Prisons of the World, by Andrew Coyle

Author: Andrew Coyle. Review by Tim Newell

This is a remarkable tour de force by Andrew Coyle, an enlightened, experienced governor of prisons, and professor of prison studies.

The use of prisons to respond to underlying social, economic and political issues is explored, with rigorous exposure of the moral implications for that development. Coyle discredits the belief that, by locking up offenders, we are reforming them, and in asserting that prisons can damage people he calls for a second look.

This book will inform and support Friends concerned about criminal justice. The ministry of Quakers in prisons and in justice matters is impressive, and has touched many lives for good. But the relentless growth of prisons in our country contrasts with many other European jurisdictions, which are seeking to reduce the use of custody and altering the custodial experience in dramatically creative ways. One continues to wonder at the political will to use limited resources in this wasteful way, given the damage it does to those detained and to the health of their families and communities.

Coyle gives frightening examples of prisons whose regimes have deteriorated so much as to have lost their ‘moral compass’. Added to this is the impact of regulations that treat people callously, and with no respect. The balance between a considerate regime and a cruel one can swing easily without informed leadership, or with the pressure of overcrowding. The political messages prevalent from media and legislation can also worsen the situation. This is a matter of concern to many informed practitioners, while our system continues to emphasise longer sentencing as a way of resolving current hot issues.

The book concludes with positive pointers for the future. Coyle shows how there might be a better distribution of resources between criminal justice and social justice by an application of the principles of justice reinvestment. Unhappily, there is no discussion at this time about the potential of such community-based resources, certainly in Britain, where we have been subject to damaging structural changes for decades. This is surely a matter that we need to address in order to support the healthy communities through which we learn to live together with respect for the potential within each person.

One former minister of the interior in Uganda is quoted in a way that will resonate with recent debates among Friends: ‘One day in the distant future, people will probably look back on what happens in most countries today and will wonder how we could do that to our fellow human beings in the name of justice’.

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