Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 56 Article 6 Issue 1 March Spring 1965 The rP oblem of Educating the Correctional Practitioner Julian Roebuck Paul Zelhart Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Recommended Citation Julian Roebuck, Paul Zelhart, The rP oblem of Educating the Correctional Practitioner, 56 J. Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci. 45 (1965) This Criminology is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. RESEARCH REPORTS THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATING THE CORRECTIONAL PRACTITIONER JULIAN ROEBUCK AND PAUL ZELHART* For the past 20 years members of the field of industrial, training, and treatment objectives.' corrections have devoted much zeal and energy to Thus, what is meant by professionalization is stressing the need for more trained personnel unclear. without devoting much attention to where these People in several occupational and professional personnel are to come from. There is evidence of a categories utilize a variety of techniques and skills dearth of trained personnel in certain position in working with offenders which they have ac- categories within the correctional services,' but, quired from many sources; these people include just how many and what kinds of people are re- the police, jail keepers, correctional officers, quired, where they are required, who is to prepare chaplains, teachers, vocational instructors, psy- them, and how they are to be prepared remain chologists, physicians, recreation directors, in- unanswered. This paper is addressed to the last dustrial and trade supervisors, craftsmen, admin- two questions: who is to prepare them, and how" istrators, maintenance men, cooks, probation they are to be prepared. officers, parole officers, prison counselors. Obvi- ously the overwhelming majority of these people Tmx IssuE OF PROFESSIONALIZATION and many others who work in corrections neither The journal literature during the past ten years draw on a specialized body of correctional knowl- has been replete with articles on the professionali- edge nor are they products of formalized profes- zation of the correctional worker. Despite this sional training. In short a cursory view of work preoccupation with professionalization there is no roles in corrections reveals some professionals full agreement on just who the professional in cor- (physicians, psychologists, research specialists, rections is, and there is consensus certainly neither chaplains, M.S.W.'s, etc.) and myriads of non- in the field nor in the halls of academe pertaining professionals whose vocations preclude profes- to the process of his professionalization. 2 Profes- sionalization (cooks, correctional officers, crafts- sionalization in corrections has been alluded to as: men, maintenance men, etc.). Correctional (1) recognized professionals (physicians, psy- managers by virtue of their varied (if any) aca- chiatrists, psychologists, social workers, teachers, demic backgrounds and the nature of their duties chaplains, etc.) engaged in correctional work; (2) do not qualify as professionals.4 Managers are not the experiential process, i.e., prolonged work con- practitioners. tacts with offenders, through which correctional Hence, the question of professionalization must personnel gain "expert knowledge"; (3) the at- center on what Professor Peter Lejins has termed, tainment of specialized "correctional" case-work "the general correctional workers," "general prac- skills; (4) the acquisition of specialized managerial titioners," engaged in the process of counseling skills and "knowledge" in coordinating custodial, and rehabilitating offenders,5 i.e., probation * Dr. Roebuck is Associate Professor of Sociology officers, parole officers, and prison counselors, or in Louisiana State University. Mr. Zelbart received the M.A, degree in Psychology from San Jose State 3 Johnson, The Professional in Corrections: Status College. He is presently a Teaching Fellow in the Psy- and Prospectus, 40 SocIAL FORCES 171 (1961); TaP- chology Department of the University of Alberta, PAN, CRnra, JUSTICE AND COR.ECTION 561-67 (1960). Canada. 4 On this point the writer disagrees with Professor ' Arden House Conference on Manpower and Train- Elmer H. Johnson, among others, who defines correc- ing for Corrections, Report of Council on Social Work tional managers as professionals. The art of working Education, June 24-26. 1964, (mimeographed) p. 2. with people, of guiding, supervising, directing, or 2 Cressey, Professional Correctional Work and Pro- controlling others is an art, not a profession, whether fessional Work in Correction, 5 N.P.P.A.J. 1 (1959); or not scientific principles are utilized in such endeavors. Tappan, Can the Prison Sysem Be Professionalized?, See Johnson, supra note 3, at 173-74. PROCEEDINGS Am. PRIsoN Ass'N 86 (1949); Jenkins, 5 Lejins, Aspects of Correctional Personnel Training The Professional, 10 CAL. YoUrTr AUTHORITY Q. 29 as Viewed by a College Professor, 191 PROCEEDINGS (1957); Johnson, The Present Level of Social Work in 85TH ANNUAL CONGRESS OF CORRECTION, AM. PRISON Prisons, 9 CRmE Am DELINQUECY 290 (1963). Ass'N (1955). RESEARCH REPORTS [Vol. 56 classification officers. (Professor Walter Reckless parole, and classification officers at the journeyman also shares this point of view.6) These non-medical, level by institutions granting the bachelor of arts so-called professionals are charged with urgent and higher academic degrees: (1) schools of social responsibilities, though in actual correctional work; (2) independent specialized corrections settings they are assigned roles and functions in programs; (3) sequences of courses in criminology the most ambiguous and uncertain terms.7 None- and corrections within departments of sociology; theless, as probation officers, parole officers, and and (4) a series of programs indicating a variety prison counselors, they are expected to have a of interests, emphases, and practices, some of specialized body of "correctional knowledge."8 which are patterned on the recognized disciplinary The delineation of this body of knowledge and the approach and others which utilize interdisciplinary educational process by which it is obtained are curricula. A number of these courses of study are currently the source of controversy. There is found within schools of public administration, little, if any, dispute concerning the preparation social 'welfare, public safety, police science, psy- of correctional personnel, professional or non- chology, and political science. A broad background professional, for other work roles. in the behavioral sciencesu is generally stressed, which may include some courses in criminalistics, THE CONTROVERSY OVER ACADEmrc criminology, and/or penology.u PREPARATION Schools of Social Work There has been an upward trend in the number Interest in the training of social workers for of university and college programs geared toward corrections has grown dramatically in the past pre-service training for corrections since Professor few years. Supporters of this approach include Frank M. Boolsen's surveys of 1949 and 1954.9 The such national agencies as the Division of De- curricular problems focus on selection and in- linquency Service of the United States Childrens tegration. The lack of uniformity of curricular Bureau; the Citizen Action Program of the Na- practices by institutions schooling correctional tional Council orr Crime and Delinquency; and workers is matched by an equally unclear demarc- the Corrections Educational Consultant Service ation of proposed academic programs in the of the Council on Social Work Education. journal literature.Y0 However, an examination of The stand taken by the proponents of social the literature discloses roughly four major types work schools is that social work training, given the of pre-service, academic training for probation, present state of correctional knowledge, is the most 6 Letter received from Dr. Walter Reckless, Pro- appropriate for probation and parole officers and fessor of Sociology, Ohio State University, June 18, prison councellors. They contend that no accepted 1963. 7 KoRN & McCoxRKL, CRIMINOLOGY AND PENOLOGY course of academic preparation has been forth- 3C9-10 (1959). coming from persons viewing corrections as a 8 Some in the correctional field hold that "correc- profession. Adherents of social work envision cor- tional knowledge" must be translated into many languages, and that there exist different kinds and rections as a setting in which the skills of several levels of correctional knowledge that people must professional and occupational types find expres- have as a minimum requirement for specific correc- sion.13 The work of probation, tional assignment. See Federal Bureau of Prisons, Re- parole, and cor- search and Development Division, Defining Correc- rectional classification officers is viewed as es- tions for Training and Research Purposes, July, 1963 sentially clinical in nature. Therefore, clinical (mimeographed). 9Am. ComCnONAL ASS'N, REPORT AD Hoc Com- (social work) training is required for the "treat- MITTEE ON PROFESSIONAL CORRECTIONAL EDUCATION ment man." The National Council on Crime and 3-10 (92d Annual Congress of Correction, Philadel-