their basic needs of nourishment, work, play and other human relationships, we need to accustom them to the advantages of such living by confining them under similar conditions. This is the concept of the community prison—sometimes called the therapeutic community. It calls for a complete reorientation of our thinking about prison architecture. »

(23) About the necessity of paying attention to the future environment during the period of confinement see Torsten ERIKSSON, « Organisatoriska förutsättningar for en medicinsk psykologisk och pedagagisk behandling av brottslingar », N.T.F.K., 1-1952.

« The problems of dealing with the inmate's family during his period of detention have been penetratingly analysed », by Wulff FELDMAN, in Familie radgivning og klientbehandling, Copenhagen, 1966.

See also the recommendation of Säkerhetsanstalts utredningen (S.O.U., 1953) which suggested among other things that after-care should be run by a treatment team from the institution concerned—on the lines of Herstedvèster among other Danish institutions.