Soldiering On? The Prison‐Military Complex and Ex‐Military Personnel as Prison Officers: Transition, Rehabilitation and Prison Reform
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12316 |
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
The Howard Journal Vol58 No 2. June 2019 DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12316
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 220–239
Soldiering On? The Prison-Military
Complex and Ex-Military Personnel
as Prison Officers: Transition,
Rehabilitation and Prison Reform
DOMINIQUE MORAN, JENNIFER TURNER
and HELEN ARNOLD
Dominique Moran is Professor in Carceral Geography, University of
Birmingham; Jennifer Turner is Lecturer in Human Geography, University of
Liverpool; Helen Arnold is Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of
Suffolk
Abstract: Arguing that criminology has thus far inadequately theorised militarism as
it relates to the prison system, this agenda-setting article introduces the ‘prison-military
complex’ as a means to initiate examination of militarism in relation to institutions and
practices of incarceration. In so doing, it identifies a key knowledge gap vis-`
a-vis the
role of ex-military personnel employed as prison staff; and poses key questions about
the ways in which military staff and military methods are being directly targeted as a
means to reform a prison service reeling from unprecedented levels of violence, self-
harm, riots, and escapes. Encouraging criminologists to think beyond stereotypical ideas
about the military, the article revolves around a multiscalar articulation of the prison-
military complex, discussed here as it relates to reform of the prison system as a whole; the
rehabilitation of offenders; and individuals’ ex-military transitions to civilian life.
Keywords: ex-military personnel; militarism; military-civilian transition; mili-
tary discipline; prison-military complex; prison reform
. .. there always used to be military contingency plans, because governments must
have contingency plans for all kinds of disasters . . . We have updated those contin-
gency plans, and the military are indeed involved, but I should make it clear that
no one is contemplating a military takeover of any prison . . . .1
According to this response by Ken Clarke (then UK Secretary of State
for Justice) to a question posed in parliament in 2011, the prison service
was, despite its failings, far from requiring a ‘military takeover’. A few
short years (and several Secretaries of State) later, two of his successors
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2019 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
The Howard Journal Vol58 No 2. June 2019
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 220–239
would lay the challenge of reforming a prison system, arguably more vi-
olent and dangerous than for a generation, firmly at the feet of military
and ex-military personnel. In 2016, Liz Truss declared intended military
recruits ideal for instilling ‘the virtues of discipline’2and two years later,
Prisons Minister Rory Stewart launched bespoke prison leadership train-
ing schemes, including a military-style ‘staff college’.3Although espousing
different benefits of military involvement in the prison service, these three
examples are founded on an implicit assumption that prisons and the
military are ordinarily distinct from one another.
This article takes the opposite view, proposing the term ‘prison-military
complex’ to describe the deep-rooted, long-standing, widespread, and di-
verse connections between prisons and the military, including the promi-
nent role of ex-military figures in prison reform.
As a former army infantry officer, Rory Stewart follows reformers
Alexander Paterson (1884–1947) and Edmund du Cane (1830–1903) be-
fore him. A Captain in World War I, Paterson was Commissioner of Prisons
and Director of Convict Prisons, 1922–46. His famous statement that ‘men
are sent to prison as a punishment, not for punishment’, infused the Crim-
inal Justice Act 1948, which abolished whipping, penal servitude and hard
labour. Responsible for reforming the Borstal system and discipline in
adult prisons (Ruck 1951), he oversaw prison officer training and promo-
tion schemes, and established the Imperial Training School at Wakefield.
Du Cane, former Major General of the Royal Engineers, was Director of
Convict Prisons, and Inspector of Military Prisons through the Prison Act
of 1865, and the abolition of penal transportation in 1867. He reformed
county and borough prisons, transferring them to central government
control, via the Prison Act 1877.
It may be the case that most statutory justice systems are militaristic
in origin – their characteristics shaped by the influence of such key
individuals. But, between national contingency planning and personal
histories, there is a complex web of connections linking prisons and
the military that is both under-researched, and whose significance, we
argue, is underestimated. Despite excellent scholarship of the relationship
between the military and crime (for example, Emsley 2013; Treadwell
2016), little systematic consideration has been given to the many points
of interpenetration between the military and the prison, such that there
exists neither a comprehensive exegesis nor an overarching theorisation
of this complex relationship and, accordingly, key aspects remain critically
under-researched.
This article addresses these lacunae, first, by proposing and explaining
the ‘prison-military complex’ which we intend as a means of structuring
discussion of the nature of militarism and its relationship to the prison
system. Next, to demonstrate the utility of the prison-military complex
in defining new lines of empirical enquiry, it uses this framing to focus on
one example – the experience of ex-military personnel employed within
the prison system.
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2019 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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