Tait Careandtheprison

Prison Service Journal The noti on of ‘car e’ in the pr is on — a fundamentall y coerci ve institution desi gned to puni sh — is contested. While some have argued forcefully, as Judge Tumim did, that care should be the focus of priso n officer work for the benefit of priso ners and offi cers , other s have doubt ed that meaningful, respectful, and supp ortiv e rela tions hips can deve lop wit hin the mat eri al re ali ty of pri sons, whe re of fic ers per for m strip sea rches , open pri soners’ mail, monitor their relations with others and punish prisoners for infractions against institutional order. 2 Care has been positioned as a central value of the Priso n Servi ce 3 but al so in di re ct opp os it ion to ot her aims of imprisonment, such as control and security. 4 That ‘c ar e bear’ serv es as a pejorative term for some officers to denote peers who are perceived to tend to pri son ers ’ nee ds wit hou t due concern for se cur ity or for the victims of their crimes highlights the emoti ve and cont rovers ia l na ture of the word in the practice of prison work. These debates occur in a context where, in addition to maintaining safe and dec ent condit ions, offic ers are charged wit h reduci ng re -off endi ng, as well as keeping the public safe, as key objectives of the Prison Service. Prisons house a disproportionate number of socially marginalized and vulnerable people struggling with poverty, unemployment, homelessness, drug addiction and poor mental health. Seventy per cent of sentenced prisoners suffer from two or more mental health disorders 5 and twenty per cent of men and almost forty per cent of women entering custody say they have previousl y attempted sui cide. 6 Current representations of offenders as danger ous have obscur ed the links between social excl usi on and offending, and how the prison exacerbates systemic inequality. 7 As the c ri mi na l justi ce sys te m is increasingly used as a solution to social problems and for political ends, commentators have noted that the prison (regrettably) has become responsible for meeting the complex health and social needs of an already disenfranchised population. Wacquant argues that the prison has become ‘a perverse agency for the delivery of human services to the social refuse of the market society’. 8 As Director General of the Prison Service, Martin Narey observed that following welfare reforms that closed mental health institutions, the number of mentally ill prisoners increased seven-fold, such that ‘care in the community has become care in Issue 180 3 Care and the prison officer: beyond ‘turnkeys’ and ‘care bears’. Sarah Tait holds an Economic and Social Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge. We believe that now is the time to begin a radical reassessment of the role of the prison officer. If careers and job satisfaction are to be developed and enhanced, the picture of a ‘turn-key’ or ‘warder’ looking after people locked in cells for twenty hours each day must be replaced. It needs to be re-affirmed that the central role of a prison officer concerns the care of and contact with the inmates in his or her charge. The essential skills are listening, understanding, and responding to the needs of inmates. 1 1. HMCIP (1990) Report of a Review by Her Majesty’ s Chief Ins pector of Prisons for England a nd Wal es of Suici de and Se lf-Harm in Prison Service Establishments in England and Wales. London: HMSO, p. 34. 2. Hann ah-Mo ffat, K. (199 5) ‘Feminin e fortr esse s: women-ce ntre d priso ns?’ The Prison Journal , 75: 135-164, p. 153 3. Woo lf, Lord Justice (1991) Prison Distu rbanc es Apri l 1990: Rep ort of an Inqui ry by the Rt. Hon Lord Ju stice Woolf (Parts I and II) and His Honour Judge Stephen Tumim (Part II), Cm. 1456. London: HMSO; Pilling, J. (1992) ‘Back to basics: relationships in the prison service,’ Eve Saville Memorial Lecture to the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency, reprinted in Perspectives on Prison: A Collection of Views on Prison Life, supplement to Annual Report of the Prison Service for 1991-2, London: HMSO; Bottoms, A.E. (1990) ‘The aims of imprisonment,’ in D. Garland (ed.) Justice, Guilt and Forgiveness in the Penal System. Edinburgh: Centre for Theology and Public Issues, 3-36. 4. Learmont, J. (199 5) Review of Prison Servi ce Security i n England a nd Wal es and the Escape from Parkhurst Priso n on T uesday 3rd January 1995. Cm. 3020. London: HMSO. 5. Pri son Ref orm T rus t (20 08) . Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile June 2008, p. 29. Available online at http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk /temp/FactfilespPROOFspJUNE08small. pdf. Despite improvements in the care of prisoners with ‘severe and enduring mental illness’ with the introduction of mental health inreach teams in 2002, this initiative has overlooked ‘the less severe but no less challenging combination of primary mental health need, personality disorder, and substance misuse that predominates in prisoners’ (HMCIP (2007) The mental health of prison ers: a thematic review of the care and support of prisoners with mental health needs October 2007 . London: HM Inspectorate of Prisons, p. 20). 6. Pri son Ref orm T rus t (20 08) . Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile June 2008, p. 10. Available online at http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk /temp/FactfilespPROOFspJUNE08small.p df. 7. Bennet t, J. (2008) . The social costs of dangerousness: prison and the dangerous classes . Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Kings College London. Availabl e online at www.crimeandjustice.org .uk. 8. Wa cquan t, L. (2002) ‘T he curio us ecli pse of pris on ethno graph y in the age of mass in carc erati on’, Ethnography , 3(4): 371-397, p. 388.

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Tait Careandtheprison