A Practical Project at HM Prison Hull

Abstract

The paper presents an application of the reconstituted version of Total Systems Intervention (called TSI#2 hereafter) in a prison context. Questions are raised about the putative success or failure of the intervention in terms of the principles of TSI#2. The aim of the study was to carry out a practical application of ‘Total Systems Intervention’ (TSI) (Flood and Jackson, 1991; Flood, 1995), to promote a multi-agency perspective toward support systems for young offenders who find themselves detained in the stark and often hostile environment of an adult prison. Since 1847 it has been recognised in this country that children who break the law should not be treated in the same way as adult offenders (Levenson, 1976). The principles of treating young offenders differently from adults, and endeavouring to educate and reform rather than punish, were granted full statutory force under the Children’s Act 1908. Yet it was not until early in 1991 that it was announced by Kenneth Baker, the then Home Secretary, that the practice of remanding 15 and 16 year old youths to prison was to be abolished.