The Abolitionist No 23 (1987)
Introduction / Commentary by John Moore
Despite The Abolitionist number 23, published in December 1987, declaring that ‘we are confident that this one will not, as we feared at one time, be the last’, sadly it was.
It also appears to mark the end of RAP, its archive at Warwick university holds no later records. ‘RAPS chronic lack of both financial and human resources’, reported in the editorial, had taken its toll.
The theme of the edition was Child Abuse with three articles on this theme. The first is a round table discussion on child sexual abuse with contributions from feminists, Liz Woodcraft, Margaret Boushell, Mary McCleod, Esther Sarawak and Joa Luke. The second article, by Tom Woodhouse, responds to the then current concerns over child sexual abuse in Cleveland whilst the third article by Geoff Coggan explores the experience of sex-offenders in prison.
Other articles in this final edition are by Denis Jones, critically evaluating the prospect of privatisation, and Tony Ward exploring the role the voluntary sector could play in privatisation of probation and community services. Joe Sim writes about prisoner protest and resistance in Scottish jails drawing on the findings of the Gateway Exchange’s independent inquiry which recommended the closure of Peterhead prison. In the final article Steven Shaw looks at the Home Office’s decision not to implement the Prior Report’s (see no. 21) recommended independent adjudication system in prisons. The edition ends with two book reviews.
The Inquest bulletin including reports of inquests into the deaths of Roseann McGee and Anthony Mahoney. Both exposed serious failings by the police and in the case of Anthony, Brixton prison. The bulletin also included a report on the 1987 Inquest AGM and a review of Phil Scranton and Kathryn Cadwick’s In the Arms of the Law: Coroner’s Inquests and Deaths in Custody by Tony Ward.
The Women in Prison (WIP) section the news update included work WIP was doing with the Terence Higgins Trust concerning prisoners with AIDS. Helen Moore provided updates on three women’s deaths in prison. A number of women prisoners contributed their reaction to the introduction of male guards into women’s prisons. The myths of both the criminal woman and the criminal man are challenged in an article by Melissa Benn and Chris Tchaikovsky. The section ends with two book reviews.
The PROP prison briefing also addresses the issue of private prisons and the potential of private sector ‘alternatives’. In particular it warns against opposition to private prisons that legitimises public prisons as well as reformers suggestions that private providers’ electronic tags can reduce prison populations. The article ends with the advice: ‘Beware the reformers!’ In an article on ongoing campaigns to allow British prisoners serving sentences in other countries to be transferred to British jails PROP argues that this same principal should apply to Irish prisoners in British mainland prisons. The bulletin concludes with a (justifiably) brutal review of Vivien Stern’s Bricks of Shame.