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14 How. J. Penology & Crime Prevention 3 (1974-1975)

handle is hein.journals/hjcj14 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL We learn from history that men never learn from history. Recent history in the Netherlands, California and elsewhere shows how the institutional population can be reduced, and now Gunnar Marnell describes how, in Sweden, a treatment-orientated r6gime yielded to demands for maximum security institutions, after which there was a crisis, forcing the authorities to pay more attention to the prisoners' point of view. Since the strikes the paths of the English and Swedish prison ad- ministrations have, so far, diverged. Here, partly perhaps because the prisoners were not so well led, the reaction was mainly repressive. In Sweden the authorities talked to prisoners' representatives, and agreed on sensible moderate reforms such as more home leaves and the virtual abolition of censorship. The difference seems to be that the Swedes accept that prisoners are citizens who have broken the law: punishment consists in loss of liberty, but should not remove other rights of self-determination unless inherently necessary. Here, prisoners are still treated as non-citizens, members of what the Victorians called the dangerous classes. Yet the Swedish way is not necessarily the best. Firstly, bargaining under threat of sanctions emphasises the division between the two sides; although Marnell describes it as a practical means of problem-solving, almost therapy, there is much to be said for the less formalized, more personal approach of a prison like Grendon, where instead of confronta- tion staff and inmates try to work together. But if the authorities refuse to move any faster towards the latter, the prisoners may be pushed into organizing collectively. Secondly, it seems to stress the improvement of prisons rather than their replacement. But the Swedish prison population is falling rapidly, and it may be argued that by showing that many prisoners can behave responsibly when allowed to go out into the community, one can prompt the question whether they have to be removed from the community in the first place. Although the Swedish system is far from ideal it does show that the more repressive features of imprisonment can be removed without causing the catastrophe which some people fear as a result of softness. The following reforms, suggested by experience in Sweden, should be intro- duced here without delay: 1. Cancellation of the building of maximum security prisons, except possibly for replacements of antiquated buildings (and transfer of funds to alternative forms of treatment). 3

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