The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society Norval Morris and David J Rothman (Eds) Oxford University Press, 1996; pp 489; £25 pbk
| Author | Rob Canton |
| Published date | 01 September 1996 |
| Date | 01 September 1996 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/026455059604300311 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
purposeful or meaningful contact.
the relentless, slow-moving routine, the
Ironically, it is left to Jane, a woman he
dull repetitiveness, the tension mixed
accidentally meets outside the airport in
with occasional flashes of fear and rage
Jamaica, to advise, assist and befriend him
the
...
stupidity of living this way.’
- a task which
is no longer the duty of his
And throughout this volume there is plenty
official minders who are presumably
of evidence that prison is usually
constantly in court with breach
experienced as cruel and futile. Sometimes
proceedings.
administrators have meant prisons to be
Ultimately, however, it is fear and
like this, so that they can punish or deter.
loathing in Walthamstowe that carries the
But several essays here record different
day, and, in my opinion, the unnecessarily
and sincere aspirations - austere regulation
outrageous plot serves to blunt both the
to induce repentance; ’progressive’ regimes
poetry and the politics. Nevertheless, one
to enable prisoners to advance through
senses that Jeremy has found great
their own endeavours; wholesome regimes
freedom and satisfaction in expressing his
to give opportunities and stimulus to the
views and his values through his fiction -
wayward; treatments to cure the sick -
perhaps more freedom and satisfaction than
which, with depressing inevitability,
his employment as a probation officer will
nevertheless culminate in cruelty and
allow.
pointlessness.
Craig Steeland
A
history of prison must also be a
Family Court Welfare Officer, Chester
history of the way in which theorists,
politicians and administrators have tried to
justify and account for the institution. One
of the clearest messages from this history
is that the relationship between aspirational
policies and the lived reality of
imprisonment is never straightforward and
is usually full of ironic and unintended
consequences. Sometimes, one suspects,
the consequences were all too precisely
both foreseen and intended and the
published justifications merely cynical. But
more
usually...
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