The Abolitionist No 9 (1981)

By John Moore

Abolitionist Number 9 was a special issue focusing on the potential of radical probation work. It featured a number of articles written by NAPO Members Action Group (NMAG). NAPO - the National Association of Probation Officers - was (and still is) the trade union for probation workers. NMAG, formed in 1972 as a socialist pressure group within NAPO, its members provided critical insider perspective on a range of current issues. Given how probation has developed in the 40 years since this edition was published, into an explicitly punitive enterprise, this section provides a valuable insight into an alternative road that could have been travelled.

Other articles in this edition include a review of prison and probation ‘treatments’ for sex offenders produced by RAP Sex Offences Working Group and a contribution from Alan Phipps calling for abolitionists to give far greater focus to victims. There is a shocking account by a doctor in Chicago of how Cook County jail is working with a corporation to harvest prisoners’ blood. The author highlights how this is unethical, damaging to prisoners' health and potentially damaging to recipients of the donated plasma. Although the risk to recipients he identifies is in respect of Hepatitis, unknown to him it was likely that some of the blood was taken from men who were HIV+. As much of the blood was exported it could have contributed to the NHS contaminated blood scandal.

The edition concludes with a series of book reviews, including one of Jack Henry’s In the Belly of the Beast, some Abolitionist Law reports and some updates on reports and changes to penal policy.