Book Review: The Frying-pan
| Author | Allen A. Bartholomew |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587000300412 |
| Published date | 01 December 1970 |
| Date | 01 December 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
250 AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (Dec., 1970): 3, 4
This reduces
the
standard
of
the
remainder
and can
adversely
affect morale. Field
Ma~shal"
Sir
.William Slim is
quoted
as
saying, Armies do
not
win
wars
by
means
of a few bodies
o~
super
soldiers,
but
by
the
average
quality
of
their
standard
units."
.This.
vie~
is some
support
for
the
Victoria Police
practice
whereby
promotion
IS
not
normally
gained
through
specialised
branches. Detectives
and
other
specialists
return
to
general
duties on promotion
and
ensure adissemination of skills
and
experience. Although decried by
some
as
wasteful
and
shortsighted,
this
policy
does Improve
the
skill
and
efficiency of
the
bulk of
the
members,
and
ensures
that
those
who
achieve
the
top
ranks
have
experience in a
wide
range
of duties.
This book collates
the
results of a
very
detailed
survey
in a readable
and
interest-
ing fashion. The conclusions drawn, I
am
certain, can be applied to
any
police force
anywhere. It will be interesting
to
com-
pare Martin
and
Wilson's
study
with
the
results of
the
survey
of
the
Victoria Police
recently
sponsored
by
the
Victoria Police.
ANDREW
A.
FRY,
Inspector in
Charge
Personnel
and
Public Relations,
Chief Commissioner's Office,
Melbourne.
The Frying-pan, T. Parker,
Hutchinson
Group (Australia) Pty. Ltd., 1970, pp, 222
$A6.20.
H.M. PRISON GRENDON, a
psychiatric
prison hospital first
bruited
in 1939
but
finally opened in 1962, is something of
an
experiment
that
must
be of
interest
to all
prison
administrators
and
those
working
in
the
correctional field,
particularly
the
psychiatric
and
psychological
personnel
There have, of course, been a
number
of
articles concerning Grendon
written
by
professionals
working
in
the
field!
and
these
have
been
valuable. Now
we
have
this
book describing some
aspects
of
the
prison; a
book
that
is
the
end
result
of a
three
months'
stay
in
the
prison by
the
author
during
which
time some 200
hours
of
taped
conversations
with
prisoners
and
staff members
were
made.
An odd
aspect
of
this
book
is
that
the
author
acknowledges his
thanks
to
the
Assistant
Under
Secretary
of
State
and
Deputy
Chairman
of
the
Prison Board,
the
Director of
Prison
Medical Services,
and
Dr. W. J. Gray,
the
Governor-Superinten-
dent of
the
prison. In
other
words,
the
author
apparently
was
in receipt of
much
official goodwill.
The
oddity is
that
it is
stated
in
Chapter
14
that
"Almost
without
exception,
the
doctors and medical staff
of Grendon disagreed
with
my being given
permission by
the
Home Office to go
there".
Chapter
14 is
the
record of a con-
versation between
the
author
and
"one
doctor who
proved
an exception
to
the
rest".
The
author
states
(p. 211)
that
he
only
wanted
to
write
"a simple
account
giving
some idea of
the
sort
of people imprisoned
there,
either
prisoner
or
member
of
the
staff". Does
this
endeavour
come off?
This is difficult to
say
as one feels
that
one would like
to
know
a
great
deal
more
about
the
personnel interviewed
and
the
interviewing
technique
employed.
For
example,
the
Prison
Officer, "Good
Hearted
Harry", is doubtfully typical of
the
run
of
the prison officer staff. Again,
the
com-
ments of
the
female psychologist
appear
somewhat trite, indeed naive,
and
suggest
an almost
unhealthy
concern regarding
the
possibility of
the
male
prisoners falling in
love
with
her.
The prisoner's wife (p. 163)
may
be
typical of one or
two
wives,
but
are
we
entitled to see
her
as
a
true
representative
of
the
whole
platoon
of deserted wives;
deserted
through
the
agency of
the
cor-
rectional process? This is to be doubted.
Indeed,
each
of
the
cameos offered causes
the reviewer to be
uncertain
as to
their
true
meaning
and
most
certainly to
doubt
their value as
any
form
of stereotype.
Chapter 13 immediately impresses as
being of some
interest
when
it
sets
out
the responses of
six
of
the
prisoners to
the question: "If
you
do offend again,
what
sentence do you
think
should be
passed
on you?" The
answers
given indicate
that
probably five of
the
six would recidivate
shortly
after
leaving Grendon:
Archie-
"I
don't
think
you could give me
any
really convincing
reason
why
Ishould
want
to be law-abiding"; Ron - "The
thing is
that
I am going to be me until
the
day I die;
and
you
simply
can't
tolerate
me"; Donald -
There
ought to be some
kind of homes
we
could be
sent
to,
where
people would look
after
us
and
see we
didn't
get
into
trouble";
Bernie - "I sug-
gest asuspended
sentence
of
ten
years'
imprisonment
with
the
clear
proviso
that
if I offend once
more
in
any
way
at
all
there'll be no trial, no hearing, no defence,
nothing:
just
'bang',
ten
years";
and
Geoff -
"I'm
dangerous, I
think
you'd
have to face
that
. . . I
think
the
only
thing would be an
indeterminate
sentence.
Not six
months
or a
year
or five years,
nothing like that: simply asentence of
imprisonment
which
would last in-
definitely".
Only Clive indicated some
reason
for
hope:
"I'm
quite
determined
when I go
out
to lead an
honest
life;
and
this
is some-
thing totally different from saying
that
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