What is this thing we call the prison?

When I began to work in prisons in 1973 I had little appreciation of the world I was entering. Yet, even allowing for this ignorance, I remember that one my first sensations was of a lack of clear direction. There was no obvious point of reference for this new environment in which I found myself. In common with many reasonably well-informed members of the public I had been aware of the existence of the prison system. From time to time I read about it in the press in a detached manner, but more than that I did not know. I re-read recently what I wrote over 25 years ago about my early reactions:

As I read myself deeper into the subject I became ever more intrigued when I attempted to relate what I was learning in the course of my studies to my daily experiences in the actual world of prisons. In 1981, having worked in Edinburgh Prison, Polmont Borstal and Shotts Prison, I transferred to work in Scottish Prison Service Headquarters in Edinburgh as one of the small number of people there who had operational experience in prisons. This environment gave me an added insight into the opinions which members of the administrative civil service had of the Prison Service and of those who worked in it, an opinion which was often less than flattering.

Over the years I had become involved in a variety of criminal justice-related organisations, including the Centre for Criminology in Edinburgh University, which at that time was somewhat unusual for a prison governor.