Rethinking What Works with Offenders by Stephen Farrall

Author:Stephen Farrall [Farrall, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Criminology
ISBN: 9781134028580
Google: VWZTAQAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 1286278
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2002-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Another officer reported a gradual improvement in her probationer’s use of drugs:

It’s much better now. [I referred him] to [a local resettlement centre] and through there he got on a methadone programme. There was a case conference to resolve things with the doctor, and he now gets his prescriptions from another GP. He now uses methadone and not heroin [013, a pessimist who desisted].

A similar set of processes were detected when officers’ accounts of their work aimed at tackling those obstacles related to the probationer’s personal characteristics were examined. Many of these obstacles concerned the probationers’ mental health or their ‘attitudes’.Of ficers’ work in such cases often revolved around making referrals: ‘I spoke to the mental health specialist in the [probation] office and she took her case to the Mentally Disordered Offenders Panel. They agreed that a psychologist would see her with a view to counselling’ [110, a confident who desisted].

Other responses suggested that officers had placed an emphasis on helping the probationer balance his or her medical needs. One officer, who reported that her probationer was suffering from depression and that this represented an obstacle to him desisting, described how she had: ‘Tried to encourage him to keep in contact with the hospital and to stop self-medicating. To discuss things with his doctor. We looked at trying to keep busy and focused on things outside of his relationship.2 I referred him to our Mental Health Team, but he did not attend’ [127]. The probationer, a pessimist whose offending escalated, had: ‘... gone full circle. He is realising that he needs more help – maybe he will take it. In relation to his depression, he has come off pills willy-nilly – tried to do it alone – but it is too much for him by himself. He needs medical help.’

In this case the officer’s efforts were nullified by the probationer’s actions (failing to attend the Mental Health Team and coming off his medication haphazardly – both symptomatic of his depression perhaps). In other cases mental health problems either failed to materialise or were in someway suppressed by factors outside the officer’s sphere of influence:

[his mental health] is still a problem, but now dormant. It is there, but he got employment. If he loses the job, the depression will come back. Psychiatric service help is still in the pipeline, but it is up to the service to contact him. He got the job himself [and] he’s bloomed. It raised his self-esteem and financial ‘muscle’. He threw himself into work [077, an optimist who desisted].

Cutting down on alcohol made her less depressed. Circumstances also slightly improved, which had a positive effect3 [152, an optimist who desisted].

Apart from offering advice and support, I couldn’t do much about [his mental health]. He was taking his medicine before he got put on probation [119, an optimist who desisted].

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