The Prison System and Its Effects: Wherefrom, Whereto, and Why?

Front Cover
Nova Publishers, 2008 - History - 241 pages
This book traces the fascinating development of the New Zealand Prison System which includes the history of penology prior to the phenomenon coming there. But this book is not only a history: it is also an exploration of more complex managerial and social issues concerning crime and its treatment, including the interweaving of different penal policies that have brought the situation to where it is today. As such, it raises psychological issues of isolation in all shades of confinement, captivity, and deprivation that will appeal to everyone who is trying to grapple with the administrative, clinical, and legal problems they create. The work also traces the origins of imprisonment as a strategy used by rulers and ruling classes to retain their power, and more recently by duly elected governments to maintain social control and good order in their communities.

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Contents

Introduction
xiii
Consensus of Informed Opinion about the need for Change
51
Prison Overcrowding
67
Conceptualizing the Prison as a Social System
77
Assessing the General Effects of LongTerm Imprisonment
101
Adverse Reactions to Imprisonment
109
The Management of Captives
119
The Development of Prisons in New Zealand
127
Overview and Conclusions
177
Postscript
181
Precis of the Conclusions and Recommendations of the Wickersham Commission The US I93I National Commission on Law Observance And Enfor...
183
Extract from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 20022004 cPtlnfE 2002 1...
185
References
187
About the Author
215
Index
217
Copyright

Recent Official Inquiries into the Prison System in New Zealand
169

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Page 47 - The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilization of any country.
Page 2 - Enlarged winds, that curl the flood, Know no such liberty. Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; Minds innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage; If I have freedom in my love And in my soul am free, Angels alone, that soar above, Enjoy such liberty.
Page 25 - Make a merry masquerade. We tore the tarry rope to shreds With blunt and bleeding nails; We rubbed the doors, and scrubbed the floors, And cleaned the shining rails: And, rank by rank, we soaped the plank, And clattered with the pails. We...
Page 9 - Over the head and face of every prisoner who comes into this melancholy house, a black hood is drawn; and in this dark shroud, an emblem of the curtain dropped between him and the living world , he is led to the cell from which he never again comes forth, until his whole term of imprisonment has expired.
Page 24 - We think that the system should be made more elastic, more capable of being adopted to the special cases of individual prisoners; that prison discipline and treatment should be more effectually designed to maintain, stimulate or awaken the higher susceptibilities of prisoners, to develop their moral instincts, to train them in orderly and industrial habits, and, whenever possible to turn them out of prison better men and women, both physically and morally, than when they came in.
Page 9 - In its intention I am well convinced that it is kind, humane, and meant for reformation ; but I am persuaded that those who devised this system of Prison Discipline, and those benevolent gentlemen who carry it into execution, do not know what it is that they are doing. I believe that very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and agony which this dreadful punishment, prolonged for...
Page 25 - I know not whether Laws be right, Or whether Laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol Is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, A year whose days are long.
Page 25 - Alas! it is a fearful thing To feel another's guilt! For, right within, the sword of sin Pierced to its poisoned hilt, And as molten lead were the tears we shed For the blood we had not spilt.
Page 47 - ... those who have paid their due in the hard coinage of punishment; tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerative processes; unfailing faith that there is a treasure, if you can only find it, in the heart of every man. These are the symbols, which, in the treatment of crime and criminals, mark and measure the stored-up strength of a nation, and are sign and proof of the living virtue in it.
Page 26 - The vilest deeds like poison weeds Bloom well in prison-air: It is only what is good in Man That wastes and withers there: Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate, And the Warder is Despair.

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