THE PRISON SYSTEM
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Six,—It is unfortunate that Mr. Herbert Twamley, in seeking to undermine my statement that the only serious attempts at penal reform in this century have been those of Russia and Italy, should quote the words of an Italian Professor written in 1925. The Italian reforms to which I refer came into being in 1931, with the publication of the " Regulations Governing Penal and Preventive Institutions."
That extensive reforms are being tried out in Wakefield Prison and the Freiston Borstal Camp in no way invalidates my statement. These are localised efforts to patch up a fundamentally rotten system, and in any case are countervailed by reactionary measures elsewhere. Chelmsford Prison, for instance, was re-opened in 1931 as a Convict Prison for young men. There educational facilities have been deliberately reduced to a minimum, the Silent System reinforced, and general disciplinary conditions made so harsh that I have known as many as one-third of the prisoners to be undergoing dietary punishment at one time. It was in that prison that I once saw a man punished for looking out of his cell window !
Again, prison conditions were generally worsened when, in the beginning of 1936, a new intensification of prison indus- tries came into effect. Each prisoner has now to work about twice as hard as before, but without any compensatory extension of privileges. Much of the unrest which last week manifested itself in the large Convict Prisons is due to this measure.
No, it cannot be said that England has made any really serious attempt at penal reform. But the time for such an attempt is more than ripe. As Mr. Twamley Says himself, " it is well to remember that the vast majority of those who go to prison are normal people who merely happen to have been found out." There is no longer any excuse for subjecting these people to arbitrarily abnormal conditions.Yoursfaithfully,
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