Prison Governor's Journal B. O'Friel. Port St Mary: Brendan O'Friel (2021) 256pp. £17.99pb ISBN 978‐152‐62‐0847‐7
| Published date | 01 June 2021 |
| Author | ELEANOR MARCH |
| Date | 01 June 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12422 |
The Howard Journal Vol60 No 2. June 2021 DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12422
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 273–279
Book Reviews
Prison Governor’s Journal B. O’Friel. Port St Mary: Brendan O’Friel (2021) 256pp.
£17.99pb ISBN 978-152-62-0847-7
The literary genre of prison writing receives limited attention from the general public
or from academia, yet written accounts of the carceral experience play an important
role in testifying to life behind prison walls. While a number of prisoners have writ-
ten about their imprisonment, books by prison staff are rarer, and some recent vol-
umes have been criticised for their voyeuristic depictions of prisoners and prison life.
Brendan O’Friel served as Governor of HMP Strangeways (now HMP Manchester) dur-
ing the most serious prison riot in UK history, yet he avoids sensationalising his ac-
count of his time in the prison service. Instead, his memoir, Prison Governor’s Journal,
offers a considered, measured and meticulous account of three decades working in the
English prison system, which will be of value to an academic audience and a wider
readership.
Prison Governor’s Journal is divided into three sections. Part One, ‘Early Years’, re-
lates O’Friel’s childhood on the Isle of Man, as well as providing a brief but illumi-
nating history of prisons on the island. The section goes on to describe the author’s
education, and his decision in 1963 to train as an assistant governor in the prison ser-
vice. This early section sets up some of the main influences that have shaped O’Friel’s
life and career, including his Manx and Irish background, his Catholic faith, and
his strong belief in public service, all of which are recurring themes throughout the
volume.
Part Two makes up the bulk of the memoir and covers the duration of O’Friel’s career
in the prison service. The section initially describes his training at the Prison Service Staff
College in Wakefield, before charting his career across seven establishments (Lowdham
Grange, Manchester,Onley, Preston, Birmingham, Featherstone, Manchester again, and
Risley), as well as at prison service headquarters and at the Midlands regional office. A
significant proportion of Part Two is understandably devoted to the Strangeways riot of
April 1990, with chapters recounting O’Friel’s initial years managing the prison, the days
leading up to the disturbances, the riot itself, the aftermath, and the Woolf Inquiry and
subsequent report into the disturbances (Woolf 1991). The section is broadly chronolog-
ical, detailing the author’s career progression, and describing key events, successes and
challenges in each role.
While the volume centres on O’Friel’s career, it also represents a valuable record of
the significant changes that took place in the prison system from the early 1960s to the
late 1990s. Over the course of the section, the author offers a first-hand account of sig-
nificant events in prison service history, such as security improvements following the
Mountbatten Report (Home Office 1966) and Radzinowicz Report (Advisory Council on
the Penal System 1968), the introduction of mixed staffing (male staff working in female
prisons, and female staff in male prisons), and the introduction in 1987 of the Fresh
Start programme to revise staff working practices. This chronological account is inter-
spersed with thematic chapters that discuss ongoing concerns for the prison service, such
273
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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