The role of the prison social worker with special reference to the implementation of a problem-solving treatment programme for juvenile delinquents at Odi District Prison in Bophuthatswana

Abstract

It is of primary importance to the Bophuthatswana Prisons Service, like it is to other institutions with the similar objectives of rehabilitation of offenders, to look into various ways of promoting the reintergration of these offenders to their communities. Social Work Services within this system play a major role to realize this goal. The prison social workers employ the different methods of social work in their treatment programmes with the main purpose of preparing offenders while in prison for readjustment into their communities after release. Problem-solving as a process can be used by both correctional social workers and the social auxilliary workers where the former will be engaged in therapeutic programmes while the latter engage in educational programmes with offenders. Intervention by and involvement of external social workers, family members, and community speakers or experts in particular fields of study will also contribute to effectiveness of treatment programmes. This study was therefore based on the problem-solving model where juvenile delinquents in particular were exposed to a problem-solving treatment programme with the main purpose of counselling them on factors contributory to the acts of delinquency how to prevent those acts, and to put the role of the prison social worker in the correct perspective.