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Partnership-working and relationships between criminal justice and third sector

staff: Accommodating each other’s agendas

Alice Mills Third Sector Research Centre, UK

University of Auckland, NZ

TSO and criminal justice staff

• Challenges of working in prison environment and relationships between TSO and prison staff

• Different priorities and working cultures• Naïve ‘do-gooders’ or amateurs• May be viewed with suspicion• Fears they will be used instead of paid labour

(Gill and Mawby 1990; Neuberger 2009)• Traditional prison officer culture – ‘them and

us’• Staff can affect offender access to TSOs and

their services

Stage 1

• There has been over the years quite a cultural shift in the prison service where the voluntary sector is no longer seen as the threat. Either a threat in terms of just leaving POs to turn keys, or a threat to the Prison Service’s main aim which is managing risk to public safety…levels of cooperation between probation services and the voluntary sector… are near the all time low. Because of the resources for probation service but also there’s fear of potential competition and bidding for each other’s business. (TSO stakeholder)

Stage 2 - Methods• Semi-structured interviews with

service users, criminal justice staff and TSO staff at 8 prisons, and in 1 probation area

• 74 members of prison staff and 78 TSO representatives

• 6 probation officers, 7 TSO representatives

• Lasted between 20 mins and an hour

Good relations We have a really good rapport with them. We organise an open evening when organisations are invited to come in and have a look, both voluntary sector and private organisations. They’re invited to chat to staff and chat to residents and mingle. (Staff)

I think it works pretty well. We’ve got good connections with staff here… especially on our wing, the SOs and everything. The staff really look after us. (TSO)

Value and expertiseThe majority of staff see it [TSOs in prison] as a positive move. They understand the impact it has and the positives that come out of that… everyone can see that if a prisoner is dealing with someone that’s helping to keep them calm, then at the end of the day they’re much better to work with on the wings. (Staff) It’s their expertise, they have a breadth of knowledge like, for example, SOVA who do a lot of job searching for women or benefits people… we don’t have this sort of knowledge or resources to deal with these issues and they are invaluable. (Staff) 

People, not offenders

• It’s good because it shows a lot of our lads as well that not everyone thinks that they’re all toe rags out there. (Staff)

• I think sometimes the offender feels a little bit less like an offender if they can go somewhere that hasn’t got Probation written all over it. (Staff)

The need for partnership working I think the penny dropped actually quite a long time ago that the partnerships were important, were vital. …I think suddenly it’s gone way up the agenda the realisation that so much now has got be done in partnership with outside agencies that they have got to be given time and consideration. (Staff)

What I like about working with prisons is that most prisons accept that they’re not really very good at it. They’re good at locking people up, they’re good at making sure they don’t escape and so on but they know they’re not very good at rehabilitation … Lots of them [officers] call us care bears and fluffy and all the rest of it, but they know they can’t do it, they really know that. (TSO)

Clash of agendas? Security and risk management

You tend to get some who don’t see why certain rules exist.[ …] I fortunately caught a letter being taken out by a volunteer. I said, ‘Where are you going with that, you’ve been told you can’t…?’ ‘But he only wants me to post it.’ I said, ‘You don’t know what’s in that letter, we don’t do that.’ (Staff)

I think sometimes they don’t always realise the constraints or recognise our strategy obligations, which sometimes can be put in conflict. Whereas they can often see what would be purely in the best interests of a young offender, we can say, “Yeah, I can see that, but we also need to protect the public.” (Staff)

Security and risk management

•Risks and tensions where professional staff are under statutory obligations and volunteers are not (Neuberger 2009)•Need to offer TSOs guidance and support

But I feel that in general because prisons are getting much more savvy about working with voluntary sector organisations there will be much less of that, ‘oh, they’re a volunteer and therefore they can't really be trusted with anything’. (Staff)

‘Institutional inconvenience’• Guests in a host environment

Until recently we used to see them [prisoners] between eight and nine in the morning. We got down at eight o’clock in the morning and they were like ‘No, you can’t have them. Your slot was half past seven till eight’, so it’s like ‘Urr’. You’re quite aware that you’re in a host environment and you’ve got to fit around them. (TSO)

•Importance of not being part of the prison/probation•Lack of awareness of TSOs among staff

Lingering cynicism

I think depending on how long some operational staff have been here, they [TSOs] might be seen as a negative because they just think that rehabilitation and resettlement is a waste of time, which I find quite limiting because I think if the prison is changing they have to change with it. (Staff)

•Positive attitudes in one prison despite the historical context (Liebling et al. 2005; HM Chief Inspector of 2007)

Voluntary sector co-ordinators/ Partnership managersI don’t know what the definition of the word partnership is but for me it’s really getting these people on board and giving them ownership of what they do and supporting them within the prison environment so they actually can come in and be productive in what they do. (Staff)

The prison’s got a lot of fantastic third sector groups coming in to do work, but there was never any coordination, no one knew what anyone else was doing. But now [name] is onboard… binding us all together, it’s a lot better. (TSO)

Voluntary sector co-ordinators/ Partnership managers

We have a particular pilot that is looking at working with older offenders, and she has been instrumental in making that pilot get off the ground, because it needed the buy-in from Probation, and Probation, as individuals, may be absolutely great but the reality is they’re run off their feet and they need somebody else to put it all together. (TSO)

Conclusion• Context of partnership working• Prison officers traditionally hostile to

outsiders concerned with the welfare of prisoners?

• Rare professional rivalries and hostility

• Cultural shift - effects of professionalization?

• Need for good hosts• Effects of increased competition

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Panel members

Sonya Cullerton & Kate Murray HMP Leeds