Challenging Discipline and Control: A Comparative Analysis of Prison Riots at Chatham (1861) and Dartmoor (1932)

Abstract

Criminologists have analysed the English criminal justice system of the post-war era, but the lack of work on this aspect of the twentieth century pre-1945 leaves an important gap in our knowledge (Emsley, 1996: 78; Emsley, 2005a: 117–38; Davies, 2007: 405). Historians, and indeed criminologists, neglect of the inter-war period is particularly evident. Certainly research into prison disturbances and penal policy, the focus of this chapter, remains largely the domain of criminologists studying post-war events. Taking two of the largest English prison riots of modern times, this paper challenges the notion that exceptional events in prison history tell us little about the every-day working of these institutions. As Sykes pointed out in his early sociological examination of prison life in 1950s America, power ‘unexercised is seldom as visible as power that is challenged’ (1958: 53). Thus exceptional events can exert pressure and test or expose mechanisms which underpin the everyday working of prisons. In addition, this chapter questions Adams’ idea that such complex phenomena as prison riots can be seen as ‘simple’ (1994: 41–2). Indeed Adams’ (1994: 7) own conclusion on prison riots that occurred before the 1950s does not match his observation that such riots are a ‘contested concept’ and a controversial field of debate.KeywordsCorporal PunishmentPrison SystemPenal SystemDaily MailPrison StaffThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.