| "Special
hospital nurses must maintain security while simultaneously
creating therapeutic relationships with residents"
(Burrow, 1991, p. 64).
"Special
hospital nurses deal mainly with mentally abnormal
offenders whose criminal behaviour has brought them
in to the criminal justice process. It will have been
decided that irrespective of the offense committed,
the individual needs treatment rather than punishment,
and therapeutic rather than 'penal' custody"
(Burrow, 1991, p. 64).
"The
concept of nurses working therapeutically within a
custodial institution is not new, many psychiatric
nurses combined these roles during the asylum era"
(Burrow, 1991, p. 64).
"This
therapeutic emphasis is an indispensable ingredient
in the dilemma of satisfying public and political
demands for custodial guarantees, on the one hand,
and a professional commitment to health promotion
on the other" (Burrow, 1991, p. 66).
'The first
definition of 'care' was offered by Florence Nightingale
in 1859. "Putting the patient in the best possible
conditions for nature to act upon him'' (Abel-Smith,
1960, cited in Mason & Chandley, 1990, p. 669).
"This
appears to be the first philosophical stance offered
by a nurse to define the concept of care and it seems
that the origin of nursing in Nightingale recognized
the need for holistic concern rather than the reductionistic
task-oriented practice that developed" (Mason
& Chandley, 1990, p. 669).
"Nurses
have the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to
deal with this diverse and vulnerable prison population
and to promote a positive interface between custody
and care" (Willmott, 1997, p. 334).
"Workers
on the forensic field are supposed to vacillate between
therapy and custody (Burrow, 1993) while, in reality,
the activity is more akin to a form of societal policing,
under the guise of nursing (Mason & Chandley,
1990). In Britain, these dual roles are incorporated
into one person in the form of the forensic psychiatric
nurse. What is important in these assumed dichotomous
functions is that no such boundaries exist, they are
in fact, one and the same thing" (Mason &
Mercer, 1999, p. 247).
"Her
Majesty's (HM) Prison Service states that its purpose
is to serve: "…the public by keeping in
custody those committed by the courts. Our duty is
to look after them with humanity and to help lead
law-abiding and useful lives in custody and after
release'" (HM Prison Service, 1993; cited in
Willmott, 1997, p. 333).
'In order
to meet prisoners' needs, each prison has a health
care centre which aims to: ' …give prisoners
access to the same quality and range of health care
services as the general public receives from the National
Health Services'"(HM Prison Service, 1994; cited
in Willmott, 1997, p. 333).
'The need
to provide health care for prisoners must not be denied;
however, there is an, inevitable incompatibility between
custody and health care. Is it possible for a health
care ethos to thrive in an environment where the highest
priorities are maintaining order, control and discipline"
(Willmott, 1997, p. 333 -334)?
"The
prison service's statement of purpose means that nurse
access to inmates may have to be curtailed or denied
in the interest of security. The prison services provides
24 hour medical cover, but that is not the same as
24 hour therapeutic care" (Willmott, 1997, p.
334).
"One
of the unresolved problems arising from the policy
of increasing the recruitment of nursing grades to
the prison service is the expectation that nurses
and health care officers will undertake a dual role,
i.e. clinical and custodial; the implications of this
have not been fully assesses" (Willmott, 1997,
p. 335).
|
Topic
D - Forensic Corrections > Section D.6.0. Forensic Concepts>
Unit.D.6.2. Care/Custody
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Canada 
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United Kingdom
United States
