The prison welfare officer -- a case of role strain.

It is proposed in this paper to examine the role of the prison welfare officer with particular emphasis on the clash between the competing belief systems of "casework" and "custody." There is a vast and growing literature devoted to role theory. Its attraction for sociologists is that it offers a way of describing individual behaviour which does not rely on biological or psychological theories of motivation. The relationships of complex organizations to their wider environment have been relatively unexplored. In the case of prisons powerful and contradictory emotions cloud the attitudes held by large groups in society. Imprisonment is an historically recent way of disposing of convicted offenders. It remains the stated function of the circuit judge to "deliver the goals" rather than to fill them and in a more vigorous era this deliverance implied simple alternatives. If proved innocent the offender was released; if guilty he was shamed or tortured, maimed, transported or killed. The over-riding aim was retaliation by society on behalf of the offended person. A new philosophy emerged which defined the offence as an act of will, assumed rationality in the offender and provided opportunities for reflection and expiation. Solitary confinement material deprivation and hard work were the chosen instruments of this policy.