The English Prison SystemRuggles-Brise, Evelyn, Sir
History
The English Prison System
Ruggles-Brise, Evelyn, Sir
Prisons -- Great Britain
In the Appendix will be found the special regulations for dealing with
each, and from their perusal it will be seen that the motive power
used is in the appeal to the sense of Honour. This appeal is conducted
primarily, and necessarily, through the natural instincts which desire
comfort and rewards in ordinary human beings. They are simple enough,
but in their simplicity is their value, because they teach the homely
lesson, which the older criminal may have forgotten, and the younger
not yet learnt, _viz_:--that by good behaviour and industry, and a
proved effort to profit by the encouragement they receive, they may
pass from a lower to a higher grade, with increasing privilege and
comfort, until in the ultimate stages they are placed entirely upon
their Honour, employed in positions of trust, free from supervision,
and even outside the walls of the establishment. In this way the
re-entry into free life is facilitated: semi-liberty precedes full
liberty, and by breaking the abruptness of the change, rehabilitation
or re-settlement under normal conditions of life is achieved.
Thus the lesson is slowly learnt that there is a reward for industry
and good conduct--not only in what can be gained in material comfort,
but that the delicate plant of self-respect, in many cases withered,
but not quite dead, can blossom again; and from self-respect follows
the respect of others, of those in authority; and after release, of
those with whom they associate in the outer world.
Those who have watched these two movements--at Borstal and Camp
Hill--have been struck by their boldness; but in their boldness has
been their great success. The Borstal and Camp Hill experiments exactly
illustrate the true meaning of 'prison reform,' _i.e._, the building
up of character on the basis of strict discipline, obedience, and
order, tempered by progressive stages of increasing trust, liberty,
and material improvement of status. When to these influences operating
inside, while the man or woman is still in custody, is added the
ever-watchful care of a highly organized system of help and protection,
on which all can rely on discharge, if ready and willing to respond to
advice given and help offered, 'Prison reform', in the sense of the
reform of the individual prisoner, is realized in its best and most
practical way. It is not Utopian: it is a fact which can be verified
by the records of the Borstal and Central Associations, which deal on
discharge with these two special categories. It is not achieved by
newspaper articles or angry denunciation of the existing system, or
by the formulation of abstract theories concerning prison treatment.
It is achieved by "personality," inside and outside the penal
institution--personality stimulated by a lofty conception of duty to
God and man. To deny these reforming influences in English Prisons is
to misrepresent wilfully, and in ignorance of the facts, the great and
good work that is being done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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