REVIEWS
| Published date | 01 January 1961 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1961.tb00662.x |
| Date | 01 January 1961 |
REVIEWS
ANATOMY
OF
PRISON.
By
HUGH
J.
KLARE. [London
:
Hutchinson
&
Co.
(Publishers)
Ltd.
160
pp.
18s.
net.]
TIIIS
book is
a
popular account of the English prison system
as
it exists
today.
It
brings out the essentials of the situation; concentrating on those
aspects which have been most under discussion by recent students of penology
and have been passed upon in the continuous debates. on crime and prison
reform which are
so
much
a
feature of the present times. The author who
has for
a
substantial period been Secretary of the Howard League for Penal
Reform, is well qualified both by virtue of his official position and by his own
personal and practical studies of the problems under discussion to provide an
appreciation of the state of
our
prisons, which indeed he does in
a
clear and
informative nay.
By virtue of his position
Mr.
Klare is naturally in close touch with the
important research work which is now going on into many aspects of penology,
and is thus able to bring to the attention of his readers many of the latest
ideas and proposals in this exciting field of work. Moreover he has not been
content with
a
merely theoretical
or
administrative approach to these problems,
but has made personal contacts with many of those who have become involved
in the meshes of the criminal law whether as its victims
or
as
its adminis-
trators.
He
is thus able to bring to bear a practical understanding-nonethe-
less sympathetic-of the problems involved, and thus adds very much to the
life and reality of his book.
The volume falls into five parts. In the first,
“a
view of prison,” he
underlines the concept of prison which is conventionally held in society as
R
place of punishment and contamination, and shows how the historic prison,
a
place of evil and sordid life, essentially follows from this concept.
He
then
indicates that there is another concept of prison
as
a
place of reform and
even of education which has been gathering adherents.
He
will study the
“anatomy of prison
”
today in the light of the gradual displacement of the
first concept by the second.
The second
and
longest section
of
the book is concerned with the com-
munities who live in prisons. Indeed
Mr.
Klare’s approach to the problem
i8
very much coloured by the modern sociological concept of the group; as
is
underlined by his short bibliography, in which he lists only works which are
concerned with this aspect. Nevertheless for the purpose of his analysis of
the position of the prisoner he puts his reader into the shoes of
a
convicted
criminal being taken to
a
local prison in a Black Maria, and then follows out
his life for the period
of
an eighteen-month sentence. However, the group
aspect comes out in a shrewd appreciation of “inmate participation” which
has been attempted by some progressive governors in recent times. Some
prisoners are very cunning and there
are
always those who
are
ready and able
to
play
up
on
such
attempts, and mislead’ the authorities into thinking that
they are securing the backing of
“
prison public opinion,”
a
real force, though
difficult to enlist “constructively and fruitfully.” One might call this
a
typical Klare point. The most interesting part of this section however is.
Mr. Klare’s account of the administrative staff
of
the prisons. The modern
prison officer, old warder writ large, is a much changed individual and still
changing. The Norwich experiment embodies an attempt to enlist the
sympathetic co-operation of ’these officers in the work of reforming and
re-educating the prisoners. This is
a
constructive idea which has made an
instantaneous appeal to the enlightened public, but it is understandable that it
190
JAS.
1961
REVIEWS
191
is diffic~rlt “to sell” it to the older type of prison officer, and
Mr.
Klare
understandingly indicates how very much team work is necessary right down
from the Prison Commissioners through Governors, Assistant Governors,
Chief Officers to the men on the ground, if such experiments
are
to be
successful. The work of the prison ofticer is tedious, frustrating and not
without dmger. His position
has
received all too little attention, and
Mr.
Klare’s sympathetic description
of
it should do niucli
to
put it into
prolwr
perspective. One important point which he brings out is the quite unsatis-
factory scheme of promotion, which must act as
a
brake on incentive.
It
is
one of the
great
virtues of this book that an attempt is made, often it must be
admitted altogether too cursorily to have much value, to look
at
the work
which is done in the prisons from the point of view of each
of
the types of
administrator engaged in
it,
whether general
or
specialist.
The work of most, if not all, of the members of the prison staff
is
carriecl
on under conditions
of
considerable strain. An effective discipline
is
obviously essential-in
Slr.
Klare’s opinion this is normally altogether too
authoritarian and militaristic-and this must make it particularly difficult
to
establish the conditions for curative
work.
At the same time the more
cunning prisoners
are
always on the watch for weaknesses and mistakes-“
all
prisoners watch
all
the staff all the time ”-and
“
attempts are made to exploit
these.” Mereover in Mr. Klare’s view the relationship between the higher
officers and the rank and file is not altogether satisfactory in some of the
prisons. These matters
are
obviously of substantial importance and it is
valuable to have them brought into the field of discussion.
Part
111,
which is entitled
“
Individuals in Jail
”
is
really
just
a
continu-
ation of
Part
11.
It
contains further case. histories and it is here that Mr. Klare
discusses the position of the higher officers and the specialists. A good point is
made in relation to the Governor whose qualities of leadership are really
the linchpin of the udiole business when it is pointed out that in large modern
overcrowded jails he is inevitably forced into the role of an administrator,
so
that the essential personal touch is lost.
Of thew
discipline has already been mentioned. A corollary of this
is
of course thc
power complex which inevitably builds
up
among the staff, in the larger prisons
particularly. The converse of this is irresponsibility among the prisoners, which
is
exactly the opposite
of
what their re-education requires.
It
is not easy
to
see how this can be altogether avoided.
Mr.
Klare who is
a
strong advocate
of
small prisons thinks that in
a
small
community
a
rather more democratic
relationship would be attainable.
Some of the other problems which he discusses are common form in the
recent literature hut Mr. Klare‘s views on them
are
often refreshingly
individiral. On rewards and punishments in prison he has not much to say:
except that the much-debater1 question of whether flogging should be preserved
as
a
punishment for attacks on warders might solve itself in the small prison
which he advocates The prison officers themselves strongly support
it,
ant1
at
a
time whrn
it
is
so
important to enlist their active co-oprration in the
rehabilitation
of
prisoners it would be
a
pity to antagonise them by abolishing
a
form
of
punishment which they think essential. There is obviously an
inrompatihility between the dirty on the prison officer
of
harinp to
flop
:I
prisoner and having
to
carry out the programme of the Nonvich system and
this may in the end persuade the officers themselves that they
worrld
be better
without this form of punishment.
A
good deal of attention has recently bccn fociisrd on
the
provision
of
work
for prisoners, and the Home Secretnry
has
;il)pointetl
:L
coitirriitlrr
to
make recommendations
on
the subject.
llr.
Klarc argrics that
while
this
is
good we ought not to expect too nruclr
from
it. He
does
not think thiit
“forcing
a
man
to
work will bring about any positive changes
. .
.
in
his
In
Part
IV
Mr.
Klare discusses
a
number of
“
Prison Problems.”
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