Arthur St. John: Tolstoyan Abolitionism in Practice

Abstract

There is no easy dividing line between reform and abolition. The Howard League for Penal Reform was formed in 1921 from the merger of two bodies, the Howard Association, founded in 1866, and the Penal Reform League, founded in 1907. While the ideas of John Howard are still widely remembered and acknowledged, the Tolstoyan abolitionism that led to the foundation of the PRL and its principal inspiration and first chair, Arthur St. John, is almost entirely forgotten. This chapter explores the writings of St. John and his colleagues, and the networks of people and activities which they initiated. Characterised by idealism and often dismissed as utopian in aspiration, their actions were paradoxically pragmatic and collaborative, feeding not insignificantly into the Prison System Enquiry Committee of 1919 and ultimately to the publication of English Prisons Today. The biographical approach allows us to situate the analysis of penal systems within a set of larger ideas of social change concerning religious freedom, education, social norms, and social and economic justice, for example. Though Tolstoyan abolitionism is often closely intertwined with Quaker approaches or erased within Fabian narratives, it remains distinctive in its politics and vision.