Abstract
Tessa West, The Curious Mr. Howard: Legendary Prison Reformer, Waterside Press: Hook, Hampshire, 2011; 378 pp. (including index): 9781904380733, £29.95
Many criminologists will be aware of the Howard League for Penal Reform, the high-profile charity that works to reform aspects of the criminal justice system, but probably will know less about John Howard himself. Howard′s reputation rests squarely on his philanthropy and his efforts as a prison reformer, yet there is much about his character and how it impacted his work that is unknown. Tessa West’s extensively researched account describes not only Howard’s world renowned penal legacy, but also delves into his private life and shines a spotlight on his somewhat complex and ‘curious’ character. Born in 1726, Howard received such a sizeable inheritance from his father that he would never be required to work. Yet as West uncovers, his ‘relentless self-imposed programme of travelling, visiting prisons, thinking, making notes, writing reports and publishing his findings’ became a lifelong project that continued until his death (p. 135).
Howard’s first wife, the widow Sarah Lardeau who was 30 years his senior, died just three years into their marriage in 1755. His second wife Henrietta Leeds passed away shortly after the birth of their son John in 1765. West argues that his lack of a stable marital home had an undoubted effect on Howard, whose uniform attachment to his faith seemed more important than to that of his son. Howard became Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1773, and following a dutiful visit to the local Assizes he made a call to Bedford Gaol. Shocked at the absurd system that served to prolong the imprisonment of debtors (by having to pay a fee to both gaoler and turnkey for release), Howard believed that if gaolers were paid a salary, they would no longer have to rely on prisoners for their income. As a self-appointed inspector of prisons Howard would knock on the door of penal establishments, observe, listen and make copious records of events and conditions behind the prison walls. In 1777 he published his findings of over 200 visits in The State of the Prisons in England and Wales, with Preliminary Observations, and an Account of some Foreign Prisons and Hospitals with the clear intention of convincing people for the need to improve conditions (p. xxv).
Howard was not an abolitionist, and wrote that ‘to reform prisoners, or make them better as to their morals, should always be the leading view in every house of correction’ (p. 147). However the lack of any central organization in the penal system meant that his advocated progress could occur only in a piecemeal fashion (p. 342). Nearly 40 years after his first prison visit, a crucial step was taken in 1815, when gaolers began to receive salaries. The Gaol Act of 1823 made a real attempt to standardize conditions nationally, and in 1835 The Prisons Act provided for the appointment of five inspectors of prisons. In 1877 another Statute was passed to ensure that prisons met the standards which had been laid down (p. 343). As West argues, the roots of Her Majesty’s Prison Service Statement of Purpose are firmly established in Howardian principles, and HM Inspectorate of Prisons continues to play a vital role in monitoring and maintaining standards, just as Howard hoped such a body would (p. 345).
This is not the only biography of John Howard, but West advances our understanding of Howard by closely examining his personal identity, albeit with some difficulty as she explains. Howard has been described variously as selfless, blessed, eccentric, dedicated, devout, driven, humane, generous, wise, odd, indefatigable, principled, fearless, patient, dutiful, independent, paternal and authoritarian (p. xxvii). West found Howard to be a great many of these things. Howard clearly suffered with depression, and wrote in his journals about his extreme pain and guilt. In attempting to explain his complex character, West discusses a possible link with Asperger’s syndrome, a condition suggested by psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Philip Lucas in 2001. Despite or perhaps because of her detailed investigations, West’s analysis raises more questions than it answers. However what is clear is that John Howard, driven partly by personal distress, but also duty, carried his ‘torch of philanthropy’ across the country, and then parts of Europe, with conviction to improve prison conditions. In her conclusion West considers what Howard would think if he visited a British prison today. Would he question prison numbers and why so many children are locked up, why prisoners are not put to productive work, and why so many mentally ill people are imprisoned? As highlighted in the foreword, this book provides a timely reminder that we need figures like John Howard as much or even more today (p. xvi).