Offenders, deviants or patients an introduction to clinical criminology 5th ed

Offenders, Deviants or Patients?

Offenders, Deviants or Patients? provides a practical approach to understanding
both the social context and treatment of mentally disordered offenders. Taking
into account the current public concern, often heightened by media sensationalism, it addresses issues such as sex and ‘historic’ sex offending, ‘hate’ crime,
homicide and other acts of serious bodily harm.
This fifth edition is fully updated and incorporates the latest research and
reflects recent changes in law, policy and practice, including:
•
•
•

DSM-V criteria
groundbreaking work on neuro-physiological aspects of psychopathy
the Coroners and Justice Act.

Using new case examples, Herschel Prins draws on his own expertise and experience to examine the relationship between mental disorders and crime and looks
at the ways in which it should be dealt with by the mental health care and criminal
justice systems. Offenders, Deviants or Patients? is unique in its multidisciplinary
approach and will be invaluable to all those who come into contact with serious
offenders or those who study crime and criminal behaviour.
Herschel Prins has worked in the fields of criminal justice and forensic mental
health for over sixty years. He has served on a number of public and voluntary
bodies and has authored numerous books and articles.


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Offenders, Deviants

or Patients?

An introduction to clinical criminology
Fifth Edition

Herschel Prins


First published 2016
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2FA
And by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business.
© 2016 Herschel Prins
The right of Herschel Prins to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Disclaimer: The publisher has made every effort to contact copyright holders
for their permission to reprint all third-party material in this book. The
publisher welcomes correspondence from any copyright holder who is not
here acknowledged.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Prins, Herschel A.
  Offenders, deviants or patients? : an introduction to clinical criminology /
Herschel Prins. — Fifth Edition.
  pages cm
  Revised edition of the author’s Offenders, deviants, or patients?, 2010.
 1. Criminal psychology—Methods—Great Britain.  2. Prisoners—
Psychology—Great Britain.  3.  Crime prevention—Great Britain. 
4.  Forensic psychiatry—Great Britain.  5.  Mental disorders—
rehabilitation—Great Britain.  6.  Mental health services—Organization &
administration—Great Britain.  I. Title.
  HV8742.G72P74 2016
 364.3'8—dc23
 2015006187
ISBN: 978-0-415-72088-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-72089-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-71241-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Apex CoVantage, LLC


Norma Edna Prins, SRN. 12 November 1935–3 November 2010
This book is dedicated to the memory of my wife of over fifty
years. Always steadfast in support for all my endeavours, such
support being instrumental, despite my doubts, in enabling me
to produce the first edition of this book way back in 1980.

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‘A library is thought in cold storage’.
First Viscount Samuel, A Book of Quotations, 1947, p.10.
‘When once the itch of literature comes over a man,
Nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen’.
Samuel Lover, Handy Andy, 1842.*
*Perhaps, in this day and age, we might substitute word processor for a pen.


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Contents

List of figures and tables
Note on case illustrations
Preface to the fifth edition
Foreword
Acknowledgements
  1 Concerning the author – reflections and recollections

xi
xiii
xv
xvii
xix
1

  2 Troubled and troublesome minds – an orientation

21

  3 The mentally disordered and criminal responsibility – a brief
introduction to the law

69

  4 Forensic mental health and service provision

102

  5 Psychopathic disorder – useful concept or moral judgement?

151

  6 Aggression and violence – extending the boundaries

184

 7 Homicide

209

  8 Sexual conduct and sexual misconduct

241

  9 Arson – or ‘what you will’

285

10 Assessing dangerousness – a risky business

303

11 Concluding comments

333

Index

335


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Figures and tables

Figures
  4.1 Disposal of mentally disordered offenders through the criminal
justice, forensic mental health and penal systems
  5.1 From Pinel (1806) to the Home Office and Department of Health
(1999) and Mental Health Act (2007)
  6.1 The volume of crime

103
154

193

Tables
  2.1 Simplified classification of mental disorders (disturbances)
26
  2.2 Some less well-known psychiatric and eponymous conditions
42
  3.1 Summary of options for disposal
70
  6.1 Violence against the person offences
191
  7.1 Common and less common descriptive terms for homicidal
behaviour211
  7.2 Presentations of, and motivations for, various forms of homicide
214
  9.1 Police recorded offences of arson for the period April 2002–
April 2012
289
  9.2 A suggested classification and motivations of arsonists
290
10.1 Some interesting and enlightening statistics (hazardous events)
307


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Note on case illustrations

No attempt has been made to conceal the identities of those individuals whose

cases have been in the public domain (for example those who have been the subject of extensive media coverage). In all other instances, the case examples derive
from the author’s personal knowledge. Every effort has been made to render the
illustrations anonymous, and to this end composite accounts have been made.
Despite these necessary ethical precautions, it is maintained that the illustrations
provide sufficient authenticity concerning the issues presented.


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Preface to the fifth edition

I preface this book with a number of explanations. First, why a fifth edition in
view of the fact that longer intervals have elapsed between the publication of some
of the earlier volumes? The answer is simple, and I hope acceptable. The pace of
change in criminal justice and forensic mental health (or ill health as I prefer to
describe it) has been increasingly rapid – as is the accumulation of new research
and other data. We have seen amending legislation on extended sentences for public protection – sexual offences, changes in mental health law and proposals for
reform of the law in relation to homicide being just a few examples. Some of these
could only be adumbrated in the fourth edition. This edition will examine, where
possible, some of the effects of these changes. A number of them have occurred as
a result of somewhat premature implementation – an unseemly rush to legislate;
this phenomenon will be mentioned in this fifth edition. Second, why insert a
subtitle? With the exception of the first edition, few of the previous editions carried one, so why now? I have decided that this fifth edition should continue my
own personal explorations in the field of clinical criminology, this term being an
accepted one for the various matters discussed in the following pages. My new
subtitle is An introduction to clinical criminology.1 A degree of modesty on my

1 The term ‘clinical criminology’ seems to have gained prominence from about the 1960s onwards.
My one-time colleague Professor Donald West has described the sub-discipline, in his usual succinct fashion, as follows: ‘Clinical Criminology refers to the study of the characteristics of individuals who respond to their social circumstances in criminal behaviour’ (Personal communication,

28 January 2013). Donald’s chair at the University of Cambridge Institute of Criminology was
in clinical criminology. To the best of my knowledge, that chair was a first of its kind in the UK.
The multidisciplinary nature of criminology was very well depicted by the late Professor Sir Leon
Radzinowicz in his book In Search of Criminology (1961). He stated,
First, criminology is not a primary and self-contained discipline, but enters into the province
of many other sciences which treat of human nature and society. Indeed, any advance made
in ­causative research into crime must arise out of advances in these other departments of
­knowledge. (p.175)
For more recent approaches to this aspect see Garland (2002) and Kautt and Pease (2013).


xvi  Preface to the fifth edition

part dictates that I should not attempt to provide definitive answers to questions as
emotive and complex as those addressed in the following pages. Hence the word
introduction. It may interest some readers to know how I came to alight upon the
original subtitle – An Introduction to the Study of Socio-Forensic Problems – in
the first edition. On reflection, I consider that at that time it was a fairly apposite (if perhaps slightly grandiose) description of the book’s content. Forensic
psychiatry, forensic psychology, forensic social work and forensic nursing have
only really ‘come of age’ in more recent times (see Chapter 1).2 There is another
slightly personal ‘take’ on that early choice. Some years ago, on the occasion
of our marriage, my wife and I received a telegram of congratulations from my
then colleague, the late Dr Peter Scott. It contained the words ‘socio-forensic best
wishes’. Such a term seemed to encapsulate the nature of our task and it remained
in my memory until Offenders, Deviants or Patients? came to be written. Third,
I have to justify one or two omissions in the present volume. There are no chapters
devoted specifically to female offenders or to the abuse of alcohol or other addictive substances. However, both these areas do receive mention at various places in
the text. In respect of the latter, readers will see that it mostly follows the sequence
adopted in previous editions, except for changes in some of the early chapters.
Chapter 1 continues to provide an account of some of the general changes I have

witnessed over a long period of time; I hope such an account will provide a contextual background for the chapters that follow. And so now to Chapter 1.

References
Garland, D. (2002) Chapter 1 in M. Maguire, R. Morgan and R. Rainer (eds) The Oxford
Handbook of Criminology (3rd ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kautt, P. and Pease, K. (2013) ‘The Division of Labour in Crime Prevention: Crime Science, Criminology and Criminal Justice’ Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 52:
39–54.
Radzinowicz, Sir Leon (1961) In Search of Criminology, London: Heinemann.

2At the time of the appearance of the first edition there were very few British texts on
forensic-psychiatric matters. My book was never intended to be a substitute for these. However,
it seems to have received a positive reception as an introductory text. And so, subsequent editions
have been intended to be just that – an introduction to the field by a non-‘medic’ and a non-lawyer –
a ‘layman’. Later works by forensic psychiatrists, forensic psychologists and others have provided
more comprehensive accounts and will be referred to at various places later in this book.


Foreword

I am both delighted and somewhat daunted to have been asked to write a foreword
to this fifth edition of Offenders, Deviants or Patients? Delighted because the first
edition of this book, published in 1980, was one of the first which I consulted
in trying to make up my mind, while still a student at Cambridge, on whether
I should join HM Prison Service as a graduate trainee. That decision duly made,
subsequent editions of this book stayed with me throughout my career as a prison
governor. Daunted because, as Prins himself describes in his concluding comments: ‘at my advanced age I think it highly unlikely that I would feel able to
produce a sixth edition of this work.’ This rather focusses the mind.
However, perhaps I should ignore the delightful awe that I feel – not eased by
my personal admiration for the author – and concentrate instead on why his book
has remained in print for nearly 40 years. There seems to me to be four reasons.

First, the text is always thoroughly revised and refreshed in each edition by
bringing in new cases which take into account legislative and institutional
changes – and here we should note in passing that Prins is inevitably distraught by
what has been happening of late to the Probation Service – with practical vignettes
from his applied work to illustrate his arguments. This fifth edition, for example,
has new sections on stalking, domestic violence and hate and cyber crime, and we
also get something of his more general views when Prins laments that we live in a
‘risk obsessed and overly safety-conscious society’.
Second, in much the same way that Prins himself has crossed boundaries in his
career – practitioner, probation officer and academic – this book remains filled with
observations from and about music, art, literature and contemporary culture which
take his prose about what some might regard as essentially dry, socio-forensic
matters into a whole new realm of academic writing. In other words, Offenders,
Deviants or Patients? remains what it has always been – a delight to actually read.
This is not something I could say about many academic books.
Third, the basic premise of this book – perhaps best expressed in his opening
chapter, when Prins introduces his vignettes – remains as important now as it
has always been: ‘these vignettes demonstrate some of the problems involved
in making firm boundary lines between normality and abnormality, “madness”
and “badness” . . . they demonstrate the problems involved in selecting the most


xviii  Foreword

appropriate modes of management in the interests of both the offender-patient on
one hand, and the community on the other.’ Here too we should note that, with one
eye on the developing academic criminology market, this fifth edition (like the
fourth) retains a subtitle, An introduction to clinical criminology. This seems to
me an accurate enough description of what the work contains and further reflects
how it has been updated since 1980, when the subtitle was An Introduction to the

Study of Socio-Forensic Problems. It also suggests something about criminology’s
own journey as an academic discipline over the past four decades – a journey
whose path has been considerably eased by a generation of academics such as
Prins.
Finally, and despite the fact that Prins is neither a psychiatrist nor a lawyer –
some might argue because he is neither – he writes about forensic, medical problems both from the inside and from without. This offers him an unique perspective
and therefore a wonderful opportunity to celebrate his boundary-crossing career
and use it to his best advantage. Modest to the end, at one stage Prins worries that
he might be seen as a ‘Jack of all trades and a Master of none’. Nothing can be
further from the truth, as generations of past, present and future students of criminology must surely attest.
Professor David Wilson
Centre for Applied Criminology
Birmingham City University


Acknowledgements

This fifth edition, as with earlier editions, could never have seen the light of day
without the help of numerous individuals, some of whom are members of my
family, close friends and colleagues past and present. However, I must make absolutely clear that none of these is to be held responsible for any omissions or other
errors on my part. A number of central government departments have provided
me with helpful information. They are: the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice,
the Office of National Statistics, the Department of Communities and Local Government, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Mental Health Tribunal. My
special thanks to my daughter, Helen, and her partner, Trevor, for constant support, both emotionally and in various practical matters. To my son, Jeremy, and
his partner, Mandy, I express my gratitude for similar support and for, on occasion, interrogating the Internet on my behalf! I have received sound advice from
my long-standing friend Professor Ronnie Mackay of De Montfort University
in respect of certain legal issues. I am also grateful to my one-time postgraduate
criminology student Nick Janicki of the National Probation Service, Manchester,
for advice concerning the management of sex offenders. Sincere thanks go to
my very good friend (and former postgraduate student) Dr Stevie-Jade Hardy,

lecturer in hate studies in Leicester’s Department of Criminology, for being very
supportive throughout my current endeavours.3 I also owe a very big debt of gratitude to my colleague Dr Sarah Hodgkinson, senior lecturer in our Department of
Criminology, for helping me to get to grips with the difficult concept of the social
construction of reality, and for assistance in a number of other ways. It is now
many years since I was actively involved in teaching medical u­ ndergraduates,
­initially at the University of Leeds, and subsequently at Leicester University.
However, I have had the considerable advantage of being able to follow my young
friend Dr Hannah Williamson from sixth-former through her distinguished student
record at Nottingham University’s medical school. This relationship has helped
me very considerably to keep up to date with medical education in general, and

3 Because not all such behaviour is motivated by hate, the research team has suggested that a better
descriptive term would be ‘targeted hostility (victimisation)’.


xx  Acknowledgements

with developments (or, maybe in some cases, a sad lack of them) in the organisation of our National Health Service. As with previous editions, none of this
book would have seen the light of day without the ‘IT’ expertise of my good
friend Mrs Janet Kirkwood, ably supported by her husband, David. I owe a considerable debt of thanks to them both. My continuing thanks to my senior editor,
Joanne Forshaw, and all her colleagues at Routledge (Taylor and Francis) for their
long-standing encouragement and patient support in the face of my occasional
obstinancy! Special thanks go to Kirsten Buchanan and Marie Roberts of Apex
CoVantage. Finally my warm thanks to my friend Professor David Wilson for his
insightful Foreword.


Chapter 1

Concerning the author –

reflections and recollections

‘Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt’.
Late twentieth-century advertising slogan. Jonathon
Green (ed.), Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang, 1998, p.74
‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’.
George Santanya, philosopher, The Life of Reason, 1905, Vol.1, Ch.12

I must stress at the outset that what follows is somewhat partial. A number of my
readers may even find it idiosyncratic. For example I have not included anything
but the barest details of my early life. These may be found in Prins (2010). Suffice it to say that some members of my family were heavily involved in work with
adult offenders and disadvantaged young people. Being orphaned as an adolescent
no doubt played an important part in my later career choices.1 Following a period
of not particularly glorious employment in industry and commerce and a period of
national service in the Royal Air Force, I opted for teacher training. However, my
applications to teacher training colleges were not successful; thus countless numbers
of young minds were saved from my ministrations! A social science diploma was
followed by probation training and subsequent entry into the Bedfordshire service
early in 1952. Training for probation work in those far-off days was provided by the
Home Office. It was very much practice based and, by today’s standards, might be
regarded as not very ‘academic’. In my view such criticism would be unwarranted
because the course equipped students for the very wide range of duties undertaken
at that time.2 What follows presents merely a ‘birds-eye view’ of my experiences in
1 I come from a fairly ‘Orthodox’ Jewish background. My parents were raised in the Orthodox fashion, but in their later years adopted what is known today as the ‘Liberal’ or ‘Reform’ tradition. My
late wife and I, following our marriage, also followed this path. Today I would describe myself as a
‘Jewish Agnostic’. This is because I believe in and value the more historical and practical elements
of Judaism but have reservations about a number of Jewish religious beliefs and practices. At a more
general level I have similar views about a number of other great religions.
2 For accounts of the development of probation work and training see Burnett, 2007, Prins, 1964,
2007a and Smith, 2006. See also a range of articles in the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice.

2  Reflections and recollections

criminal justice and forensic mental health care. My reminiscences are not presented
in discrete compartments. Instead, I have tried to provide a sequential account covering almost 60 years, divided, where helpful, into year ‘bands’.
One phenomenon stood out very clearly. This was the small-scale nature of probation work and its organisation. For example, by today’s standards, the service
was a comparatively small enterprise. It was not particularly hierarchical, neither
was its organisation complex, as is the case today. Some areas did not even have a
principal probation officer (as they were then called) in charge. Bedfordshire was
one such area. It was headed by a senior probation officer with a comparatively
small number of main-grade staff. Contact with ‘clients’ in what was a predominantly rural area (apart from the boroughs of Bedford, Luton and Dunstable) was
facilitated by ‘reporting centres’. These were situated in a variety of locations, for
example church halls or local authority offices such as health centres. These were
often in quite isolated locations. Today, I have little doubt that these would be
regarded as quite inappropriate (pace Dr Reid – ‘not fit for purpose’). This would
be largely on the grounds of breaching health and safety regulations. I think few of
us considered the possible hazards to which we were exposing ourselves. Whether
this blithe indifference was a good or a bad thing is no doubt open to debate. In five
years’ service in the county I recall being physically intimidated by a client on only
one occasion (I found the chairman of our quarter sessions far more intimidating –
see later!). Another more general aspect of the service in those early days was its
country-wide small-scale membership. One could attend an annual general meeting of the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) and know personally
more than a handful of those attending. Another notable feature was the almost
total absence of women principal officers in the service. I recall an exception being
the redoubtable Kate Fowler, principal officer in Sheffield. As I shall demonstrate
later, in more recent times some things have changed significantly for the better.
Not only was the Probation Service small-scale, but other services were similarly constituted. The fairly recently established Children’s Departments (through
the Children Act of 1948) were only just beginning to get into their stride. A notable exception to the predominantly male leadership in the Probation Service was
the appointment of women as Children’s Officers as heads of the new departments.

Perhaps this reflected the notion that women were more likely to have a better
understanding of children’s (particularly small children’s) needs. Mental health
services were also very small-scale, having their origins in Poor Law organisation
and practice. In those early days mental health duties were carried out by Relieving Officers, subsequently entitled Duly Authorised Officers, and then by Mental
Welfare Officers and of course much later by Approved Social Workers under the
1983 Mental Health Act as subsequently amended by the 2007 Act.3
3 Under the Mental Health Act, 2007 (implemented in October 2008), the role of the Approved Social
Worker has been expanded to include non-social-work professionals, such as clinical psychologists, occupational therapists and nurses. To reflect this expansion these personnel are designated as
Approved Mental Health Professionals. (For an excellent discussion of the Act and the many issues
arising from it see Fennell, 2007.)


Reflections and recollections  3

The Prison Service was also comparatively small-scale. Local prisons (for
example Bedford) were run by a governor (sometimes a former senior military
officer), a handful of ‘warders’ (prison officers), a chaplain and a part-time medical officer (usually a visiting GP). In the ensuing decades things have changed
quite dramatically. The independent Prison Commission disappeared when the
Home Office assumed total responsibility for prison affairs, and luminaries such
as Sir Lionel Fox and Alexander Paterson disappeared from the scene. Today,
prison administration consists of a mixture of complex organisation and gross
overcrowding, leading to hardship for inmates and staff alike.
I return to my early days in the Probation Service. My reason for doing so is
that it was in those early days that I first developed my long-standing interest in
forensic psychiatric matters (known today as forensic mental health). This new
title reflects today’s greater multidisciplinary approach to mentally disordered
offenders. My immediate predecessor had decided to emigrate with his family
to Australia. However, his planned departure was in jeopardy because one of his
‘clients’ had killed his wife. The police were anxious that my former colleague
should stay in the UK to give evidence at the Assizes. In the event, they were persuaded to rely on a sworn statement as to his knowledge of his client. The latter

was subsequently committed to Broadmoor (High Security) Hospital. I recall that
there was no formal inquiry held into the circumstances leading up to the murder.
The client had been on probation and was known to the mental health authorities. Today, an independent inquiry would have of course been mandatory (see
later comments). Although I had no personal involvement in the case, its features
intrigued me. My interest was heightened by the fact that the local asylum (as it
was then called) was located within one of my court areas. Under the 1948 Criminal Justice Act, the hospital could, if it agreed, receive offenders on probation
with a requirement that they receive in- or outpatient treatment for their mental
condition if this was of a fairly minor nature, and they agreed to the treatment.
Thus began my acquaintance with those offenders who became the subject of both
criminal justice and mental health interventions, often a complex relationship. In
those early days the probation officer’s statutory functions were solely concerned
with making arrangements (in consultation with the treating psychiatrist) for the
amendment or discharge of the order. However, this limitation did not stop me
from furthering my interest in matters forensic-psychiatric! This interest had been
lying dormant since my student days on the Home Office training course. During our training we were fortunate in having excellent lecturers on the topic of
psychiatric aspects of delinquency; examples being the late Professor Trevor Gibbens, the late distinguished psychoanalytic psychiatrist Dr Denis Carroll and the
late Dr Peter Scott, with whom I was subsequently to work as a psychiatric social
worker at Stamford House Remand Home for Boys.4 This is an appropriate point
to refer to the ground-breaking Criminal Justice Act of 1948; ground-breaking
4 For those readers interested in examining the contribution, past and present, of psychoanalytic and
associated approaches to probation work see Prins, 2007b – notably endnotes 1–6. See also my
book Psychopaths – An Introduction (2013) at pp. 81 et seq.


4  Reflections and recollections

because some of its provisions tend to be forgotten in the welter of criminal justice
legislation passed in the past few decades. Not so long ago Lord Justice Judge,
addressing an audience of law students and lawyers, noted that in the past 10 years
Labour had created more than 3,000 new criminal offences, produced 115,000

pages of legislation and passed numerous bills including 24 criminal justice measures. He commented on the fact that between 1925 and 1985 we managed with
only one each decade.5
The 1948 Act had appeared as a bill in 1939, but was shelved on the outbreak
of World War II, as were plans for the East-Hubert psychiatric prison, later to
become Grendon Underwood and now known simply as Grendon (see Home
Office, 1939). This milestone piece of legislation abolished flogging as a penalty
(except for assaults on prison staff; that penalty was also subsequently abolished).
The Act introduced two new sentences – Corrective Training (CT) and Preventive
Detention (PD) for ‘habitual criminals’ (a provision introduced in the Prevention
of Crime Act, 1908). Borstal was brought more into line with contemporary ideas,
in the new guise of Borstal Training. And, as already noted, the Act introduced a
new power for the courts to impose probation orders with a requirement for mental treatment. The statutory frameworks for this penalty have been modified over
the years; for example the offender’s consent to the making of such an order is
no longer required, and the imposition of such an order counts as a conviction for
sentencing purposes. The other point to note is that the term ‘probation order’ is
now subsumed as an option under a ‘community treatment order’. The term ‘probation’ and all that goes with it is sadly fast disappearing and, in particular, the
discrete work of the probation officer (see later). Many of the provisions of the
1948 Act were subsequently abolished or amended substantially. For example,
the sentences of Corrective Training, Borstal Training and Preventive Detention
were also abolished but have, to a certain extent, made a number of fresh appearances as the ‘extended sentence’ in its various guises, for example the current
provision in the Criminal Justice Act, 2003, for those convicted of certain violent
and serious sexual crimes to be given indeterminate sentences. One consequence
of this particular penalty has been the exacerbation of the current overcrowding
in our prisons. Later enactments introduced the Parole System, the Suspended
Sentence and an ever-increasing range of community sanctions. It is worthy of
note that the Parole System (as amended from time to time) relies heavily on
forensic-psychiatric input and, from its inception through the Criminal Justice

5 As reported by Robert Verkaik, law editor, The Independent, 31 October 2007, p.41. Lord Justice
Judge’s points were reinforced some three weeks later by the Lord Chief Justice (Lord Phillips of

Worth Matravers) when he suggested that prison overcrowding was not only due to the fact that
‘ministers had failed to recognise the impact of legislation enabling judges to hand down longer
sentences’. He added that ‘unless Parliament is prepared to provide whatever resources are necessary to give effect to the sentences judges choose to impose, Parliament must re-examine the
legislative framework for sentencing’ (emphasis added). Reported in The Independent, 17 November 2007, p.7.