The Stateville Counsellors: Symbol of Reform in Search of a Role

The counselling role has been introduced in prisons throughout the country, but there has been little evaluation of the impact of counsellors on the prison community. A case history of the counselling program at Illinois's Stateville Penitentiary shows that the counsellors' role has been ambiguous from the beginning. The counsellors' aspirations to carry out "professional services" for the inmates have been blocked both by lack of professional training and by contradictory organizational demands. The clinical and service models of prison counselling should be distinguished analytically so that counselling in prison can be implemented more efficiently.