Book Review: Legal Rights of Prisoners

AuthorGeorge Zdenkowski
Published date01 September 1982
Date01 September 1982
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/000486588201500308
Subject MatterBook Reviews
184 BOOK
REVIEWS
(1982) 15 ANZJ
Crim
the
1960s,
there
is no real
attempt
to analyse
the
stability of
the
relationships revealed
over
time
and
through
socio-economic change.
Finally, one particular editorial practice which was both distracting and annoying
was
the
differentiation
between
lower-case "whites" and upper-case "Blacks" in
the
discussion of racial aspects. Perhaps this is standard practice in American books
but
it is particularly
odd
to an Australian reader.
In brief, this may not be one of Skogan's
best
works,
but
well
worth
reading if you
have not looked at crime from this particular standpoint before,
and
there
is a very
useful-looking reference list included to point
the
reader
towards more
policy-oriented works.
Canberra
JOHN
WALKER
Legal Rights of
Prisoners.
Alpert, Geoffrey P (Ed) Sage Publications Inc, Beverley
Hills and London (1980) ISBN 0-8039-1189-0, no price given.
That
there
has
been
adramatic upsurge in prison litigation in
the
last 15 years in
the
United
States is undeniable. This volume (being
the
14th of a series known as
the
Sage Criminal Justice Annuals) documents some of
the
recent
developments in this
area from a
number
of different perspectives. Although
the
contributors to this
collection of essays
are
predominantly academics, additional insights
emerge
from a
Kansas District
Court
Judge and a Commissioner of
the
South Carolina
Department
of Corrections.
Although
there
is a certain consensus
that
the
enhanced access of prisoners to
the
courts is a "positive" development,
there
is a bewildering array of justifications/
rationalizations and, occasionally,
attempts
to theorize this
phenomenon.
James
FShort,
Jnr
in his foreword, for example, perceives
the
participation of prisoners in
the
legal process as a way of according: "Recognition of prisoners as citizens . . .
[which] may
yet
prove
to be the
best
hope
for 'rehabilitation' of prisons, prisoners,
and
the
communities to which they
return"
(p 8). On
the
other
hand, Geoffrey Alpert
in his introduction poses
the
question: "Can
the
legal profession really
help
prisoners,
and
by this means
help
societies in
their
efforts to cope with crime?
Or
is
the
law
performing aside show to obfuscate
the
real problem in
center
ring?" (p 12).
Unfortunately,
the
second question is
never
tackled and
the
reader
is left to
deduce
his or
her
own conclusions.
The
themes
which do emerge in
the
book include:
the
support by law enforcement
authorities for autonomous prison administrations and th-eir resistance to
the
incursions of external monitors, be .they judicial or administrative;
the
demise of
rehabilitation as a penal philosophy,
the
rise of punishment-oriented institutions
and
the
corollary
of
"minimal rights" for prisoners and
due
process;
and
the
emergence
of legal aid
programmes
for prisoners. All of these issues are relevant to those
concerned
with
the
state of Australian prisons.
Bronstein, Executive Director of
the
ACLU National Prison Project, analyses
the
role of
the
judiciary in providing and ensuring prisoners' rights
and
concludes
that
although certain rights are guaranteed by
the
courts they
are
often illusory for
prisoners.
He
sees
the
key issue as:
"Does
the
Constitution follow a person into
prison?" and, ultimately, this paradigm limits any broader analysis. His review of
the

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