BREAK DOWN THE WALLS

by John Bartlow Martin ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 24, 1954

Hot on the heels of the McGraws' Assignment Prison Riots this has the same starting line the Jackson Prison blow-up in 1952- but goes on to complete a far more intensive inquiry into the prison system then, now, and across the country, comes up with a whole program of correctives to be administered outside. The riot at Jackson, which had its parallels all over the country, as it was led by an epileptic, a syphilitic murderer, a psychopath, and as it was later (mis)handled. Only proves that the system has broken down. And the searchlight here is not so much on the offenders- as on the many impractical optimisms and impotent actualities which prevail;- from the desuetude and of the personnel; to the inability to procure widespread psychiatric services, etc.; down to the non existence of rehabilitation so that prison is never more than a place in which to lock people up. Our types of prisons, from the old reformatories and industrial prisons to the Federal and California systems and the southern labor camps; womens' prisons- and the women thereafter; the professional criminal; the psychopath; all this is a complex for which there can be no sure or single cure, but research is the first task.... Martin has established himself as one of the smoothest soundtracks to the criminal field- and his report here, which has a great deal of supportive evidence, is alarmed and alarming.

Pub Date: May 24, 1954

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1954

Categories: NONFICTION