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Graham Smith
Jan Thompson
Graham Mumby-Croft


"Understanding the Past".

I have just seen the latest Prison Service Journal - Number 249 May 2020. I think some colleagues may be interested in a couple of items. It is a Special Edition headed "Understanding the Past".

One item is a study of Major Robert Hickey who was Governor of Dartmoor from January 1870 to October 1872. He had been at Dartmoor as Deputy Governor since December 1867 and had previously served at Portland from November 1864. I found the account fascinating, even making use of extracts from the Governor's Journal. Hickey describes the sole purpose of the Governor's Journal as being to record what he did for "the information of the visiting Director"

The account gives an account about what the Governor's activities were; what his - quite limited, powers were and something of his relationship with the "Directors " i.e. Head Office! There are some interesting contrasts and similarities with the world our generation of Governors experienced

The second item is titled "Revisiting the Borstal Experiment " by Professor Heather Shaw of Manchester Metropolitan University. This is a broad-brush account of the period 1902-82 when the Borstal System was developed to when it was changed to Youth Custody. The account of the number of Borstal Boys who died in the First War was something I was at best dimly aware of; her account of the inter-war years lacks perhaps the detail I would expect about the experimental nature of the open borstal developments with the marches to Lowdham and North Sea Camp.

Professor Shaw ends with a plea for further research, something many of us would warmly endorse.

Prison Service Journal is available online for those who wish to read it.


Kind Regards
BRENDAN O’FRIEL