Looks at Howard’s immense achievements and his fascinating life and sheds new light on what drove the UK’s most famous prison reformer. A key work in social and penal history. In modern times John Howard (1726-1790) is perhaps best known as the man after whom the UK’s oldest penal reform charity, the Howard League, is named. Tessa West’s book breaks fresh ground by looking at both Howard’s legacy in terms of reform as well as his fascinating character. Based on extensive research in the UK and abroad, it provides a vivid picture of his life’s work which will be invaluable in understanding why prisons and imprisonment demand constant scrutiny. John Howard’s curiosity about prisons goes without saying, as his own writings show, including his iconic The State of the Prisons (to use the shortened title). As a self-appointed inspector of prisons — and the first to carry out such a task — Howard would knock on the door of penal establishments, mostly unannounced. Once inside he would observe, listen and make copious records of events and conditions behind prison walls. And he was a curious individual altogether. Amongst the diverse epithets applied to him are: extraordinary, indefatigable, eccentric, benevolent, solid, selfless, charismatic, intense, obsessive, energetic, modest — and above all singular. Forever concerned with minutiae, not without friends but lacking close social contacts, the workaholic Howard frequently travelled alone and in dangerous places for months on end. Always restless and forever retracing his steps, he was equally at home in Russia, Germany, Holland and other foreign parts as he was pursuing his carefully planned routines in places such as Bedford, Warrington, Cambridge or London. Wherever he went the perfectionist John Howard brought his influence, genius and reputation to bear seeking to improve prisons and other institutions — and as this book shows he deserves to be remembered as a far greater figure in social history than many people might suspect. 'One of the most extraordinary men this age can show': Jeremy Bentham. 'One of the greatest men in Europe': John Wesley.

John Howard's curiosity about prisons goes without saying, as his own writings show, including his iconic The State of the Prisons in England and Wales. As a self-appointed inspector of prisons - and the first to carry out such a task - Howard would knock on the door of penal establishments, mostly unannounced or uninvited. Once inside, he would observe, listen, and make copious records of events behind prison walls. John Howard (1726-1790) was a curious individual altogether: restless, eccentric, and, above all, singular. Forever concerned with minutiae, not without friends, but lacking close social contacts, the workaholic Howard frequently travelled alone and in dangerous places for months on end. Always restless and forever retracing his steps, he was equally at home in foreign countries as he was pursuing his carefully planned routines in and around Cambridge and London. A perfectionist wherever he went, Howard brought his influence, genius, and reputation to bear, seeking to imp

Philanthropy, a 'love of humankind', is now thought of as the rich giving to good causes. The Reputation of Philanthropy explores how this came about and asks why praise for philanthropists has always been matched by criticism. Original and accessible, the book will inform thinking about the proper role for philanthropy today.

The ‘whores’ and ‘highwaymen’ of Gregory Durston’s title are just some of the dubious characters met within this absorbing work, including thief-takers, trading justices, an upstart legal profession whose lower orders developed various ways to line their own pockets and magistrates and clerks who often preferred dealing with those cases which attracted fees. The book shows how little was planned by government or the authorities, and how much sprang up due to the efforts of individuals—so that the origins of social control, particularly at a local level, had much to do with personal ideas of morality, class boundaries and perceived threats, serious and otherwise. Based on news reports, Old Bailey and local archives, and other solid records the book weaves a compelling picture of a critical time in English history, through the voices of contemporary observers as well as the best of writings by experts ever since. At its broadest point, the book spans the period from the Glorious Revolution to the early 1820s. It falls into three parts: Crime and the Metropolis—including Metropolitan crime, attitudes to crime and policing, explanations for crime, and criminal law and procedure. Policing—including policing the metropolis, constables, the watch, beadles, the role of the military, and the detection of crime. Justice—including the magistracy and its work, ways of prosecution, trial in the lower and higher courts, and the penal regimes of the day. A colourful account, which captures the essence of the period.

The Golden Age of Probation is the first book on probation by those practitioners who became its leaders. A comprehensive account exploring culture, values and tensions. It looks at the dynamics of probation supervision and political dimensions, including the shift to a market-driven form of public service. A lively and challenging collection of writings by those at the very heart of the Probation Service for 50-years. Complete with descriptions of life at all levels of what has been described as the ‘jewel in the crown’ of criminal justice. Moral and other challenges are presented alongside those of standing-up to government Ministers whose aspirations for ‘political immortality’ have led to profound tensions. The book describes how tough talk and market-strategies have undermined 100-years of devoted public service and ideas about how best to help change the lives of some of the most marginalised people in society. Equality, race and social deprivation are amongst the issues explored as the ethos of probation and its deeply-rooted values are laid bare in a book that deals with highs and lows, hazards, innovation, hopes, aims and the international influence of an organization whose original mission (not always popular) was to ‘advise, assist and befriend’ those otherwise heading for prison and a life of crime. Colourful and highly readable, The Golden Age of Probation takes the reader on a journey through England and Wales exposing social disadvantage, unrest and increasingly London-centric policies. It records first-hand what life was like for those at the sharp end during an era of extensive progress, development and change. From the book 'The price of the semi-privatised probation estate … is that probation has lost its umbilical cord with the courts, the police, the prosecution service and our partners in local authorities. It will be difficult for the courts, in particular, to understand the transforming rehabilitation agenda when services for low and medium risk offenders will be carried out by an origami of commissioned enterprises, whose experience, for the most part, is in the private sector of running prisons, mostly in the USA, and whose staff may not necessarily have the qualifications to properly assess and supervise known offenders.' John Harding CBE, Chapter 10. 'Although the restructure made the service vulnerable to later changes through the 2000 Act, it did achieve better consistency, reduced costs in due course, more women at the top and a national programme of assessment and interventions that was internationally ground-breaking. The mistake in my view was to abandon this direction later that decade, combine with the Prison Service under the banner of offender management and sacrifice the national probation influence that had been gained. Because of the nature of the caseload with most offenders on community orders, we have always had more joint work with police and local authorities than with the Prison Service. Personalities and some bad judgements however got in the way.' Mary Anne McFarlane, Chapter 14. 'For the last three decades, probation just like health and education has been caught up in the dynamics and mechanisms of creating pseudo pseudo-markets to deliver public services. The underlying philosophy might appear to be simply to get the cost of these things off the government's balance sheet but the structures created to do this are not transparent enough for a real assessment to be made of the true financial costs. At the same time organizational targets and protocols have helped stifle initiative and even the capacity to care.' Roger Statham, Chapter 18.

From National Book Award finalist Howard Norman, a novel of extraordinary emotional power--the story of a writer whose short and erotically charged marriage has ended in his wife's unsolved murder, and who, in the confusing aftermath, sells the story to an ambitious filmmaker