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Chapter 10 - The ‘Paterson Era’: 1922–1939
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2022
Summary
The object of modern changes in prison treatment has been to remove or modify the features which conduced to deterioration of mind or character and to make imprisonment, so far as possible, a period of training. This aim is not inconsistent with the deterrent function of imprisonment. In addition to deterrence resulting from loss of liberty, training – if the system is efficient – is a deterrent experience. It should demand from the prisoner a higher standard of effort in work and behaviour and self-discipline than is demanded by a purely punitive system.
Report of the Departmental Committee on Persistent OffendersTo some no doubt progress has seemed inordinately slow; others have expressed fears that it was too rapid and, that in pursuit of new ideals, discipline – the necessary basis of prison treatment – has been lost sight of. Such a view is not shared by Visiting Justices, experienced prison officers and others well acquainted with the facts. Discipline continues to be maintained in HM Prisons – of a different kind from that of the past, but not less effective on that account.
Report of the Prison Commissioners, 1934The words in both the above reports could have been written by Alexander Paterson, and perhaps were – he had given evidence before the departmental committee, and co-authored the Commissioners’ reports. He at least inspired them, since they encapsulated his philosophy.
Its origins lay in the fact that Alec was part of the liberal, middle-class Christian activism, so strong in the inter-war years, that believed in close personal ties between the classes and not in class war, and wanted to reshape society but not destroy it. This was reformation, not revolution. It was an alternative and antidote to the fashionable totalitarianisms of Fascism or Communism, or even to ‘systematic socialism’. Those from privileged backgrounds had a duty to get to know, understand, assist, encourage and rescue the less fortunate, and especially the young from a life of grinding poverty and crime. Thus, in his chosen arena of penal reform, he embodied a more imaginative and constructive approach to the treatment of all offenders than had hitherto been countenanced.
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- Alexander Paterson, Prison Reformer , pp. 195 - 216Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022