Citation

Stewart G, Smith D. Br. J. Criminol. 1987; 27(3): 302-310.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A recent survey of children in custody provides some evidence to inform the debate on whether probation officers should withdraw from working in prisons. Levels of probation staffing in institutions housing children are already very low, and from the survey it appears that in general these children receive little help, at any rate of a kind that could reasonably be described as social work. This may be a particular cause for concern since the survey showed that many of these children had had difficult and disruped lives before the current sentenus. It is suggested that it is doubtful if the present policy of encouraging prison officers to assume a general helping function is a feasible one.