Disruptive Prisoners : Resistance, Reform, and the New Deal / Chris Clarkson, Melissa Munn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clarkson, C. M. V. (Christopher M. V.), Author.

Munn, Melissa, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prison reform--Canada--History--20th century.

Prison reform.

Prisoners--Canada--History--20th century.

Prisoners.

Prisons--Canada--History--20th century.

Prisons.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (320 p.) : 51 b&w illustrations

Place of Publication:

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

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:

Frontmatter

Index

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction

PART I Disrupting the Old Order

1 Riots and Reform: Political Action and the Making of the Archambault Report

2 The Blueprint for the New Deal: The Archambault Commission Re-envisions Reform

PART II Disruptive Influences

3 “Men Who Beefed”: Writing the New Deal

4 The New Deal – Same as the Old Deal?

5 Time Off: Clemency, Remission, and Parole

6 New Deal/Old Deal: Discontent and Censorship

Conclusion

Appendix A Excerpts from Commissioner’s Annual Reports Detailing Psychiatric Services, 1947–1957

Appendix B Article Refused for Publication in Pathfinder, 1953

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Nov 2021)

ISBN:

1-4875-3844-8

OCLC:

1252969185