Showing papers by "Jordan University of Science and Technology published in 1977"

Thomas Mott Osborne And The Limits Of Democratic Prison Reform

Abstract: at Irvine, Irvine, California 92717. Joseph Hickey is Director, Just Community Research Center, Connecticut Correctional Institution at Niantic. Introduction: The Paradoxes of Democratic Prison Reform The papers in this special issue of The Prison Journal were written on the theme of democracy and imprisonment: Is it possible to meaningfully share the power with prisoners? Is democracy a plausible avenue of correctional reform? What are the constraints against democratic participation behind prison walls? Revealingly, each of the contributors emerges with a paradoxical response to the queries posed above. Yes, democracy in prison represents an educational, political and social good. However, any effort to broaden the base of political power within the prison faces almost overwhelming obstacles. This paper seeks to introduce some of the issues central to the problem of democratic prison reform, in terms of both its promise as well as its contradictions. We will look at some of the educational, political, moral and legal rationales for democratizing the prison. As an illustration we look at the case of Thomas Mott Osborne’a &dquo;Mutual Welfare League&dquo; experiment focusing both on its obvious accomplishments, as well as the social and political processes which led to its early demise. We will offer that prison democracy, given the contemporary realities of the prison, reflects an almost hopeless enterprise. Unless, there is a massive reordering of both the prison