THE PRESENT ENGLISH STRUCTURE

OF CORRECTIONS

There are three main divisions: the field-supervision agency (the term embraces the function of after-care as well as probation), the juvenile training institution, and the adult prison. Though generally a division is maintained everywhere between the adult and the juvenile institution, this divi­sion is exceptional in the field-supervision agencies.

The English correctional apparatus is a system heavily engaged in keeping up with the demands made on it, not by a largely indifferent society, but rather by the volume of offenders. The stabilised apparatus of the years before World War II has had to accommodate change in deference to the members of its clients and in the light of staff initiative.

For adult offenders, the process began with diversification of service. Prisons of containment need only the modest spe­cialisation required by the essentials of control. Before World War II, prisons for adults could be largely divided between the local establishments for short-term commitments and the central prisons, such as Dartmoor and Wakefield, for those serving long sentences. The innovations since the Criminal Justice Act of 1948 provided for four types of prisons to which inmates might be assigned from the local prisons which still form the substructure of the system. These are:

Open prisons. Adopted from American practice, these ru­ral centres for the training of adults draw on the availability of country mansions with large estates attached. All classes of offenders except those serving the longest and the shortest terms are eligible.

Regional training prisons. Offenders serving first terms or considered to have good potential for training are assigned to these establishments, usually with sentences of less than four years but more than six months. Institutions like Wakefield and Maidstone are included under this heading, and a heavy emphasis on vocational training and remedial education has characterised their programs.

Central prisons. In these establishments are concentrated offenders serving long terms. Central prisons vary from grim fortresses like Dartmoor to Eastchurch, an open prison estab­lished in Kent. Two concepts of social control are represented in the central prisons of England.

Conventional long terms awarded to especially dangerous offenders on a generally retributive basis are served at prisons like Wakefield, Dartmoor or Wormwood Scrubs. But England also has a special system for the control of the persistent re­cidivist in which prevention rather than retribution is the purpose of the sentence.

Corrective training prisons. A special feature of the Crim­inal Justice Act of 1948 was the provision of corrective training sentences for young recidivists. Intended for recidi­vists ranging in age from 21 to 30, the central notion of the law was to provide remedial education and vocational train­ing to young men whose legitimate opportunity was hindered by lack of employable skills.

TYPES OF THE US CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Today the typical state prison in the United States is a walled fortress of stone and steel. Within are cell houses, administrative offices, schools, chapels, factories, workshops, a dining hall, an auditorium, a hospital, a recreation yard, and sometimes a gymnasium. Outside are the main adminis­trative offices, houses for the warden and his principal assist­ants and their families, and sometimes a prison farm. The normal capacity of the state prison may range from a few hundred to thousands. Many institutions have a capacity of 1,000 to 3,000. The Michigan State Prison at Jackson, which is the largest prison in the United States, has a nor­mal capacity of 6,000. Most of the state prisons are built along the lines of the original Auburn plan with interior cell blocks. The cells are small, the average being about five feet wide, eight feet long, and eight feet high. They are usually equipped with an iron bed, bedding, a locker, a small table, a chair, an electric light, a toilet, and a wash bowl.

The typical men’s reformatory looks very much like a state prison. Although usually the reformatory is smaller, its facilities and equipment are the same as those of the prison. Women’s prisons and reformatories, however, are quite different. In general, their buildings are attractive and well kept, having individual bedrooms and pleasant living and dining rooms. Some of the newer correctional institu­tions for women are built on the cottage plan. Even when women are confined in a section of the men’s prison, their quarters are more attractive than those of other prisoners in the institution. Prison farms and camps have dormito­ries and farm buildings, often surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Road camps may have either permanent buildings or portable structures, and these, too, may be enclosed by a fence.

INTERPOL

(INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL POLICE ORGANISATION)

The international criminal is by no means a new type of wrongdoer; he came into being with the invention of frontiers. What is relatively new is the speed and facility with which the international criminal may now travel from one country to another. Moreover, political changes in Eu­rope and elsewhere have resulted in extensive migrations and mixing of peoples, which favour international crime.

What is an "international criminal"? The definition of this type of wrongdoer is not based on any legal concept since there is in law no such thing as international crime. The term is simply one of practical convenience. For exam­ple, a man who kills a woman in Paris and then takes refuge in, say, Belgium, thereby becomes an "international crim­inal".

Interpol became necessary mainly because of the need both for a united front for the combating of international crime and for exchange of ideas and methods between the police forces of the world.

In 1914, for the first time a number of police officials, magistrates and jurists met to establish the basis of interna­tional police cooperation. However, several months later the First World War broke out.

During the second criminal police congress, in Vienna in 1923 the President of Police of that city once again voiced the idea of establishing international police cooperation. A scheme was approved by 130 delegates and an Internation­al Criminal Police Commission with headquarters in Vien­na came into being. It worked satisfactorily until the begin­ning of the Second World War.

In 1946, the old members of the ICPC which had been disrupted by the war, met in Brussels to revive the idea of international police cooperation.

Meeting again in Vienna, in 1956, bv which time there were fifty-five member countries, the organisation decided to adopt a new constitution. It comprised fifty articles. Under it the International Criminal Police Commission was renamed the "International Criminal Police Organisation – Interpol".

The general aims of Interpol are defined in article two of the Constitution as being: to ensure and promote the widest possible mutual assistance within the limits of the laws existing in the different countries and in the spirit of the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights", to establish and develop all institutions likely to contribute effectively to the prevention and suppression of ordinary law crimes.

The combating of international crime is divided into three distinct but complementary activities: the exchange of police information; the identification of wanted or sus­pected individuals; the arrest of those who are wanted on a warrant issued by the judicial authorities.

JUDICIAL EDUCATION

The Federal Judicial Center, an organization within the judicial branch, is the principal research and training resource for federal judges. It conducts a variety of educational programs for judges on substantive legal topics, the art of judging, and case management. In addition to attending an orientation training program shortly after they are first appointed, all judges are invited periodically by the Center to attend workshops that focus on new legislation, developments in case law, and specific judicial skills. The Center has also devel­oped a number of special focus programs, often in conjunction with law schools, that address specific areas of the law in depth, such as intellectual property or the use of scientific evidence. In addi­tion to live seminars and workshops, the Center produces a wide variety of videotapes, audiotapes, manuals, and other publications to assist judges in performing their duties.

The Administrative Office conducts training programs for judges on the use of computers, and on such administrative matters as pay and benefits, hiring staff, judicial branch organization and gover­nance, judicial ethics, and personal security. The Administrative Office also offers special orientation programs on management and operational topics for new chief judges of district courts, courts of appeals, and bankruptcy courts.

The Federal Judicial Center, the Administrative Office, and the United States Sentencing Commission jointly operate a television network that broadcasts daily education and information programs for judges and court staff. In addition, several individual courts conduct in-house orientation and mentoring programs for new judges, as well as round-table discussions or other substan­tive programs for all judges.