The Gaoler by Elsie Locke. SIGNED BY PRISON SUPERINTENDENT (S JAMES ?). Dated 1983

The Gaoler by Elsie Locke.

Publisher: Dunmore Press, 1978, first edition. SIGNED BY PRISON SUPERINTENDENT (S JAMES ?). Dated 1983

Very good hardback with jacket. Spine slightly cocked. Light rubbing to edges. Gift inscription to previous owner. Pages very good. Jacket is chipped, rubbed and marked with some large tears.

"Today we are still unsure whether prisons should be regarded as places of reform or as places of secure confinement. All too often the result is that they are places where prisoners are dehumanised and warders are faceless. "The Gaoler" tells of Dunedin's earliest prison, essentially a makeshift affair neither secure nor comfortable, but small enough for the prisoners to be regarded as human beings. The central character of the story, Henry Monson, strove constantly to improve prison conditions and his prisoner's moral outlook, struggling all the way with official indifference and miserliness. Elsie Locke draws on a store of contemporary records, newspapers, diaries and reminiscences to tell this story, and attempts to restore, by imagination, some of the elements that so often go missing in history."--Inside front cover. 233 pages with illustrations.

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