NCJ Number
198685
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 41 Issue: 5 Dated: December 2002 Pages: 434-468
Editor(s)
Tony Fowles,
David Wilson
Date Published
December 2002
Length
35 pages
Annotation
This article examines the potential contributions and benefits in the use of inmate/prisoner autobiographies as a training tool in British probation officer training programs.
Abstract
Ensuring that some public and private good results from ex-offenders experiences, an ethical and political desirability in using prisoner autobiographies in probation officer training has been derived. This article combined two distinct subjects: (1) a schematic history of British prisoner autobiographies and (2) an approach to training probation officers. Motives for writing are mixed, but British prisoners or the western world have written and published accounts of their imprisonment since the beginning of the institution itself. Prisoner autobiographies are used at the beginning of a probation officer training course because they are highly readable and they ensure that the course begins on a note of realism rather than theoretical abstraction. Four general points about their use are noted and include: (1) trainees’ preferences and preconceptions emerge; (2) trainees recognize that there are problems with reliability, validity, and deception in prisoner autobiographies and read them critically; (3) trainees are aware that offender accounts should not be seen in isolation; and (4) trainees make allowances for the dated element. Some specific things learned by trainees include: (1) insight into a different world; (2) the complexity of change and desistance; (3) engaging with emotion and violence; (4) the variable reality of imprisonment; and (5) the value of probation officers. Notes and references