Abstract
In this very readable and informative history of British prisons, from the Norman conquest to the present day, David Wilson draws on his considerable criminological knowledge of the penal system. He tackles the subject with an insider’s sensitivity to the prison experience, having worked as a prison governor and as current vice-chair of the Howard League.
The opening chapter covers such iconic places of detention as the Tower of London and Newgate Gaol and offers a picaresque travelogue on the experiences of some of the more famous prisoners from inside the Tower. Newgate Gaol provides a fascinating aside into many of the pivotal events within London that have been associated with its history. The etching by Gustave Dore (who visited Newgate in 1872) subsequently inspired Van Gogh to produce one of the most iconic pictures of prisoners in jail. The early work of penal reformers such as Elizabeth Fry and John Howard brought the troubling spectacle of often grim prison conditions to a wider public at a time when the use of transportation was still preferred as a form of penal exile.
In Chapter 2 a lively excursion offers insights from contemporary sources into the birth of the penitentiary and features the engaging story of early 19th century prison building under the shadow of Bentham’s panopticon and the finding of the prisoners’ voices in memorable literary offerings such as Charles Dickens’ novels. Chapter 3 outlines the formative Prison Act of 1877 (when state responsibility for the direction and control of prisons became a reality) and the work of the formidably influential Edmund Du Cane, the first commissioner of prisons. Oscar Wilde’s experiences of prison, sentenced to two years’ hard labour in 1895 are vividly described, through his writings, but the reforms enshrined in the 1898 Prison Act, such as abolishing hard labour, allowing prisoners to speak, and remission for good behaviour, came too late for Wilde.
Chapter 4 provides a fascinating account of how one of the world’s longest sustained periods of decarceration in penal history took place in England and Wales between 1908 and the outbreak of the Second World War, a fact that surely invites further scrutiny and criminological exploration. However, at the same time the crime rate increased by a staggering 168 per cent! Even so, a widening scepticism about the merits of sending people to prison for short terms emerged and the Probation Act 1907 provided another credible penal option when responding to offenders. At this time, the developmental work of prison commissioners Dr Norwood East and Alexander Paterson, whose more enlightened approaches, encapsulated in the prison timeline as the ‘Patterson era’, imbued their work and strengthened the belief in prison as a place oriented more at promoting greater personal responsibility. Paterson coined the adage ‘men come to prison as a punishment, not for punishment’ (p. 97).
Chapter 5 brings readers to the 1960s and leavens its history with unvarnished auto-biographical writings of three prisoners whose perspectives on life inside provides a remarkable source of informed background history. Wilson has mined these and uses them deftly to capture the changing milieu of prison life which continues with more recognizable changes to order and control laid out in Chapter 6. The security classifications proposed by the Mountbatten Report in 1966 remain perhaps ‘the most important internal procedure that the prison service has’ (p. 129) and due attention is afforded to many of the riots and disturbances since that have marred the penal estate. There is a welcome segue into prison officers’ perspectives on coping inside, although −pas Wilson notes from the four accounts he cites − sa rather depressing vision of prison life is offered. This culminates in the riot at HMP Strangeways in 1990, a prison in which there is a strong canteen culture ‘of hard men doing a hard job’ (p.160).
The title of Chapter 7 is Politicians, the Public and Privatisation and covers the tumultuous period from 1992 to 2010. Readers are reminded of how the tragedy of the James Bulger case in 1993 provided a tipping point in the recent history of penal sensibilities with harsher regimes, increases in custodial sentencing and changes in the way crime and punishment was debated. The dramatis personae of politicians and policy makers eager to be heard as ‘tough on crime’ although well-known is still clearly and concisely presented here. In the concluding chapter, Endings and Beginnings, Wilson makes a plea for readers to try to re-engage the general public in the process of punishment and penal reform. He collates findings from the Scottish Prisons Commission, and New York City’s initiatives are referenced, from problem-solving courts through to justice reinvestment as ways of coalescing politicians from left and right to combat recidivism. With populist media’s incessant attention on signs of any weakening of ‘tough on crime’ approaches, Wilson notes that prisons have always been places of pain and retribution, but if we can at least learn some of the lessons of the past we might be able to deliver a future with less crime and less punishment.