Recent Book: Legal Rights of Prisoners
| Author | P. W. Carey |
| Published date | 01 April 1980 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8005300231 |
| Date | 01 April 1980 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
Cantonese language and a piece
about
rabies add an interesting dimension to
Mr. Andrew's book. The most striking
feature of this book is the remarkable
clarity with which the
author
recalls
events of 50 years ago. The reader is able
to get a taste of lifestyles in Hong Kong
during the early part of this century. This
is a volume which will be of great interest
to anyone who has experience of this
fascinating, oriental, colony. To the
outsider, it will be an entertaining small
book. M.W.
THE BOSS
WILLIAM
MUNCIE:
The Crime Pond
Chambers. £5.95.
..Fish say. they have their stream and
pond; But is there anything beyond"?
Not an original quote, but it summed
up my feelings on receiving yet another
book by an ex Police Officer - thank
goodness he was an Assistant Chief
Constable and not the usual Detective
Chief Superintendent. But do dustmen
or roadsweepers
throwaway
their bins
and brooms and delve into the rubbish to
find a partly used biro, using this to set
out their lifes activities on crumpled
paper for consumption by a crime - sex
- and violence obsessed public?
It was this built in resistance to the
book
that
I
grad
ually
became
completely engrossed with the life and
times of this quiet, perspicacious
dedicated copper who I was pleased to
see used the prefix "weftas opposed to the
usual")". "All weresolved thanks largely
to my having a team of dedicated
detectives whose loyalty, patience,
determination and at times humour,
lightened the grim task". A Policeman
will clearly understand the feeling behind
that quote, but will the public? Despite
many films, books and T.V. series on
most aspects of Police work, the
overwhelming majority of law abiding
citizens have scant comprehension of
what Policing is about.
William Muncie's comparison of Pond
Life with certain sections of the anti
social element of the society is most apt
and in places beautifully introduces the
Chapter to good effect.
It is all these - minor crime - serious
crime - murders, including the famous
or infamous Peter Manuel.
In 2080, somewhere in Scotland an old
Police Station will be demolished to
make room for a micro-chip controlled
Robot enquiry section, but hopefully
someone will find this book in an office
which in turn will reactivate the old
fashioned idea that humans and their
behaviour
patterns
will
only
be
understood and solved by thoughtful,
dedicated, caring human beings like
William Muncie - who assesses "Luck"
as a percentage component of a
successful investigation. May your pond
only be rippled by a light breeze! X.D.
GEOFFREY
P.
ALBERT:
Legal Rights
of
Prisoners
Lexington Books. £11.50.
Over two-thirds of this book is devoted
to a detailed description of prisoners'
formal legal rights as interpreted by the
U.S. federal judiciary. Whilst very
valuable to the American practitioner
this part of the volume is unlikely to
detain the British reader for long.
Of more general interest is the
description and evaluation of the legal
aid schemes for prisoners (not to be
confused with legal aid at trial) which
operate in Washington and Texas. A
number of such schemes, designed to
provide a variety of legal services and
Police Journal
April
1980
therefore alleviate directly or indirectly
some of the hardships of imprisonment,
have been established throughout the
U.S. and the
author
considers the most
effective organizational pattern and the
impact of this type of assistance.
As well as problems directly related to
their incarceration many prisoners
require legal help with various civil
matters particularly family problems.
The
author
argues that, on the basis of
the evidence of his studies, effective
legal support and counselling directly
improves the attitudes of prisoners
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