Are Prisons Anti - Social?:Summary of address by Austin H. MacCormick before the annual meeting of The Pennsylvania Prison Society, January 17, 1928
Abstract
Are Prisons Anti - Social?Summary of address by Austin H. MacCormick before the annual meeting of The Pennsylvania Prison Society, January 17, 1928 SAGE Publications, Inc.1928DOI: 10.1177/003288552800800106 It is a pleasure always to speak before a group who approach the prison problem with an adequate background: who either hold ancient cencepts that take them back into the misty past or flighty emotional concepts that take them far into the future on the wings of impracticality. I have recently been reading Prof. Barnes' new book on the evolution of penology in Pennsylvania and I am deeply appreciative of all that this society has done in the past 140 years. I count it an unu,sual honor to be permitted to address your annual meeting. An anti-social individual is one whose acts are not in accordance with the best interests of Society. The same definition applies to institutions even more rigidly, for they have accepted a definite responsibility. Are prisons then anti-social, or are they so conducted that they produce results contrary to the best interests of the social order which they are set up to serve? In answering this question, I shall discuss some of the more fundamental phases of