But this is not true. . . . The failure of this project was immediate . . . In 1820 it was already understood that the prisons, far from transforming criminals into honest citizens, serve only to manufacture new criminals and to drive existing criminals even deeper into criminality. It was then that there took place, as always in the mechanics of power, a strategic utilisation of what had been experienced as a drawback. Prisons manufactured delinquents, but delinquents turned out to be useful, in the economic domain as much as the political.
Criminals come in handy.
These compelling critiques provide a framework in which to consider the challenges facing prison reform efforts today. But while they might strike a chord somewhere in the heart of the committed social reformer, they do little in the way of furthering practical analyses of penal systems, let alone offering viable solutions for maintaining non-repressive social order. We are left with wide open questions about what to do. This issue of Changemakers Journal profiles a selection of innovative initiatives dedicated to addressing some of these questions. It is by no means an exhaustive survey of the range of efforts in the field of prison reform.