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Authority or Freedom? Probation Hostels for Adults

NCJ Number
91023
Author(s)
R Fisher; C Wilson
Date Published
1982
Length
221 pages
Annotation
This book presents a comparison based on observation and interviews with staff and residents of two adult hostels which were set up by the Hampshire Probation and After-Care Service (England) as a 3-year experiment in alternatives to the imprisonment of persistent offenders.
Abstract
Both hostels opened in 1975 and catered respectively to a maximum of 23 and 24 residents assigned there by the courts in lieu of a prison sentence. Carlisle House residents held jobs in the community, contributed towards their keep, and received periodic obligatory counseling. The approach used liberal persuasion rather than authoritative direction to encourage democratic participation and accountability to self and others. The regime at Culverlands House was uncomprisingly antideviant and the hostel community ethos and structure were explicitly authoritarian. Inmates came from the courts having committed themselves to cooperate in full-time therapy for 1 year, to be followed by assisted reentry into the outside world. Central to the therapy were encounter and other group techniques, integrated into the communal life to help inmates forsake crime for altruistic and constructive conduct. The comparative statistics showed that Carlisle House kept men in residence longer and had a higher rate of occupancy than Culverlands House, which suffered a heavy loss of residents through early leaving. A few men were even discharged as having completed the Carlisle program, while Culverlands House had no absolute graduate from its exacting program. These differences were not accounted for by differences in the subjects and must be explained in terms of liberal versus authoritative regimes, which appeared to influence the hostels' effectiveness. Tabular data, figures, and over 50 references are given.