The rise and fall of the rehabilitative ideal, 1895-1970 / Victor Bailey.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: the rehabilitative ideal -- English prisons and penal culture, 1895-1922 -- Judges, the tariff and the abatement of imprisonment, 1880-1914 -- War, inter-war, and the decreasing prison population, 1914-1939 -- Prisons, prisoners, and penal reform, 1922-1938 -- The persistent offender, 1908-1939 -- War and criminal justice legislation, 1938-1948 -- Labour government, abolition, and the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, 1945-1953 -- Penal practice in a changing society -- Homicide Act 1957: the politics of capital punishment -- The high-water mark of rehabilitation -- Royal Commission on the Penal System, 1964-1966 -- Abolition of the death penalty -- Epilogue: the retributive turn--Bibliography--Index.