ABSTRACT
S Hould prisoners work? The fact that, as recently as 1931, an authoritative work 1 should have been published under this title implies all the still unresolved questions surrounding this central problem of prison administration. Should prisoners be required to work? If so, for what purpose? What sort of work should they do? On what economic basis should the work be found and organised? What incentives, if any, should be offered to induce them to work well? Any or all of these questions may still be asked today in the penal systems of the world without finding answers of general acceptance in principle or applicability in practice. 2 The integration of social, economic and penal theory required for a clear and consistent set of principles on which such answers could be based is far from complete, in England or elsewhere.
