Exploring the Prison Environment and the Evolving Roles of Prison Staff

TDescribe and critically analyse the working environment and roles of prison staff

Introduction

Prison environment and the roles of prison staff are areas that have come under academic and policy making attention since John Howard’s seminal work on the state of prisons in England and Wales suggested the areas where the prisons and their environments needed improvement (Howard, 1777 ). The Penitentiary Act 1779 was the first step towards making our prisons more humane as Howard’s study of English prisons had indicated that the prisons at that time were in “loathsome” condition and the prisoners were often met with “inattention, of sheriffs, and gentlemen in the commission of the peace” (Howard, 1777 , p. 7). Since that time, much modernisation has happened in the prison system of England with a focus on the environment of the prisons and the roles of the prison staff. This essay will discuss and critically analyse the working environment of the prisons and the role played by the prison staff in the modern prisons of the UK.

Working environment and roles of prison staff

Prison staff is a wide term that includes a variety of services. In general parlance, prison staff is referred to as ‘warders’ or ‘guards’ of the prisons (Liebling, Price, & Shefer, 2010, p. 14). However, there are a variety of positions that can be included in the term ‘prison staff’, including, governors, medical officers, chaplains, psychologists and prison administration staff (including prison officers). Prison officers are the largest group within the prison staff formation (Liebling, Price, & Shefer, 2010, p. 15). The prison officer plays an important role in the prison (Liebling, Price, & Shefer, 2010). There has been a shift in the conceptualisation of prisons as places of custody towards places of care (Liebling, Price, & Shefer, 2010). Today, the prison staff is not only meant to provide custodial work but are also considered to advise and assist the offenders in their care. The reason for this is the shift away from the previously victim oriented and public protection framework to the current offender centric framework (Liebling, Price, & Shefer, 2010).

Prisons are important sectors in the criminal justice system. They exist in the society for a specific function that is related to public good (Coyle, 2008). As such, prison management is also impacted by the national, political and cultural environment within which it is situated. Therefore, in Western European and Northern American prison management, the culture of treatment of offenders becomes relevant; this has implications for the combination of custody and care model (Coyle, 2008, p. 236), and impacts the environment of the prisons where the focus is not only on controlling the prison population but also on treating them.

The working environment in prisons and the roles and functioning of the prison staff are areas that are also influenced by the nature of the prison and the prisoners in the custody. Since the reformation of the prison systems in England, there has been a categorisation of the prison system based on the nature of the offence and the prisons (Devereaux, 2013). Prisoners are categorised in the UK on the basis of the crimes that they have committed and the risk that they pose to the public. Based on this categorisation, prisons are also organised and the prison staff trained accordingly. The prison population is divided into Category A, B, C, and D. Category A relates to the prisoners who are highly dangerous to the public or national security and convicted generally of crimes like murder, terrorism, and rape (Pakes & Holt, 2017). These prisons are in the nature of maximum security prisons where the staff also has to be highly trained to manage the prison population (Liebling, Price, & Shefer, 2010). Category B relates to offenders who are not at high risk for escape, but the prison is still high security (Pakes & Holt, 2017). Category C prisoners are of less severe risk and Category D are at least risk for escape. With the last mentioned, open prisons are provided, and the staff is trained accordingly because these prisoners are allowed to work in the community (Pakes & Holt, 2017).

One of the important works on the role of the prison staff is that of J. E. Thomas entitled The English Prison Officer since 1850 (Thomas, 1972). In this work, Thomas (1972) writes about the structural embedding of the prison officer in a conflict of roles with the officer supposed to ensure security and also provide rehabilitation to the prisoners. The challenge for prison staff, in particular prison officers, is that they were meant to provide assistance in achieving the increasingly reformative goals of the penal system without being included expressly in how these goals were to be implemented (Thomas, 1972). A very important point that was noted by Thomas (1972) relates to the nature of prison administration which shifted from primarily custodial to care and rehabilitation oriented goals, while the prison staff remained primarily focused on the role of control. This led to conflict for the prison staff in how their roles were structured and what they were meant to achieve. In the time since Thomas (1972) wrote, some of the internal conflict between the custodial and control roles and the care and reformative roles have been narrowed (Liebling, Price, & Shefer, 2010).

Prison staff has to manage a delicate balance because they have to formulate interpersonal relationships in the prison so that they can manage and control the prison environment without having to use violence in a day to day prison management (Liebling, Price, & Shefer, 2010). Prison population management can be a sensitive and challenging task because there are convicted offenders within the prison with varied dynamics coming into play in their relations with each other. Consequently, one of the key roles that is played by the prison staff is the role of peacekeeping; this role requires a specific kind of training of the prison staff for enabling them to ensure peace within the prison population (Liebling, Price, & Shefer, 2010).

One of the critiques of the prison administration in the United Kingdom has been the prevalence of institutional racism in the British Criminal Justice System, which extends to the prisons of the country (Gabbidon, 2010). Racism in the prison administration has been a controversial topic with racism being one of the experiences of prison life by the Irish and Jewish people in the 19th and early 20th century, and then by the Black and Ethnic Minorities in the 20th century (Gabbidon, 2010, p. 38). Institutional racism and its impact on the prison administration has been a consistent theme in British literature (Brayne, 2014). The disproportionate representation of Black and Ethnic Minorities in the prisons of England and Wales is one of the manifestations of institutional racism (Lammy, 2017). There is also a charge that prison authorities are involved in or allow practices of systematic oppression against the Black and Ethnic Minorities in the prisons of England (Lammy, 2017). The recently published Lammy review has suggested that in many prisons of the UK, staff relations with prisoners from Black and Ethnic Minorities are rather poor. When this is seen in the context of the high number of prisoners from Black and Ethnic Minorities, it becomes a matter of concern that the staff relations with a significant number of prisoners are affected by racism (Earle, 2016; Uhrig, 2016). The same is also applicable to the young offenders’ institutions, where a disproportionate number of population is from the Black and Ethnic Minorities (Phillips,, 2008; Phillips, 2012).

Institutional racism in the prisons of England and Wales takes on significance in contexts of the relations between the staff and prisoners and the treatment of the prisoners by the staff. One of the issues that is pertinent in this context is that of custodial mistreatment and even deaths which are at times linked to racism (Brayne, 2014). In recent years, there have been custodial death cases that have indicated the issue of racism in prisons and its impact on how prisoners from racial minorities are treated in the prisons. The case of Zahed Mubarek may be mentioned in this context. Zahed Mubarek was a prisoner from a racial minority community. He was attacked in the prison by another prisoner who was also a known racist. The matter is complicated because the prison (Feltham YOI) had already been identified as one with a history of bullying and racism (Moss, 2006). The enquiry into the death of Zahed Mubarek suggested that the prison authorities failed to take effective action to limit the threat to Zahed when they had information that he could be threatened and that the attacker himself was a known racist (Moss, 2006).

Another critique of the prison administration is that little attention is paid to the training of the prison staff when that is one of the most important areas for prison management (Coyle, 2008, p. 232). This criticism is premised on the general lack of understanding that prison management is a profession or a skill in itself. It is argued that management of prisons is a complex function due to the complex nature of the prisons and their populations, which makes it essential for those who are involved in prison management to be trained and skilled keeping these peculiar complexities of prison management in mind (Coyle, 2008). This becomes a matter of concern considering the fact that there are pressures of overcrowding in the British prisons, which means that the already complex nature of prison management itself is under more stress. In the UK, the problems related to overcrowding in prisons and the resultant stress on the prison administration is also manifested in the prison riots from time to time in British jails (Coyle, 2008). These issues bring to the fore the need to provide training to the prison staff which equips them to manage the complex function of prison management. For the prison staff, which carries out their duties away from public view (unlike the more visible functioning of other members of the criminal justice system like the police and prosecutors), the lack of public attention has also meant that little thought has been given to the problems related to prison staff’s lack of training and skills (Coyle, 2008). Continue your journey with our comprehensive guide to Evolution of Juvenile Justice Models in England and Wales.

Conclusion

The prison management system needs to respond to the change in the culture of prison from custody to care. Greater attention needs to be given to training of prison staff so that they can respond to the peculiar challenges of prison administration. Much of the prison administration work happens away from public eye, which has meant that adequate public attention has not been given to the need for better training of the prison staff.

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