Quakers, penal reform and the challenge of electronically monitoring offenders

Abstract

In England, at least, the ethos and networks of contemporary penal reform still owe much to the foundations laid by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and the secular bodies it helped to found in the nineteenth century. The parameters of debate in penal reform remained broadly constant for many decades, and in the twentieth century the Quakers, borne of a deep scepticism about punishment, went on to develop a voice in these matters at local, national and international levels. The electronic monitoring (EM) of offenders, a worldwide development now, poses a challenge to the traditional structures of penal reform because it reflects and derives from complex changes in the broader technological infrastructure, which brings new, private sector, players into the system and enables forms of control and surveillance that were unavailable to past penal policy-makers. While not disputing that EM can be and has been used well, alongside supportive probation measures, this paper will argue that the initial Quaker wariness towards it had some merit and suggest that the Society of Friends should once again address the issue, and make its views known at the international level.

Keywords:

• Quakers
• penal reform
• electronic monitoring
• surveillance

Notes

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