Psychologists and social workers in prison Service

In Great Britain they don’t have any institutions equivalent to the school you study at. People who come in to work as guards get an initial period of training of about 18 weeks. People who come in to work as governor grades (of the kind our Academy trains), typically come in to the prison service from the outside. They are mostly University graduates but in a wide range of subjects – languages, humanities, sociology. Very few of them are lawyers. Once they have joined the service they serve an apprenticeship and they are transferred around all the key management jobs in the prison. Then they are sent away periodically to the in-service training college to learn particular aspects of the job on short courses.

With regard to psychologists and social workers the prison service is the biggest single employer of psychologists in Great Britain. There are more psychologists only in the health service. There is a long tradition of pr5ofessional social work in Great Britain. Some 25 years ago there was a welfare officer in each prison but he was often untrained. Then the welfare service inside prisons was merged with probation service outside. So every prison has three or four probation officers but that is certainly not enough to do the work that is required.

WHAT DO PSYCHOLOGISTS DO IN PRISONS?

The psychology service has had difficulty in finding the proper role. The original reason why psychologists were introduced was to work directly with prisoners and now they would have played a clinical psychological role in councelling offenders. That was found not to be a very successful role. So then the psychologists tended to become consultant advisers to the governor on managerial problems within the system. That was not very successful either. So now psychologists do tow things: one is a research role, which looks as trying to identify characteristics in prisoners that might make them liable to be trouble-makers within the system, or trying to find predictive devices that enable them to assess the likelihood of riots happening. These activities are combined with a certain amount of work with prisoners that is designed to help them deal with problems of conflicts with other prisoners or conflicts with staff.

TYPES OF PROPRIETORSHIP

I. Read and learn the following words and phrases:

business – владеть

owner – владелец

to consider – считать

to rent – арендовать

to market – продавать

to advertise – рекламировать

insurance – страхование

point of view – точка зрения

partnership – партнерство

corporation – корпорация

responsible – ответственный

debts and losses – долги и убытки

to provide – обеспечивать

to obtain – получить

to require – требовать

advantages – преимущества

disadvantages – недостатки

lack – недостаток

jointly – совместно

agreement – соглашение

disagreement – разногласие

to cover – охватывать

liabilities – обязанности

expansion – расширение

to conduct – вести (дело)

II. Read the text:

TYPES OF BUSINESS FIRMS

Microeconomics studies particular firms, households, banks, etc. Business organizations may be considered as firms or companies. They produce goods or render services. They also rent or purchase buildings, land, equipment. They market and advertise their products. They deal with government and courts, as well as with banks, insurance companies.

From the legal point of view there are three basic kinds of business firms: 1) proprietorships, 2) partnerships and 3) corporations.

A proprietorship is simply a oneowner firm. The proprietor is responsible for all personal and business debts and losses, he provides the capital and executes the total management. To start the business of this kind it is necessary to obtain licenses required by the law.

The proprietorship form has several advantages, such as: simplicity of organization, freedom to make all decisions, tax advantages, etc. Among disadvantages the following are worth mentioning: possible lack of ability and experience, difficulty of raising capital.

Partnerships are firms owned jointly by two or more persons who are co-owners of business. Partnerships are based on agreement, which should cover all areas of possible disagreements among the partners. Advantages of the partnership may be combined talents, judgements, skills as well as larger capital and tax advantages. Disadvantages of this form are: divided authority, danger of disagreement etc.

Corporation is a firm owned by a group of people, called stockholders, and given rights, privileges and liabilities by law. Advantages of the corporation is variety of skills, abilities and ideas, ease of expansion. Disadvantages of this form of ownership may be as follows: government regulation, profit sharing, taxes.

Corporation has the right to conduct business as if it were one person.

III. Do the following exercises: