Book Review: Freedom and Justice Within Walls: The Bristol Prison Experiment
| Author | Graham Parker |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587200500212 |
| Published date | 01 June 1972 |
| Date | 01 June 1972 |
130 AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (June, 1972): 5, 2
considered an ex-inmate a
proper
person.
Lawyers
were
favoured -by only 7
per
cent,
lay
businessmen by 6.5
per
cent
and
aclergyman by a mere 3per cent. Some
prisoners considered
that
women should
be members, others
thought
"young
people"
were
appropriate and some sug-
gested an
"Indian
representative" (we
might give some thought to an Aboriginal
representative on
our
own parole board).
Another
area
investigated
related
to an
interview
with
the parole board. Eighty-
five
per
cent
of the prisoners
stated
that
the
applicant
for parole did
not
meet
the
board and 83
per
cent felt
that
they
would
like an opportunity to meet with
and
pre-
sent
their
case
to the board.
When
one considers
the
prisoners' opin-
ion of
the
National Parole Board,
the
un-
favourable comments included
"lack
of
communication" - too long to
wait
for a
decision
and
the
board machinery being
too impersonal
and
"all red tape"; asense
of arbitrariness in the selection of
the
parolee,
and
disapproval of
the
qualifica-
tions of
the
members of the board.
One
cannot
set
out
more
than
a few
examples of
the
wealth of statistically
analysed
data
contained in this report. To
do so would be tedious
and
supererogatory.
What
is so worthwhile and exciting
about
this work is
that
it is an example (some-
what
rare)
of consumer research. It is all
very well
setting
up a parole system,
but
such
asystem all too frequently fails to
communicate in a meaningful
manner
with
the "clients", in which case it
may
do little
more
than
add
to frustration
and
unrest
within
the
various institutions. Again, a
parole
system
may
ossify all too quickly
so
that
changes, even
most
necessary
changes,
take
place very slowly; so slowly
that
prisoners
may
see a system
that
never
changes
at
all. It is of
interest
that
the
Canadian National Parole Board,
and
its
working technique, has changed
over
re-
cent
years
-since the research
data
pre-
sented
in this
report
was collected -
and
the changes would
appear
to be in
the
direction suggested by
the
research
find-
ings.
The type of
research
presented
in this
report
is a
"must"
in
present
day
crim-
inological endeavour,
not
only in relation
to parole,
but
in terms of
the
police force,
our
criminal courts,
our
prisons etc. If
this be done
then
administrators
may
be
able to
evaluate
their administration and,
hopefully, introduce needed changes.
What-
ever
else
our
corrective techniques seek to
achieve
they
must, to a reasonable
extent,
serve
and
satisfy
many
of the needs of
those subject to the corrective process.
This
report
should be
read
by all intere.st-
ed in parole; it should be used as a guide
by those concerned with criminological
research, as this
work
should be replicated
in a
number
of different jurisdictions,
and
the type of research should be
undertaken
in a whole
variety
of different criminologi-
cal fields.
ALLEN
A. BARTHOLOMEW,
Melbourne.
Freedom
and
Justice
Within
Walls:
The
Bristol
Prison
Experiment, F.E. Emery,
'I'avistock Publications in association
with
Hicks
Smith
and
Sons, London, 1971, pp.
xl,
119, $4.65.
DR. Emery,
under
the auspices of
the
Tavistock Institute of Human Relations,
carried
out
a
study
for the British Prison
Commissioners on
an
experiment
at
Bristol
Local Prison from 1958 to 1960.
"The
in-
mates were given
greater
opportunities to
associate with
each
other
in their leisure
hourse
and
an
attempt
was made to meas-
ure the effects of this change on
the
social
atmosphere of
the
prison"
(at
xiii).
The
prospect
of wider association being
looked upon as an experiment which should
attract
the
attention
of serious social re-
searchers in the
latter
half of the 20th cen-
tury
seems,
at
first sight, a trifle ludicrous.
The 19th
century
penal reformers
debated
the issue of
"silent
vseparate"
ad
nauseam.
In these enlightened days of open prisons,
group discussions, work-release, etc., it is
too
easy
to
forget
that
most of
the
prisons
built to
suit
the arguments of
our
debaters
of the
last
century
are
still in use. They
built so effectively, given their penological
premises,
that
it is
very
difficult to change
the form of prison discipline (to use
the
archaic term) inside those prisons.
Dr. Emery shows us
that
the experiment
was a success. Association is
attractive
to
the inmates
and
new leisure habits are be-
ing pursued. The level of tension
has
been
reduced.
The
author
also concluded
that
"the
assumption
that
the unruliness of
the
inmate population
(and
hence
the
general
level of tension)
was
simply afunction of
its propensity to
act
criminally
and
of
the
opportunities to do so"
(at
90)
was
un-
founded. The changes brought
about
a sig-
nificant decline in inmate hostility to
officers
and
alessening of
mutual
distrust.
The experiment
also
created
opportunities
for reformative
and
rehabilitative efforts.
"In
particular",
says
Emery,
"there
was
less tendency for inmates to develop a pri-
son mentality,
or
to become more
bitter
or
antagonistic
towards
authority
in
general"
(at 91).
In
the
course
of his study, Dr.
Emery
raises some
very
important points
about
prisons.
Many
of his penological insights
are
very acute. He invites
further
research
and, in the light of the recent problems
at
Pentridge (and Attica), these studies
are
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