Breaking the Hegemony of the Prison an Analysis of The
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
BREAKING THE HEGEMONY OF THE PRISON AN ANALYSIS OF THE EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE DETENTION CENTRE SYSTEM by Jacqueline A. Dunn Ph.D. Thesis Centre for Criminological and Socio-Legal Studies, Faculty of Law The University of Sheffield 1985 Acknowledgments and grateful thanks go to : - the friends and colleagues too numerous to name, who have provided spiritual and intellectual support throughout the period in which this thesis was written; but particularly to Tony Bottoms, Tony Richardson, Barbara Holland, Jennie King, Duncan Kitchen and Mike Smith for their belief in both the writer and the research act; also to Vera Marsh who not only typed it with such impressive speed and accuracy, but also provided constant support and encouragement. SUMMARY: BREAKING THE HEGEMONY OF THE PRISON : AN ANALYSIS OF THE EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE DETENTION CENTRE SYSTEM Ph.D. Thesis: Jacqueline Dunn Faculty of Law The alversity of Sheffield SUMMARY The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretically viable and empirically detailed analysis of the emergence of the Detention Centre in the young offender sector of the English penal system. In doing so, it is intended to eradicate the hiatus created by either an absence of research, or by research which has been unable or unconcerned for epistemological reasons to address the Detention Centre's problematic emergence in English penal history - both in Its 'pre-legislative' stage, and in its period of development ,from a minority to a majority form of disposal, and through to its threatened demise in the mid-1970's. The central methodological concern of this study is to situate the analysis within the parameters of what has been termed the breaking of the hegemony of the prison for young offenders, and informed by a contingent and complementary analysis of the history of socio-political, economic and cultural developments throughout the period, from the late nineteenth century to the mid-1970's. Concomitant upon this has been an analysis of the manner in which the British state has struggled to maintain the balance between consent and coercion in the interests of a ruling class hegemony. The study falls into three main sections: the first section deals with the gradual emergence of the hegemony of the prison in theaate eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, situating within this the creation of a specifically young offender sector. The second section addresses itself to the history of the maintenance and development of this sector, and, within this, the struggle of the 'short-term movement' in the young offender disposal system. The final section offers an analysis of the emergence of the Detention Centre in its post-legislative stage, examining the history of its first two, contrasting, decades, and leading to the apparentcomise by the mid-1970's. Finally, it is necessary to take cogAisance of the importente of the recourse to an analysis at the concrete level of a large amount of empirical data available, much of it for the first time, through the auspices of the Public Records Office. These documents have played no small a part in the analysis with which the middle section of this study is concerned. CONTENTS: CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS SUMMARY CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION: ACCOUNTS, EXPLANATIONS and 1 METHODOLOGIES TWO N TEENTH CENTURY DISCIPLINE: the FORMATION 27 and EROSION of PRISON HEGEMONY in VIC ORIAN ENGLAND A. From Punish ent to Reform 28 B. Political Overview 35 (i) The Sta e in Victorian England; 35 (ii) The Ideology of Economic Liberalism: 36 An Everyday Social Philosophy; (iii) Victorian Social Reform, and the 38 Problem of the Poor; (iv) Victorian Concepts of Criminality and the Role of the Penal System: (a) Penal Welfare and Social Welfare- 40 (b) he Development of the 43 Degeneration Theory. The Creation of Childhood and the Erection 45 of the Category of Youth D. The Hegemony of the Prison and the Case of Youth (i) Victorian Evangelism and Youth: Keeping 48 Children Out; (ii) The Struggle for Probation; 52 (iii) The Gladstone R port: 56 (a) The Brief and T nor of the Committee; 58 (b) The Gladstone Report and Youthful 60 Offenders (c) The Administration of Gladstone. 62 E. Conclusion 69 THREE P NAL BREAKOUT- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SHORT-TERM 77 MOV M T A. Introduction 79 B. The Politics of the British State- Britain 79 Between the Wars C. Pen 1 BreakoutadNwInroadsito Prison 87 Hegemo y CHAPTER _pm (i) The Borstal System; 88 (ti) The Probation Sy:Mem and the 92 Juvenile Court System; (iii ) The Emergence of Psychology: ac'ademic 102 discipline, ideology and practice. D. The Struggle for Short-Term Detention (i) The Molony Report and the Rejection 106 of the Short-Term Detention Idea; (ii) Penal Breakthrough: the Emergenceto 112 Short-Term Detention for Young Offenders: (80 The Decline in Home Office Schools: 113 the Paradox; (b) The 1933 Children and Young Persons 118 Acts; (c) The Remand Home Syndrome; 121 (d) The Criminal Justice Bill: Task 127 Centres and Correction Centres; (iii) At the Crossroads: the Cabinet Home Affairs 132 Committee, and the Cadogan Report. E. Conclusion 139 FOUR PROPOSALS FOR THE FUTURE 149 A. The Politics of World War II s 1939-1945. 149 B. the Beveridge Report. 152 C. The 1945 General Election. 159 D. The Penal System Under War-Time Conditions s 160 An Overview. (i) Population Trends; 162 (iii Experiments. 165 E. The End of the War: Problems and Advances 166 F. Conclusion. 172 FIVE TO MAKE THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIMINAL g est. 1 176 A. Introduction 176 B. The Re-opening of the Bill 179 C. New Committees, Old Ideas 181 D. "Deterrent Short-Term Detention of 192 Offenders aged from 14-21". 192 E. Modifications of the Proposals in the 202 Criminal Justice Bill of 1938 F. Support for Detention Centres 207 CHAPTER Page 0. The Templewood_Amendment 208 H. The Debate in the Commons 216 I. The 1948 Criminal Justice Act 219 J. Conclusion 224 SIX THE SHORT, SHARP SHOCK 232 Preamble 232 A. The Construction and Collapse of Post-War 235 Hegemony: Economics, Social Structure and Culture (i) Failure and Collapse; 238 tii) Youth Culture; 239 B. Penal Practice in a Changing Society 246 (i) Introduction: the capital punishment 246 debate (ii)Law and Order; 249 U. The Short, Sharp Shock 259 (i)The Regime 261 (ii)Physical Training 264 (iii)Figures, Vacancies and Committal 265 (iv)The Advisory Council for the Treatment 275 of Offenders Report; and beyond D. Conclusion 279 SEVEN DISSENSUS, CONTAINMENT and COMMUNITY: THE PHOENIX DESTROYED? Introduction 286 A. The System Expands 289 (i)Numbers 289 (ii)Girls and Boys, Seniors and Juniors 291 (iii)Remission 295 (iv)Prisons and Borstals 295 (v)Offences and Offenders, the Punished 206 and Punishments (vi)Education and Work in Detention Centres 320 B. The Political Arena: the Crisis of Managed 326 Dissensus and the Emergence of the Law and Order State C. The Penal Arena: the Crisis of Containment 334 D. The Yong Deprived and the Young Depraved 338 CHAPTER Page E. The Notion of Community 346 (i)The 1969 Children and Young Persons Act 346 (ii)The 1970 Advisory Council on the , 350 Penal System Report (iii)Treatment and Training Ethics 357 F. The Final Break 360 (i)Introduction 360 (ii)The Younger Report 366 (iii)The Phoenix Destroyed? 372 EIGHT CONCLUSION 381 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Texts 387 2. Official Reports and Documents 393 3. Acts of Parliament 395 ONE: INTRODUCTION: ACCOUNTS, EXPLANATIONS and METHODOLOGIES CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION: ACCOUNTS, EXPLANATIONS AND METHODOLOGIES "The demand for punitive detention, of one kind or another, for young offenders, has featured in our Changing penal system for most of this century." "The treatment of young offenders since the middle of the last century has been based on the principle of keeping them out of prison and exposing them to more educational and remedial measures." 2 The establishment of Detention Centres was provided for by the 1948 Criminal Justice Act (9.18), following recommendations by the Advisory Council for the Treatment of Offenders. The Act provided for young offenders between the ages of 14 and 21 years to be allocated to a Detention Centre as one of the 3 forms of custodial sentence available for young offenders, the others being Borstal training (for 16 to 21 year olds in the 1948 Act, reduced to a minimum age of 15 years in the 1961 Criminal Justice Act) and supervision (17 years and over). Before being sentenced to a Detention Centre the offender must have been found guilty of an offence for which an adult could be imprisoned. The Act also specified that Detention Centres should not be used for boys or girls who had already served a period of imprisonment or Borstal training. The minimum period at the time of the Act was normally 3 months and the maximum 6 months. The period of remission was originally 1/6 of the sentence for both Junior and Senior Detention Centres. This has since been increased to 1/3; and more recently to Is for Junior Centres. The 1961 Criminal Justice Act provided for -2 INN statutory supervision on licence for a year (coming into effect from January 1964). Recall is possible, but in practice is rare, and the supervision is often discharged early. Detention Centres are run by the Prison Department, and there are at present 13 Senior Detention Centres and 7 Junior Detention Centres in operation, in 3 various parts of England and Wales. The only 'open' Detention Centre is a Senior one, at North Sea Camp, in Lincolnshire. Detention Centres are now for boys only. The one Detention Centre for girls, Moor Court, was closed in 1969, on the advice of the Advisory Council on the Penal System.