Showing papers in "Howard Journal of Criminal Justice in 2002"

Effective Practice in Probation: An Example of ‘Advanced Liberal’ Responsibilisation?

Abstract: This article is in one of the leading UK journals on criminal justice, it also has an international reputation. The article was the first to explore and apply the notion of responsibilisation to probation’s practice with risky offenders and as such has been quite widely cited. The article presents a good balance of theory from contemporary post-modern theorists with application to practice issues in work with offenders, and draws on the author’s own research.

Talking Tough, Acting Coy: What Happened to the Anti-Social Behaviour Order?

Abstract: The government blames local authorities for using anti–social behaviour orders too little. Are they really to be blamed? What are the likely reasons for the very patchy support of the ASBO? The article examines a range of explanations, including that local crime and disorder partnerships, paradoxically having been told by the government to consult and innovate, are adopting a variety of other methods for suppressing anti–social conduct. Patterns of ASBO usage are examined, revealing that it is essentially yet another tool for dealing with persistent young offenders. Legislation for extending the scope and availability of ASBOs is critically appraised.

Imprisoned Fathers: The Children’s View

Abstract: Children are frequently the forgotten victims of a parent's imprisonment. Their relationships with their imprisoned fathers have been particularly neglected in research and their own voices seldom represented. National research which examined in depth the parenting role of imprisoned fathers contained an important investigation of children's views and experiences and this is summarised here with brief reflections on the implications for sentencers, prison visiting, school and social support systems.

Evaluating Probation Based Offender Programmes for Domestic Violence Perpetrators: A Pro-Feminist Approach

Abstract: Developments in our understanding of domestic violence and its criminalisation have led some probation areas in the UK to adopt pro–feminist offender groupwork programmes as a means of rehabilitating these offenders. The renaissance of the rehabilitative ideal within probation areas has been followed by the need to prove its effectiveness. This article discusses the justifications of providing rehabilitation for this category of offender, outlines the pro–feminist approach and provides a guide to conducting well designed evaluations within a probation context in light of earlier British evaluations. It concludes by calling for further well designed evaluations to be conducted.

Homicide and the media:identifying the top cases in The Times

Abstract: Recent work on homicide and the media has focused on the United States. This study considers the British context and examines the coverage of homicide by a leading British newspaper (The Times) over a period of 23 years (1977 to 1999 inclusive). The focus is on the newspaper coverage of the top cases each year and over the whole period. This approach allows for an exploration of the hierarchy within ‘media–homicides’ that are distinguished in terms of ‘mega–cases’, ‘mezzo–cases’ and ‘routine cases’. Hence, this issue is shown to be a more complex social and cultural phenomenon than is usually understood through the traditional binary ‘reported–non reported’ approach. The importance of unusualness and cultural context is emphasised in fully understanding how homicides become, particularly, mega–cases.

Community Justice, Time and the New National Probation Service

Abstract: Amongst the staff in the highly managerialised agencies of contemporary criminal justice, there is a clear and often painful awareness of ever-tighter deadlines and increasing time scarcity. Nonetheless it has been correctly observed that ‘academic investigation of such issues has been hampered by the limited conceptions of time involved’. This is particularly true in criminology. The sociological understanding of time has grown apace in recent years but tends to have remained a specialist preserve which has impacted little on reflection about criminal justice processes. This article is an implicit commendation of the ‘sociology of time’ to criminologists, and an explicit application of some of its concepts and insights to the emerging National Probation Service in England and Wales, as projected in its recent mission statement, A New Choreography. The targets and deadlines set for the new Service are premised upon a commonplace but problematic notion of ‘managerial time’, which in a variety of ways is at odds with the feasible pace of change in the many local communities with which the Service will be working.

Long‐Term Absences from Probation: Officers' and Probationers' Accounts

Abstract: Despite the renewed interest in the outcomes of community disposals and the role of such sentences in reducing offending, little is known about those people given probation orders, community service and other community sentences who fail to comply with the requirements of their sentence. Given that rates of orders terminated for non-compliance in England and Wales have been rising steadily, this represents something of a shortfall in current knowledge. Drawing upon the insights of probation officers and, to a lesser extent, some of those probationers who did not maintain contact, this article seeks to address this shortfall of knowledge. The data come from a recently completed longitudinal self-report study of probation supervision undertaken whilst the author was a research officer at the Probation Studies Unit, Oxford University.

Do Bail Information Schemes Really Affect Bail Decisions

Abstract: Bail Information Schemes gather and provide information on a defendant’scommunity ties to the court. Past evaluations have concluded that schemes are effective becausemore defendants are granted bail. However, the evaluations include possible confounds andother limitations, thus threatening the validity of their findings. They are also incompatible withresearch showing that magistrates do not always attend to community ties information. Here, anexperiment examined the effect of community ties information on magistrates’ bail decisions onhypothetical cases. It was found that schemes do not significantly affect decisions, although theydo serve to significantly increase confidence in decisions. Implications for the future of schemesare discussed. The bail decision arises whenever a case is adjourned for trial, sentence, orappeal. In the English criminal justice system, magistrates can bail a defen-dant unconditionally, with conditions such as curfew, or remand a defen-dant in custody, until the next hearing of the case. This decision hassignificant consequences for defendants and society. For example,compared to their bailed counterparts, remanded defendants are morelikely to lose their homes, jobs, and family ties (Hammond 1988), and theyare more likely to plead guilty, receive a custodial sentence, and less likelyto be acquitted (for example, Davies 1971). On the other hand, the publicis victimised by defendants who offend on bail (Brown 1998).Magistrates’ bail decisions are governed by legislation (that is, the BailAct 1976) stipulating that bail should be granted, except in certain circum-stances. These exceptions include the defendant’s failure to surrender toprevious court bail, or the court’s satisfaction that there are ‘substantialgrounds’ for believing the defendant would abscond, for example. Intheory, defendants with strong community ties (for example, dependants,employment, and fixed address) have more to lose if they abscond (forexample, Home Office 1988). Thus, they pose a low risk of absconding andmay be ‘safely’ bailed.The opportunity to make just and defensible decisions is, however,hampered by the lack of relevant information (for example, Dhami 2001;Hucklesby 1996; King 1971). Brief details of the defendants and casesappearing in court on a particular day are presented on a court sheet, andthis may be supplemented with information provided by the prosecution,defence, or defendant. King (1971) found that in 23 English courts,245

How HMP Grendon ‘Works’ in the Words of Those Undergoing Therapy

Abstract: Prisoner autobiographies are used to construct an understanding of how therapy at HMP Grendon 'works', grounded in Genders and Player's 'therapeutic career model'. The use of these sources - or 'voices' - provides the listener not only with a deeper understanding of how the therapeutic process operates, but also raises issues which have not previously been described in the academic literature about the prison, or within the 'what works' debate. In particular the idea of a therapeutic 'champion' is introduced. This article seeks to describe how HMP Grendon 'works' by using the voices of the prisoners themselves to describe the impact of the therapeutic process. As such it is based on primary research undertaken in the prison, where one of the authors sat in on a variety of therapy groups, but is largely based on a critical analysis of three autobiographies by ex-Grendon inmates: Hard Cell by Frank Cook, A Product of the System by Mark Leech and The Longest Injustice by Alex Alexandrovich. So as to triangulate the material Frank Cook was also re-interviewed at length about themes that emerged from his book, as his account dominates this discussion. Throughout, an attempt is made to view therapy through the eyes of those undergoing ther- apy, and whilst this is grounded in the 'therapeutic career model' (see below) developed by Genders and Player (1995), interesting differences emerge between formal research about the prison and the views of the pris- oners, all of which can be set within, but also as a modest challenge to, the 'what works' debate (see McGuire 1995, 2000). So as to provide a context for the critical analysis, some brief details about the prison are provided, as well as an outline of the principles that dominate the prison's therapeutic community.

Pros and cons: offender autobiography, penal reform and probation training

Abstract: ‘The life history approach is peculiarly ignored in teaching contexts’ wrote Ken Plummer in 1983 (p.74). Things may have changed on ordinary social science degrees, but offender/prisoner autobiographies — akin to the life story approach — are a still underused resource in the training of probation officers. The criminological importance of such autobiographies was recently affirmed by the late Steve Morgan (1999), adroitly re–therorised by Goodey (2000) and used constructively by Wilson and Reuss (2000) in a study of prison(er) education. This article describes, from experience, how they can be used at the beginning of a probation training programme, to develop a preliminary understanding of desistance, and to open up debate on what works with offenders and what doesn’t, in and out of prison. An historical background to British prisoner autobiographies is provided to ground this approach to teaching in a distinctive criminological discourse, to provide a resource for those who wish to take debate on prisoner autobiographies further, and to indicate the kind of impact that the best of this writing has had on the penal reform process. The article should be read both as a contribution to an overdue, and at present meagre, debate on how an academically sound and vocationally relevant curriculum for trainee probation officers can be constructed, and as an at least partial substantiation of the deeper argument that probation training can draw productively on traditions of penal reform which it has hitherto neglected.

The Role of Community Service in Reducing Offending: Evaluating Pathfinder Projects in the UK

Abstract: Pathfinder projects in community service have been funded in ten probation areas under the Crime Reduction Programme with the aim of exploring whether this intervention can be effective in reducing recidivism. This is an important development for community service, classically a 'fine' on time which offers incidental reparation to the community. The projects incorporate the following elements: pro-social modelling, developing and providing awards for employable skills, and using community service to help tackle the problems contributing to offending. This article outlines preliminary findings from an evaluation of the projects and draws out possible implications for future practice and research in community service. Pathfinder projects in community service (CS) have been funded under the Crime Reduction Programme in the UK with the aim of exploring whether CS can be effective in reducing recidivism. This is a new and important development for an order whose classic British image has been as a 'fine' on time, which offers incidental reparation to the community. The pathfinder projects have been implemented in ten probation areas across England and incorporate the following elements: encouraging socially responsible atti- tudes and behaviour (pro-social modelling); developing and providing awards for employable skills; and using community service to help tackle the problems contributing to offending. In this article, we outline preliminary findings from an evaluation of the projects which Cambridge University is undertaking in collaboration with Oxford University, outline the remaining research programme leading to a final report in Spring 2002 2 , and draw out possible implications for future practice and research in community service. First, we look back to the beginnings of community service in the UK, and trace the influences that have shaped its development prior to the pathfinder initiative. The pursuit of rehabilitative aims through the pathfinder projects takes CS back to its origins. In recommending the new court order, the Wootton Committee was attracted by the idea of 'constructive activity in the form of personal service to the community and the possibility of a changed outlook on the part of the offender' (Advisory Council on the Penal System 1970, p. 13). Indeed, the importance it attached to the reformative value of performing

Prisoners with Psychosis in England and Wales: A One‐Year National Follow‐Up Study

Abstract: It is well established that significant numbers of prisoners have psychosis, yet little is known of what happens to them over time. One hundred and forty prisoners with probable psychosis from the National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity in Prisons were re-interviewed at one-year follow-up. During the follow-up year 10% (95% CI 2-17) were admitted to hospitals, detox or medium secure units. At follow-up, 65% (95% CI 52-77) had ‘caseness’ levels of current psychiatric illness, but less than a quarter had appointments with psychiatric professionals: for violent or sexual offenders, only 41% had such appointments. Three per cent of those released were in supported accommodation at follow-up.

Magistrates’ Attitudes to Domestic Violence and Sentencing Options

Abstract: This study explored the sentencing decisions made by magistrates for perpetrators of domestic violence versus perpetrators of stranger violence. Sixty–seven magistrates considered six vignettes involving violent incidents and suggested a sentence. More magistrates suggested prison for cases where the victim of the assault was a stranger rather than the perpetrator’s partner, but this was not statistically significant. Significant differences in sentencing were found where the vignettes featured alcohol, or the necessity of medical attention. Magistrates’ reasoning reflected the themes of denying, minimising, justifying and victim blaming. The article discusses the need for training to dispel myths about domestic violence.

Domestic violence programmes: reflections on the shift from independent to statutory provision

Abstract: After years of ignoring the problem of domestic violence, criminal justice agencies are now becoming more actively involved in the issue. In the National Probation Service (NPS) this is taking the form of running groupwork programmes for men convicted of offences against women partners or ex-partners. While the 1990s saw the development of practitioner-led programmes linked to local multi-agency initiatives, the service is now looking to incorporate domestic violence into its national strategy of Pathfinder Crime Reduction Programmes. This article reviews these developments and, drawing on a study of two local initiatives working with male perpetrators in the Midlands, highlights tensions around values, resourcing, and issues of power and control in the centralising of this particular area of offending behaviour work. It underlines the importance of open and ongoing dialogue between agencies working primarily with perpetrators or victims of domestic violence in order to ensure that women's safety is not compromised and concludes that the Home Office Probation Unit responsible for accrediting programmes faces a difficult task in relation to those addressing domestic violence.

‘The Ties that Bind’: Feminist Perspectives on Self–Help Groups for Prisoners’ Partners

Abstract: Recent research has recognised the role of self–help groups in helping women cope with the imprisonment of a male partner. However, little research has explored the benefits of membership, beyond the pragmatic recognition that the groups meet an unmet need for support and information. With reference to the findings of recent qualitative research conducted by the author in the UK, this article integrates interdisciplinary perspectives drawn from criminal justice research, family theory and gender studies to construct a gendered theoretical framework for understanding the significance and value of group membership, exploring gendered ideologies of caring and questioning the role of self–help groups in empowering women.

The New Governance of Probation

Abstract: There is a richness of material around the subject of governance and public service, much of which is relevant to the organisation of probation as a public service in the new millennium. It is possible to be excited, concerned, dismayed and excited again, all in turn, by the direction of thinking on public services. Excited by the move to citizen-centred approaches, concerned at the poverty of thinking in probation about these approaches, dismayed by some of the simplistic, negative ideas that we live with and excited again by hopes of readdressing our present and our future. This article addresses both the necessity and potential of the new Probation Boards within the strategic framework set by the new National Probation Directorate in England and Wales. The Boards have arrived, perhaps rather fortuitously, without much of a rationale, at least a written one, but they have the potential to create a strong local dimension in the administration of the service. They could make a significant contribution to the achievement of service objectives, to local communities, to community justice and not least to the hard-working probation staff whose proverbial energy and dedication we can no longer take for granted.

Incidence and Characteristics of Rroma Men in Romanian Prisons

Abstract: This article reports on findings from the first stage of a longer study of the realities of offending in Romania, which has the highest incarceration rate in Europe. The main goals of the research were to make an accurate estimate of the number of Rroma (Gypsy) men in Romanian prisons and to identify their socio-cultural characteristics and criminality. The information from this study will be used to help facilitate the work of the developing probation service in Romania and the social integration of Rroma offenders. It should also inform a crime reduction strategy in Romania and hopefully, the social inclusion policies of the European Commission, Romania and its accession neighbours all having large Rroma communities. The results from the study show that, at the time of the research, the propor- tion of adult male Rroma inmates was about 17% of the prison population. However, the proportion of Rroma minors was almost 40%. This compares with a total Rroma population of two million which is 10% of the entire Romanian population (Liegeois and Gheorghe 1995). Thus, the Rroma are considerably over-represented in the prison population. Significant differences were identified between Romanian and Rroma prisoners in both socio-cultural characteristics and in sentencing patterns. Forty per cent of Rroma inmates interviewed stated that they intended to leave Romania once they were released, suggesting that they would immi- grate illegally into EU states. The term 'Rroma' instead of 'Roma' or 'Gypsy' is used throughout as this is the name this ethnic group uses of itself in Romania. Reasons for the Research

Millbank, The Panopticon and Their Victorian Audiences

Abstract: This article is concerned with the origins and development of the first state penitentiary at Millbank, and with the reaction of the public to events at the prison. Using a variety of sources - including the work of Charles Dickens, it particularly seeks to understand how the prisoners responded to their incarceration by the State, and applies contemporary penological theory to historical episodes at the jail.

Stalking: A Violent Crime or a Crime of Violence?

Abstract: This article examines the sufficiency of the legal response to stalking in terms of the penalty that can be imposed under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. It is argued that the statute places limitations upon the availability of a sentence that adequately reflects the severity of the harm involved. This is exacerbated by the sentencing policy outlined in the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000, which delineates the circumstances in which a sentence of imprisonment may be imposed. Central to this article is the distinction between a violent act and an act of violence and the role of the relevant conduct and consequences in the categorisation process. The article concludes with a consideration of whether the recommendations of the Halliday report would strengthen the law in this respect.

National Standards for the Probation Service: Managing Post‐Fordist Penality

Abstract: The debate surrounding post-Fordism was focused primarily on changes in the ‘late industrial’ technology of work and the new social relations of production with which this is associated. This analysis has rarely reached into the domain of punishment and discipline, which is perhaps surprising given the historical demonstration of an ‘elective affinity’ between the nature of work regimes and the form of discipline to which offenders are subject. If we have indeed entered a new era of technological and social relations of production (‘post-Fordism”) then we might expect there to be consequential changes in the administrative contours of criminal justice. The exploration of this conjecture has a set of three interwoven elements. Firstly, there is a review of the historical background to the structural affinities between work and penality, as well as an indication of some emerging contemporary resonance between them. Secondly, this will be given a measure of empirical reference through examining the nature of the modern probation service, and in particular the extensive network of guidelines, contracts, monitoring and inspection which serve to ‘regulate’ not only offenders but also the working practices of the probation officer. Finally, we conclude by suggesting that the new penality is a continuation of the modern strategies of punishment and discipline, which in its revised form can indeed be seen as post-Fordist (though certainly not postmodern).

Death Penalty Resistance in the US

Abstract: In recent years popular support for the death penalty in the US has begun to wane. This article discusses some of the reasons for this development including evidence that innocent individuals have been put to death. Other reasons involve legal debates about executing the mentally retarded, racial disparity and LWOP (Life Without Parole) as an alternative.

Inside Methodologies: For Counting Blood‐Borne Viruses and Injector‐Inmates' Behavioural Risks – Results From European Prisons

Abstract: A resume, with key European results, is given of Willing Anonymous Salivary HIV/Hepatitis C (WASH-C) surveillance studies for estimating HIV and Hepatitis C prevalence among prisoners, and associated risk behaviours. The WASH methodology was acceptable to prisoners, with participation rates of 75% to 88% in EC Network, UK and Irish prison studies; one-third of nearly 9,000 male participant adult prisoners had a history of injection drug use, half of whom reported having injected inside prison. Half of the injector- inmates were Hepatitis C antibody positive in saliva (1,157/2,246). We then set out four other methodologies for future international application inside prisons. All four have been designed to safeguard prisoner and medical confidentiality and to avoid deductive disclosure about participant prisoners. They are: database linkage, for example to enable follow-up of drugs- related deaths soon after release from prison; randomised controlled trials in criminal justice, for example to determine whether drug treatment and testing orders are preferable (in terms of recidivism, morbidity and mortality) to incarceration for drug-dependent offenders; a new WASH methodology for quantifying Hepatitis C and injector incidence among young offenders; and audit, for example to monitor prisoners' uptake of short-course Hepatitis B immunisation. In Europe, prisoners numbered 100 per 100,000 of population at the end of the 20th century, 20% more than a decade previously, but substantially lower than the inmate prevalence of 600 per 100,000 of population in the United States of America. For the most part, prisoners are young, hetero- sexual males who soon return to the communities whence they came. Typically, injecting drug users serve a multiplicity of prison terms. In 1993, the World Health Organisation (1993) set an agenda on AIDS prevention in prisons that European governments have gradually worked towards. Serious inside methodologies (Bird and Gore 1994) for counting blood-borne viruses and injector-inmates' health risks began with Willing

Aids Behind Bars: Prisoners' Rights Guillotined

Abstract: A man is condemned to jail for a crime. End of the Story. Who cares about what is going on behind bars? That is the reality of the society in which we live. In the mind of the public, an individual sent to prison seems to lose identity and life. Too often one forgets that there is a life behind bars, a new life in another community with different rules, with spatial limits, and that according to individual human rights standards, a prisoner does not cease to be an individual entitled to be treated humanely and with dignity as each human being is. In the UK, the coming into force of the Human Rights Act 1998 is expected to make some considerable difference to the treatment of prisoners. It is questioned whether it will go sufficiently far, especially by reference to some of the limitations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The object of this article is to examine, in the light of international experiences, how the ECHR may be used to secure prisoners' rights in the context of AIDS.

Training for Correctional Group Work in South Australia: Partners in Crime

Abstract: The article outlines a collaborative project between two South Australian organisations to develop a graduate certificate for correctional group workers. The project features the development of innovative training for facilitators of group programmes, which combines contemporary group work methods with criminogenic assessments. The genesis of the collaborative project and the philosophy and structure of the ensuing educational programme are discussed. We reflect on various forces, both inside the university and correction services, which have shaped the project, including obstacles and dilemmas encountered. The article affirms the value of the enterprise, whilst acknowledging the complexities inherent in challenging traditional academic and correctional practices.