Foreword
| Published date | 01 October 2021 |
| Author | FRANCES CROOK |
| Date | 01 October 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12452 |
The Howard Journal Vol60 No S1. October 2021 DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12452
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 3–5
Foreword
FRANCES CROOK
Chief Executive, Howard League for Penal Reform
Looking back over the century since the journal was first published,
what is most startling is the similarity of concerns and working meth-
ods of the organisation, historically and in the present day. While it
might be depressing to read about poor prison conditions, legislative pro-
posals that require substantial amendment, and the impecunious state
of the charity, there is much to celebrate, both from that time and
since.
By the time the first journal was published, as noted in the Introduction
to this special issue, the amalgamation of the Howard Association and the
Penal Reform League, which the journal celebrated as the official organ
of the new organisation, embodied nearly 70 years’ study and experience
of criminal problems and criminal law. The exploration and exposition of
jurisprudence in the journal has been the fulcrum on which the charity has
based its learning for the last 100 years.
It is heartening to read how the journal has, since its inception,
been at the heart of not just inquiring but campaigning to improve
justice. The symbiotic relationship of the journal with the Howard
League for Penal Reform itself since 1921 has brought together ideas
and practical action for change. The introduction to the first volume
of the journal claims the establishment of the Magistrates Association as
one of the Howard League for Penal Reform’s successes, even though
it had to fund the incipient association from its own depleted funds
(Howard League for Penal Reform 1921, p.4). We continue to work
today with the Magistrates Association and over the decades the jour-
nal has surveyed and critiqued the work of the magistracy and the
judiciary.
Over the past century, the language of inquiry and campaigning has
changed, formerly couched in moral rectitude, nowadays in much more
prosaic terms. One attitude that has not altered is the infantilisation of the
prisoner; the Governor of Camp Hill Prison, purportedly an advanced in-
stitution, wrote in the journal about the work and social life of the first
men to be incarcerated in the new prison that year (Wintle 1921), in the
same patronising and controlling terms we encounter today. Even benign
intervention can be counterproductive as reoffending rates and return to
3
C
2021 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
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