Recent Book: Managing Police Work
| Author | Keith E. Hunter |
| Published date | 01 October 1982 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8205500424 |
| Date | 01 October 1982 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
routine and accommodation, which isfor
20I, had on average to accommodate 394
men and at peak had 438 within itswalls.
Is it surprising that the Director-
General of Prisons, Mr. Dennis
Trevelyan, in his annualreport, describes
the overcrowded conditions in the
nation's prisons as "an affront to a
civilized society"? During recent years
the extent of public debate on prisons has
increased even if the level could have
been higher. An inseparable part of this
debate is the considerable imbalance
which exists between the demands made
on prisons and the resources allocated
and that this can only be sustained in
human terms - both of prison officers
and prisoners.
A new contribution to the debate is
made by Mr. W. H. Pearce, formerly
Chief Probation Officer of the Inner
London Probation and After-Care
Service for a decade, who became the
first of Her Majesty's Chief Inspectors of
Prisons. His annual report focuses
attention on the three major problems
facing the prison service: the degrading
conditions which overcrowding imposes
upon many prisoners, the need for
constructive activity to occupy inmates's
time, and the extensive maintenance to
keep ageing prisons in use.
Mr. William Whitelaw outlines the
government's policy to correct the
mismatch
between
demands
and
resources bylisting the elements: first, to
make better use of existing resources
through greater efficiency; secondly, to
increase
the
resources
available,
including a substantial programme of
prison building, and, thirdly, to seek a
reduction in the prison population by
encouraging shorter sentences. Such
policies, though praiseworthy and
necessary,
regretfully
raise
little
enthusiasm and produce few votes.
N. Lakin
JACK
R.
GREENE
(Ed,): Managing Police Work
London: Sage Publications. £10 (hardback); £4.95 (paperback)
This is a collection of seven essays
appearingas the fourth volume ofa series
entitled "Perspectives in Criminal
Justice," typifying, and drawing heavily
upon, the large, peculiarly American
corpus of research and text material on
policing and police. organization and
management. This near monopoly of
academic interest, remarkably evident
from its preponderance in the relevant
shelves of the Police Staff College
library, cannot wholly be explained by
the glib contention that the "Brits" have
always taken for granted what it has
taken their transatlantic cousins some
years to find out, about the realities of
crime and police in "a free society.
Whatever the germ of truth in such
sentiments, they overlook the excellence
of the contributions to the field by such
better writers and scholars as James Q.
Wilson, Herman Goldstein, Albert Reiss
and Jerome Skolnick, some of which
have become suddenly and uncannily
pertinent to our own post-Scarman
debates. Wilson's own essay, "The
Future Policeman" in "Issues in Police.
Patrol"
published
in
1973
collaboratively by the Washington
Police Foundation and the Kansas City
Police Department, isa briefbut brilliant
October 1982
piece of critical analysis which should be
required reading- for all senior officers
and politicians with an interest in police
matters.
None ofthe essaysin Managing Police
Work aspires to such heights, but two or
three reflect a healthily sceptical and
critical turn of events in the development
of the "police science" growth industry in
America. Areas covered include the role
and "crime effectiveness" of the police,
police planning, "professionalism" and
its effects upon accountability (the most
erudite and readable), internal human
resource management, leadership(rather
old hat) and communication. The
headier, naively enthusiastic, computer-
dominated
and
over-rationalistic
approach of the 1960'sand '70's is over
and for the editor, "The 1980s portend a
more "conservative" era for public law
enforcement."
Mary Ann Wycoff of the Police
Foundation attacks the conceptual-
izationand methodology of past research
into police effectiveness in controlling
and containing crime. Whilst not yet in
the ranks of those pessimists and
criminologists who contend that the
police can do little to prevent crime, she
casts doubt upon the conclusion of past
395
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