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16 How. J. Penology & Crime Prevention iii (1977-1978)

handle is hein.journals/hjcj16 and id is 1 raw text is: Editorial 1777 to 1977 This issue of the Journal has a specially historical flavour, and rightly so. For it was just two hundred years ago that John Howard, the man from whom the League and this Journal derive their title, published his monumen- tal and momentous first edition of The State of the Prisons in England and Wales. The League has convened an International Conference at Canterbury from June 27-30 1977 to celebrate the Bicentenary, and we trust that this will be a great and deserved success. In the meantime we are glad to mark the occasion by publishing an article which makes a fresh assessment of John Howard's work and importance, and also by including book reviews concern- ing the work of Howard and of his lesser-known disciple, Sir George Onesi- phorus Paul of Gloucestershire. But we cannot and should not dwell solely in the past. There are many urgent difficulties in the penal systems of the present day, as we are remin- ded in other articles in this issue-the problems, for example of the sentencing tariff, of adequately compensating victims, of policy for vagrancy, of how one actually achieves penal reform in a given political-context. On April 5th 1977, the exact bicentenary date of publication of The State of the Prisons, the Howard League expressed both its awareness of the past and its urgent concern for the present. Following in Howard's own footsteps, it lobbied the House of Commons, pointing out that 'our prisons are in crisis . . . their population has exceeded 42,000 and their disciplinary procedures urgently need reform to safeguard both inmates and staff'. No better use of this editorial column could be made than by reproducing the Howard League's briefing on that occasion. We do so not just as a matter of historical record, but as an expression of our great concern at the State of the Prisons in 1977. WHAT'S WRONG WHAT SHOULD BE DONE 1) Physical conditions and over- crowding a) Nearly 42,000 prisoners are kept We press for a substantial reduction in 36,000 places in England & in the length of most prison senten- Wales with some prisons over- ces and the transfer of resources to crowded by nearly 100%. community sanctions. b) Living conditions are appalling Enable more time to be spent out in many older prisons. Sanita- of cells; ageing Victorian prisons to tion in most older prison cells be renovated and eventually recon- consists of a pot or bucket. structed. iii

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