Full Description
Disruptive Prisoners reconstitutes the history of Canada's federal prison system in the mid-twentieth century through a process of collective biography - one involving prisoners, administrators, prison reformers, and politicians. This social history relies on extensive archival research and access to government documents, but more importantly, uses the penal press materials created by prisoners themselves and an interview with one of the founding penal press editors to provide a unique and unprecedented analysis.
Disruptive Prisoners is grounded in the lived experiences of men who were incarcerated in federal penitentiaries in Canada and argues that they were not merely passive recipients of intervention. Evidence indicates that prisoners were active agents of change who advocated for and resisted the initiatives that were part of Canada's "New Deal in Corrections." While prisoners are silent in other criminological and historical texts, here they are central figures: the juxtaposition of their voices with the official administrative, parliamentary, and government records challenges the dominant tropes of progress and provides a more nuanced and complicated reframing of the post-Archambault Commission era.
The use of an alternative evidential base, the commitment of the authors to integrating subaltern perspectives, and the first-hand accounts by prisoners of their experiences of incarceration makes this book a highly readable and engaging glimpse behind the bars of Canada's federal prisons.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
Serendipity: Finding Voices
Writing a Social History of Prisons
Study Parameters and Limitations
Organization of this Book
Section One: Disrupting the Old Order
1. Riots and Reform: Political Action and the Making of the Archambault Report
The Protest
Causes of the Riot
Context of Resistance
The Illusion of Reform
Riots and Revelations: Deconstructing the Narrative
2. The Blueprint for the New Deal: The Archambault Commission Re-envisions Reform
Royal Commission Mandate and Findings
Prison Conditions
Recommendations of the Archambault Report
Classification, Segregation, and the Protection of Young Prisoners
The Borstal Ascendency in Canadian Penitentiaries
Consolidation of Governance
Reception of the Report
Post-War Pressure for Implementation
The Gibson Report
Sauvant's Progress
Gibson's Plan
Section Two: Disruptive Influences
3. "Men Who Beefed": Writing the New Deal
The Creation of the Penal Press in Canada
The Penal Press Expands
Taking Shape: The Technical Aspects of the Penal Press
The Penal Press Finds Purpose
"Prisoners are People" and the "New Deal" Materialize
Strength in Numbers: The Penal Press Goes International
"Keeping It Real" or "What to Write about in the Penal Press"
The Difficulties of Being THE Voice of Prisoners
4. The New Deal: Same as the Old Deal?
Classification and Segregation
Using Classification to Achieve a Rehabilitated Subject
Achieving Security and Efficiency through Classification and Segregation
Reducing Idleness through Classification
Staying Connected: Visitation and Correspondence in Prison
Education and Vocational Training
Work and Industry
Mollycoddling and the Defense of the New Deal
The New Deal... Same as the Old Deal?
5. Time Off: Clemency, Remission, and Parole
Good Time
The First-Year Problem
The Earned/Lost Problem
Acts of Grace
Amnesty
Remission Branch - Royal Prerogative of Mercy
Remission Branch - Ticket-Of-Leave
Parole
Autonomy
Board Composition
Interim Progress: Automatic Review
Disappointment: Prisoners Are People but We Don't Need to Meet Them
Disappointment: Denial of Parole
Disappointment: Drug Addicts and Alcoholics
Getting the Public On-Side
Early Progress Reports
Reason for Optimism?
6. New Deal/Old Deal Discontent and Censorship
The Official Face of Reform
The Contested View of Reform
Situation Critical: The New Deal Riot
Antecedents to the Riot: Daily Life and Overcrowding
Censorship: Controlling the New Deal's Narrative
Conclusion
Talk of Violence, Mismanagement, and Progressive Reform
A Story of Uneven Progress
Disrupting Methodology: On the Importance of Muti-vocality/History from Below
Disrupting the Idea that Change Comes from the Top
Disrupting the Idea that "We Blew It"
Disrupting the "Con"
Disrupting Singular Narratives
Appendix A: Excerpts from Commissioner's Annual Reports detailing Psychiatric Services 1947-1957
Appendix B: Article Refused for Publication in Pathfinder 1953
Bibliography
Endnotes
