Another Cautionary Tale

At some point in a probation officers career you will inherit a seriously old case, probably a lifer who's gone way over their tariff. The file will be enormous, tatty, very badly organised and will bear the evidence of numerous colleagues involvement over many years. I inherited such a case from a colleague some years ago upon their retirement. They had in turn picked it up several years before and in total I think I counted seven previous officers handiwork. A Parole Board Review was approaching and to be honest my intention was to do what everyone else that had gone before had done and just rehash the information with some updating following an interview.

It was a very sad case. The guy had received a life sentence many years previous for an arson committed on a government building. The fire was started with paper with his name and address on and therefore detection was relatively straightforward. Indeed the suspicion was that he wanted to be caught. Nowadays I would expect a psychiatric report to have been prepared before sentencing, but the file showed this had not been requested. He had previous convictions for arson and although only given a relatively short tariff, was now some 30 years beyond that and with little or no prospect of release. 

In trying to find a way forward I soon discovered that he had enjoyed several periods of residence in a secure hostel on ROTL or Release on Temporary Licence. It had been relatively successful, but he had incontinence issues and the hostel were concerned about him being a smoker and his casual use of matches. Indeed the prison informed me that small fires were prone to break out for no apparent reason wherever he was. Not surprisingly the hostel seemed loathe to have him back again, the risk was simply too great.

I discovered there were some relatives who might be prepared to take him, but to be honest my instinct told me they would not be able to cope. In reading the file it seemed that this chaps fascination with fire had been as the tragic result of witnessing his brother die in a house fire when he was quite young and very impressionable. I went to see him, but was not really prepared for what I found. A sad old man missing most of his teeth, no doubt due in part to the poor prison diet and looking at least ten years older than his stated age of 64. Despite this he had a wicked glint and seemed happy enough, even though he was suffering from several medical conditions that impaired his mobility and could only push himself about on the wing in a wheelchair. 

I later took the opportunity of reading the prison file which amazingly still contained a black and white photo of a very handsome seventeen year old taken when in Borstal. I found the contrast so utterly sad and depressing and wondered at just what point he had given up and accepted that home was prison. If ever a definition of institutionalisation was required, here it was. All a very sobering experience I can tell you for someone approaching a not hugely dissimilar age myself.

I mulled things over with the seconded prison probation officer before heading back home. We both felt pretty negative about the whole situation. I later heard that the Parole Hearing had been postponed at the prisoners request and the file duly went back into the bottom drawer. Months and months went by when out of the blue the prison probation officer telephoned with what he called 'surprising news'. It seems that this officer had decided to review the file completely and check a few facts. He wanted to try and find the newspaper cuttings about the house fire all those years earlier, but they seemed to be missing. He then got permission to do a trawl for the brothers death certificate, but again drew a blank. Finally he was authorised to ask the police to check out the details surrounding the death of the brother, only for them to later report that the brother was alive and well and living in a major city.

After some further forensic investigation it transpired that the whole story about the house fire must have come about as a result of some sloppy interviewing and suggestive theorising by a probation officer who was looking for evidence to support a pre-conceived hunch. Some vulnerable or emotionally damaged clients can be susceptible to suggestion and prone to conflation and this seems to have been the case here. Every subsequent officer had merely built upon this story and it had become established as truth to be repeated ad nauseam.

So, the inevitable question on my lips was what was the guys reaction when the truth was put to him? He had initially denied it and refused to discuss it, but after careful perseverance he had eventually accepted that it was not true. I still find this a chilling example of how our work with clients should never be regarded as routine or our response and intervention constrained by theory or pre-conceived notions. In this line of work a relatively open mind is necessary as messing with peoples lives is a serious business that has consequences and we are therefore duty bound to try and do the very best we can, albeit often in difficult situations.