By Trevor J. Saunders

This book assesses Plato's penal code within the tradition of Greek penology. Saunders provides a detailed exposition of the emergence of the concept of publicly controlled, rationally calculated, and socially directed punishment in the period between Homer and Plato. He outlines the serious debate that ensued in the fifth century over the opposition by philosophers to popular judicial assumptions, and shows how the philosophical arguments gradually gained ground. He demonstrates that Plato advanced the most radical of the philosophical formulations of the concept of punishment in his Laws, arguing that punishment is or should be utilitarian and strictly reformative. This first comprehensive and detailed study of Plato's penology gives deserved attention to the works of a most important political and legal thinker.

Oxford, UK; New York: Clarendon Press/Oxford, 1991. 438p.

By Alfred Trumble, editor of “the collector”.

“…Charles Dickens had a deep and abiding interest in that grim accessory to civilization, the prison. He not only went jail hunting whenever opportunity offered, but made a profound study of the rules, practices and abuses of these institutions. Penology was, in fact, one of his hobbies…These papers, therefore, consist of personal knowledge, as a voluntary visitor, be it understood, of Newgate.”

Harrow and Heston Classic Reprint. London Suckling & Galloway (1896) 107 pages.