Informed Penal Treatment
| Author | Colonel G. D. Turner |
| Date | 01 October 1935 |
| Published date | 01 October 1935 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455053500200203 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
I9
INFORMED PENAL TREATMENT
By Colonel G. D. TURNER
Assistant Commissioner of Prisons for England and Wales.
HAVE
had the good fortune in different parts
which is better in many ways than anything he has
of the country to make the acquaintance of many
experienced in his life. This does not necessarily
probation officers, hence comes my profound ad-
give him a liking for prison but it is not conducive to
miration for your service. It gives me great pleasure
helping him to bear more patiently with the difficul-
to attend your Conference to meet these acquaint-
ties that he has to encounter in ordinary life. You
ances and to see many of their colleagues.
I am
are fortunate that you have your charges longer at
also very glad that a representative of the older and
your disposal.
sister service, the Prison Service, should have been
You are also fortunate in this respect that you have
honoured by an invitation to address your Confer-
them in the circumstances in which they will have to
ence.
live and find their living. A prison is not by any
At the meeting of the National Probation Associa-
means an ideal place for accomplishing training.
tion of America in New York last March, a very
The atmosphere is artificial, the conditions are in a
violent attack was made on one of the historic
sense unreal.
They do not, and they cannot, corres-
prisons of America. It would, I think, be quite
pond with the actualities of everyday life. I have
impossible for this Conference to be chosen as the
often been amazed at the difference between a man
place in which to make an attack on any one of our
as he appeared in prison and the man as he appeared
prisons. There is no rivalry between the Probation
in freedom, and wondered whether in prison we ever
Service and the Prison Service ; on the contrary, we
see a man as he really is.
It is, unfortunately, only
desire to do everything in our power that can be
too true that the men who show up best in prison are
mutually helpful.
apt to show up badly outside.
Since its...
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