Zebulon Brockway
Many people write about prisons. I read much of what they have to say, and I believe it is good they take an interest. I have worked many years in prisons, and I worked many years in journalism. My experience tells me that most of what I see written about prisons is misleading at best and wrong at worst. The false impressions and false information are not helpful to public discourse.
Ultimately, I want this site to be a place where those with a serious interest in prisons, prison policy, prison management and the science of penology can come for reliable answers and thoughtful questions. I certainly don’t know everything, no one does when it comes to prisons. However, my opinions and conclusions are informed by some years experience working in prisons. Also I know people who know quite a lot, and they can often provide penetrating insight. Together I would hope we can sort out fact from theory from pure fiction.
I call myself Zebulon Brockway here. This leaves me anonymous in a sometimes perilous world. Mr. Brockway was a leader in prison reform in the nineteenth century. Most prison administrators today spend their days unknowningly engaged in practices first used by Brockway. While I appreciate Brockway’s impact on penology, I do not and will not ever approach his stature or experience or knowledge.
My experience comes from work in California prisons so they are my primary focus. But the system of prisons does not stand alone. I believe in a systemic approach, and the troubles of California prisons today are surely no more than symptoms of broader societal ills. That said, I hope you will understand on days when I seem to go far afield of talk about prisons that I have not slipped into dementia.
So, that’s who I think I am and that’s what I believe we can do together.
Prisoners All 