8
Thursday, February 21, 1974
University Daliy Kansan
'Kind and Usual Punishment'Flays Myths, Injustice of Penal System
By STEVE BUSER
"KIND AND USUAL PUNISHMENT" by Jessica Mitford (340 pages; Knopf; 1973; $7.95)
Jessica Mitford pried open prison gates across the nation for three years to investigate the designation of a system in which inmates with coastal reference to the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment," "Kind and Usual Punishment" is aAgent documentation of the incarceration that incarcerates 1.33 million Americans.
Based on the premise that all penal institutions are intrinsically evil, "Kind and Usual Punishment" attacks the myths of prison reform, the injustice of the determinate sentence, the sordid experimental drug research on prisoners, pretensions of rehabilitation and other prevarications of "correction facilities."
MITFORD ASSERTS that the prison population reflects not justice but the structure and prejudices of society. F.B.I. crime-reporting is shrewdly tailored to focus attention on crimes committed by the poverty-striken and racial minorities.
Absent from the reports, she contends, are crimes committed by the rich and powerful: slum landlord violations of health and safety codes, embezzlement, fraudulent advertising and organized crime that depends on corruption of politicians.
She backs this contention with the Presidential Crime Commission Report, which estimates that price-fixing by 29 electrical equipment companies alone publicizes the fact therefore the public more money than all the bargains committed in one year.
ALTHOUGH WARDENS and prison officials blame lack of money for their problems, Mitford disputes this claim. She contends that when money is available it invariably leads to a lucrative bureaucracy for architects, contractors, researchers and other professionals.
Because only 1.5 per cent of the nine million crimes in a typical year are punished, she refutes the belief that the penal system extricates society from criminals. She also flays the validity of her concept attributed to the length of sentences.
As an example, between 1861 and 1966 the penalty in California for assaulting a
reviews
policeman with a deadly weapon rose from a minimal sentence of one year to a minimum of five years and a maximum of life. During that period, attacks on Los Angeles policemen rose from 8.4 per cent a year to 15.8.
THE INDETERMINATE sentence is a somewhat innovative measure that is supposed to remove the duration of the punishment from the responsibility of judges to an expert parole board of behaviorists. Mitford denounces the indeterminate sentence as a "psychological intruder" and the frivolous fiction. Because no falt sentence is affixed to the prisoner, prison officials can beat any prisoner into submission.
A sociologist noted, "The man under the indeterminate sentence has all the answers."
The most appalling segments of the book are centered on the treatment of prisoners as experimental subjects. "Volunteers" from prisons are used by drug companies to study how prisoners use products and skills. Such experiments entail the inducement of scurvy and severe deficiencies as well as studies on "pain tolerance." One of the researchers remarked, "Most issues in our pens are fine material; most issues are much cheaper than chimpanzees."
UNDER THE GUISE of behavior modification, prison reform has taken a terrifying step backward. Prisoners are subjected to chemotherapy, which is the use of "behavior modifiers"; including the treatment. According to its manufacturer, E.R. Shipman, prisoners have extended duration of effect with possible adverse side effects.
Other "advancements" of prison reform include the substitution of correction techniques with euphemistic terms. Solitary confinement is now called "sensor deprivation" or "adjustment"; the use of medical procedures that cause pain and impairment is desired change or behavior modification is known as "aversion therapy."
"KIND AND USUAL PUNISHMENT" depicts an American penal system that in some ways can be related to the despicable crimes of the American concentration camps and Russia's labor carams.
Although Miford's revelation of the prison system is superb, she doesn't offer any concrete solutions. Her call for the abolishment of the entire penal system can't be taken seriously. If her book arouses America's interest in the prison system, however, her mission has been partially fulfilled.
"LEMMINGS"? The National Lampoon magazine's satirical-comedy about the pop music scene. 8 p.m. Saturday at Hoch Auditorium.
MOVIES
"SERPICIO"-Al Pacino stars as a policeman who cleans up the corruption in the New York City Police Department. 7:30 and 9:40 at the Hillcrest L.
"THE WAY WE WERE"-Barbara Streisand stars as a radical Jewish girl whose relationship with an all-American woman evokes fights, 7:30 and 9:30 at the Varsity Theatre.
The Duke a Cop in 'McQ'
"ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN
DENISOVIH"-Alexander Solzhenitsy story about life in a Russian prison camp in Siberia. 7:20 and 9:30 p.m., at the Hillcrest
"MMC"—John Wayne stars as a detective who goes through car chases and gun battles to break a drug ring and fight criminals at 9:30 p.m. at the Grand Theatre.
"LAST TANGO IN PARIS"-Marlon Brando stars as a middle-aged American living in Paris who isolates himself through a room at a country club. 7:40 and 9:30 p.m. at the Hillcrest III.
"BEHIND THE VEIL" and "THE QUEEN" - Women in film movies, the first about women living in a harem and the first about men living in a hotel. 7:30 p.m. tonight in Woodford Auditorium.
"LADY SINGS THE BLUES!" -Diana Ross stars as the blues singer Billie Holiday who becomes a drug addict 7 and 8 years later. At 6 p.m. on Saturday in Woodruff Auditorium,
"AFRICAN LION"-Walt Disney wildlife feature on African animals, especially the lion. 1:30 p.m. Sunday in Woodruff Auditorium.
Jill Johnston, who will speak tonight in the
lecture room, "radicalalesian. An outspoken, thoroughly
human, witty radicalalesian, Johnston helps to
diapet the heterosexual fear of lesbianism
Perhaps Johnston is able to dispel this fear because she has overcome her own fear or guilt or unknowingness about her own sexuality, and in telling her personal experiences through the 1950s and 1960s, Johnston is able to tear down the heterosexual fears and misunderstandings in American sexual separation.
David W. Heron will resign as director of the University of Kansas libraries on July 1 to become the university librarian at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Heron made the announcement yesterday. Chancellor Archie R. Dykes had told a group of legislators Monday that the director of libraries was leaving, but Heron had declined to confirm or deny Dykes' statement.
"1LESBIAN NATION: THE FEMINIST
OLDSMAN and SCHUTZ; 1973: 97.98
pages."
"Lesbian Nation" is a highly personal account of the experience of maturing not only as a lesbian, but as a woman—or, more appropriately, as a non-male—in the 1950s and 1960s when man and culture, according to Johnston, are synonymous.
As an account of the individual human experience of Johnston, the book gradually shows the transition from 1950s lesbianism, in which Johnston didn't yet consider herself a lesbian although she had had homosexual relationships, to the emergence of lesbians in the 1960s with the gay liberation front, whose political position gradually moved towards wanting to grant rights to finally demanding recognition as a ruggedly group.
Jill Johnston
THE LESBIAN IN THE United States,
Johnston writes, is doubly penalized;
besides being considered subnormal by "normal"
'heterosexuals for her lesbianism, she carries the additional burden of being a woman in a male-oriented society.
Feminist Advocates Lesbianism
"FEMINISM AT HEART is a massive complaint." Johnston write "Lesbianism
All women are lesbians, according to Johnaton, and lesbianism is the revolution.
Johnston, who is the mother of two
In the 1960s, Johnston writes, "most of us didn't know yet that it was wrong to be a woman but we did know it was wrong to be a man" (23). We were wrong for people to make us wrong.
By CAROL GWINN
Kangan Reviewer
Heron to Resign
Entertainment
--document of lesbianism in the mid-20th century. It is also important as a discussion of an alternative life-style for the aware woman and as an introduction to the lesbian as a human being and radical feminist, not some kind of pervert.
"SATYRICON""-Fellini film based on Petronius" "Satyricon", in which Rome is inhabited by albino hermaphrodites, dwarfs, prostitutes, nymphomaniacs and homosexualus girls. 7:30 p.m. Monday in Woodruff Auditorium.
ALL CAMPUS ORGANIZATIONS:
REMINDER
Budget request forms for Student Activity Fee funds are available in 105-B, Student Union. Budget requests must be submitted to the Treasurer's office, 104-B, Union, by 5 p.m., Thursday, February 28.
No late requests will be considered.
"THE BLACK CAT" and "BLACK SUNDAY"-Two horror films, the first one starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosa about a mad architect who encases young girls' corps in glass, and the second one starring Jack Nicholson at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Woodruff Auditorium.
No late requests will be considered.
Good Every Day Except Wednesday
Offer Expires March 15
TOSTADO FREE!
The person who is interested in an honest attempt to fight male sexism through female sexism by an aware woman should read "Lesbian Nation," one of the few well-thought-out, pro-lelisian works which regards lesbianism as not only normal, but desirable as a means to combat a male-dominated society.
With This Coupon Buy 2 Tacos Get 1
"THE HERO AS ARTIST"-Kenneth Clark "Civilisation" film about the coming of the Renaissance in Italy, 7 p.m. Sunday in Woodruff Auditorium.
1720 W. 23rd
TACO GRANDE
9th and Indiana
1974-Year of the Taco
children, calls woman the primal parent because only the woman can be biologically positive that the woman she bears is hers. The man can never know for sure that a child is
"Lesbian Nation" is written in an almost unpunctulated style which is somewhat difficult at first to read, but which becomes very flowing after the reader be accustomed to it. The lack of punctuation adds to the easy tone of the book and to the comfortableness with which Johnston relates details of her life.
"Lesbian Nation" is important as a
"LES VISITEURS DU SOIR"—French film made in 1947 which shows the post-war French philosophy of life: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday in Wooldruff Auditorium.
quality travel since 1951
THEATER
Telephone 843-1211—Kansas Union Plus 3 Other Locations: 900 Massachusetts / The Malls / Hillcrest
Theater Festival (ACTF) production by Kansas State College of Pittsburg based on the Adam and Eve story. 8 p.m. tonight in the University Theatre.
- Club group travel
- Sports holidays
"THE THREE PENNY OPERA"—ACTE play presented by Webster College, Webster Groves, Mo., and written by Bretolt Brecht. The play concerns the underworld adoration of Mate the Knife in the 1920's in Berlin. bp.m. saturday in the University Theatre.
Your Campus Travel Agent
SUA / Maupintour travel service
- Car rentals
- Hotel reservations
"AFTERMATH"—ACTF production by Fort Hays State College which deals with euthanasia. 8 p.m. tomorrow in the University Theatre.
THE SERPENT"—American College
- Incentive travel
- Airline reservations/tickets
(No charge, shanghai)
- Resort reservations
- Weekend holidays
- Amtrak train reservations/tickets
- Cruise/ship reservations
- Escorted tours
- Private group programs
- Independent travel
NATIONAL GUARD ARMORY
2nd and iowa Streets
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
(Near Tupuke West Exit)
All Exhibits for Sale
DAILY PRIZE DRAWING
SHOW HOURS:
Friday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Saturday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sunday: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Motorcoach charter tours
Victoria B. Krumsick manager
Saturday, Feb. 23
2:00 4:20 7:00 8:20
WAJAI PUPPET THEATRE-Classic Japanese puppetry, in which the puppets will enact a variety of dramatic plots. 8 p.m. Sunday in the University Theatre.
- Worlds of Fun tickets
SUA Popular Films
"THE FLATS" - Experimental Theatre production of the modern Irish play by John Boyd. 8 p.m. Feb. 27-28, and Mar. 1-2 in Murphy Hall.
DIANA
ROSS
IS BILLIE
HOLIDAY
16th Annual Lawrence Antique Show
Horror Films
THE BLACK CAT
Boris Karloff - Bela Lugos
FILMS SUA FILMS SUA FILMS SUA FILMS SUA FILMS
Friday, Feb. 22
7:00-9:30
75c Kansas Union
MARCH 1,2 & 3
Special Films SATYRICON d. Feltini Monday, Feb. 25
1974
The Pilot Club of Lawrence Sponsor
ADMISSION S1.00; one day or all inclusive
BLACK SUNDAY
d. Bann - 9:30
Tuesday, Feb. 26
Kansas Union
Classical Films
LES VISITEURS DU SOIR
d. Marcel Carne
75c $1.00 for Both Kansas Union
Wednesday, Feb. 27
Wednesday, Feb. 27
7:30-9:30
Kansas Union
Film Society
Film Society BEHIND THE VEIL d.Eve Arnold THE QUEEN Thursday, Feb. 21
THE AFRICAN LION
Walt Disney
Sunday, Feb. 24
10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Kansas Union Children's Films
WIFE 705 SWIFE 705 SWIFE 705 SWIFE 705 SWIFE
WE'VE
LOWERED
Rent your car from John Haddock Ford.
Phone 843-3500
PRICES
| Make | Pinto | Pinto Wagon Maverick Mustang Torino | Galaxie Pickup | LTD PU Wagon |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Daily | $8.00 plus 8c mile | $9.00 plus 9c mile | $10.00 plus 10c mile | $11.00 plus 11c mile |
| Weekly | $45.00 plus 8c mile | $55.00 plus 9c mile | $60.00 plus 10c mile | $65.00 plus 11c mile |
| Week-end | $5.33 plus 8c mile | $6.00 plus 9c mile | $7.00 plus 10c mile | $8.00 plus 11c mile |
Downtown Lawrence