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Report N6. 14 . THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Faculty of Law or PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTE OF CRIMINOLOGY 1972 . No. 1 Seminar: PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES FOR THE PENAL SYSTEM (Price $3.00) _ REGISTERED IN AUSTRALIA FOR TRANSMISSIONBY POST AS A BOOK COPYRIGHT RESERVED THE INSTITUTE OF CRIMINOLOGY SYDNEY UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES FOR THE PENAL SYSTEM CHAIRMAN The Honourable Mr Justice J. Kerr, CM. G., Chief Justice of New South Wales Thursday September 28th, 1972 State Office Block Theatrette Bent and Phillip Streets SYDNEY 15817—1 ' GENERAL EDITOR Associate Professor G. J. Hawkins ‘ EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Professor K. ‘0. Shatwell Associate Professor R. P. 'Roulston Mr P. G. McGonIgal Mr P. G; Ward Mrs B. Shatwell Sole distributors: Government Printing Office, Harris Street, Ultimo, N.S. W., Australia The Institute of Criminology, Sydney University Law School Address 173—175 Phillip Street, Sydney, N.S.W. 2000. The Institute of Criminology is an organization within the Department of Law of the Sydney_University Law School for teaching and research in criminology and penology. [t is under the immediate direction of the Challis Professor of Law, Professor K. 0. Shatwell. Faculty Staff 'directly associated with the Institute Challis Professor of Law K. O. Shatwell, M.A., B.C.L. (Oxford) Associate Professors R. P. Roulston, LL.M. (Tas.), LL.B. (Sydney).(C‘riminal‘Law} G. J. Hawkins, B.A. (Wales) (Criminology) Senior Lecturers '__ P. G. Ward, B.A., B.E. (Sydney) (Statistics) W. E. Lucas, M.B., B.S., D.P.M. (Sydney), M.A.N.Z.C.P. (Forensic Psychiatry) G. D. Woods, LL.M., Dip. Ed. (Sydney) Lecturer P. G." McGonigal, LL.B. (Sydney) Senior Research Assistant Miss J. Scutt, LL.B. (W.A.), LL.M. (Sydney) Secretary Miss V. Cooper Publications Officer Mrs B. Shatwell, B. .Com. (T as.) N.S.W. Advisory Committee The Hon. Sir Leslie Herron, K.B.E., C.M.G., LL.B., Chief Justice of New South Wales. (Chairman) The Hon. Mr Justice J. Kerr. Mr N. T. W. Allan, M.V.0. Dr W. A. Barclay, B.Sc. (Med.),- M.B., B.S., D.P.M. (Sydney), ‘N.S. (Adm. Med.) (Columbia), M.A.N.Z.C.P., C.M.H.A. (A.P.A.). Dr J. S. Blow, M.B., B.S., D.P.M., M.A.N.Z.C.P. Professor T. Brennan, M.A. (Cantab.). Dr C. J. Cuminins, M.B., B.S., D.P.H. (Sydney). Dr J. H. T. Ellard, M.B., B.S., D.P.M., M.R.A.C.P. Professor S. Encel, MA, Ph.D. (Melb.) Mr M. F.- Farquhar, O.B.E., E.D., Dip. Crim. (Sydney). Mr F. D. Hayes, B.A., Dip. Soc. Stud., Dip. Crim. (Sydney), Dip. Soc. (N .s.w.) iii. Dr W. Hemphill, M.B., B'.S., D.C.H. (Sydney). Mr W. J. Keefe, Esq. Mr W. C. Langshaw, B..,A Dip. Soc. Stud. (Sydney). The Hon. Mr Justice J. A. Lee, B. A. LL..B (Sydney), a Justice of the Supreme Court of N. S. W Mr W. J. Lewer, LL.M. (Sydney) Deputy Chairman of the Stipendiary Magistrates of N.S.W. , The Hon. K. M. McCaw, M.L.A. The Hon. Mr‘ Justice J. H. McClemens, B.A., LLB. (Sydney). Mr W. R. McGeechan, A.A.S.A., A.C.I.S. Professor D. C. Maddison, M.B., B.S., M.R.A.C.P., D.P.M., Professor of Psychiatry in the University of Sydney. The Hon. J. C. Maddison, B.A., LL.B. (Sydney), M.L.A., Minister of Justice- for New South Wales. Mr F. J. Mahony, LLB. (Sydney), Assistant-Secretary, Commonwealth Attorney- General’s Department. Mr J. A. Morony, F.R..IP..,A Member of the Parole Board of New South Wales Professor W. M. O’Neil, M.A., Dip. Ed. R. N. Purvis Esq., A.C.A. Mr H. A. R. Snelling, LLB. Q.C. His Honour Judge J. H. Staunton. Mr C. K. Ward, Esq., LL.B. (Sydney). iv. TABLE OF CONTENTS PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES FOR THE PENAL SYSTEM Page Preface ................ Dr W. E. Lucas, Chairman Introduction and consideration of some of the problems confronting the psychiatrist working in the penal system . .' Dr W. E. Lucas Statement from the Commissioner of Corrective Services .......................... Mr W. McGeechan 19 The needs of the Department of Corrective Services for psychiatric services ................. Mr John McDowell 20 Provision of psychiatric services in the penal system . ,Dr W. Barclay Psychiatric reports in a summary setting ..... Mr J. Fowler 25 L Psychiatric services in relation to adult probation . .Miss G. Stokoe 33 Contribution from a psychiatrist on problems of treatment in the prison setting _ ................. Dr E. P. Houston 37 PREFACE , Although the offender population as a whole does not differ markedly from the general population in terms of its psychiatric health it does provide some special problems for the criminal justice system The police, the lower courts and the prison system handle many clients who are psychiatrically ill as well as criminal and many others whose primary difficulties seem to be ones of social maladjustment or psychiatric disability It is suggested from time to time that some groups of offenders, for example the drunks and vagrants, could best be handled outside the criminal justice system. However it does seem that they will continue to be clients of the system for some time to come. The courts, the prisons and the probation and parole services all call on psychiatrists and psychiatric institutions to provide them with services of various types.- The need for these services is admitted by all; but their nature, extent and source is often a question for discussion. Different countries, and indeed different Australian states, have tried a variety of solutions with various departments accepting responsibility for providing psychiatric services to the offender population or part of it. The scope and aims of such services is also a vexed question and the stance adopted by commentators may in part be decided by beliefs about the role of psychiatric factors in the causation of crime and also by willingness, or unwillingness to accept responsibility for the management of troublesome individuals or groups of offenders This collection of papers comes from a seminar entitled “Psychiatric Services for the Penal System” held by the Institute of Criminology on 28th September, 1972. The seminar was designed in part to look at some of the general problems in the provision of psychiatric services for offenders but the main focus was to be on problems in New South Wales. The seminar seems to have been a timely one as interest in the topic is high and reviews of the present situation are being made by some of the authorities directly concerned. The first paper examines the general problems of the psychiatrist working in the penal system, concentrating on those of perhaps special local relevance. Following papers present the viewpoints of persons directly concerned with the provision of and the use of psychiatric services. Particular difficulties are frankly discussed and useful suggestions are made for the improvement and extension of services especially at the outpatient level. The need for an outpatient assessment clinic for offenders is a recurring theme. In Selecting speakers for the seminar an attempt was made to balance providers of services against the consumers of such services and this was largely successful. The main imbalance, and it is an irnportant one, is that the ultimate consumer of, the services, the offender, had no direct voice in the proceedings. This was a regrettable but understandable omission although one which probably saved some speakers at. least from confrontation with some painful aspects of the realities of their administrative and professional endeavours. W. E. Lucas THE ‘PSYCI-IIATRIST AND THE PENAL SYSTEM DR W. E. LUCAS Consultant Psychiatrist, Faculty of Law, University of Sydney When I suggested to the Advisory Committee of the Institute of, Criminology that one of the seminars for 1972 should be on the subject of the provision of psychiatric services to the penal system, I had several things in mind. Firstly, I believed the time was appropriate for such a topic to be raised because of developments, current and projected, in the correctional system and because I though I had discerned in recent years an increasing interest among my psychiatric colleagues in the problems of the offender. Secondly, because the providers of psychiatric services do not come from within the departments concerned with the functioning of the penal system it seemed to me that a meeting, perhaps even a confrontation, of the providers and the consumers of these services in the atmosphere of a seminar might be useful to all parties. For a seminar of this type and this size to be successful the speakers both from the platform and from the floor must feel free to inform, question and challenge in a waythat is not always possible in the day to day work situation where the usual channels and formalities are expected to be used; Finally, I had selfish reasons for wanting this seminar to take place. As a consultant psychiatrist who is active at several levels in the penal system I am interested in my effectiveness, not to mention my comfort, in doing the best I can for .my offender patients. However, I cannot do this in isolation as both my patient and I are interacting with a system which we did not devise, do not always completely understand but which at times we can influence though usually only in minor ways and in not an entirely predictable fashion. A psychiatrist cannot divorce himself entirely from his own or his patients’ circumstances and where these are unfavourable for the practice of his profession and the welfare of his patients he should seek to examine and to change them.