Education, punishment and the contradictions of penal reform: Alan Paton and Diepkloof reformatory, 1934–1948

Abstract

The paper addresses itself to three main questions: the difference between the system in operation at Diepkloof before Pawn's arrival, the reasons for the failure of his experiment to be generalised to the wider system, and the social and political significance of the reforms he introduced. It argues that the system introduced by Paton was a modification of standard penal systems in use, specifically so in the system of juvenile justice developed for white children during the 1920s under the Pact government. Its unique feature, the attempt at introducing ‘educational’ as opposed to ‘penal’ discipline, was an attempt to shift control from external to internal sources and, in so doing, to resolve the question of social order through ideology rather than repression. The experiment itself was a contradiction in a society that sought the repression and expulsion rather than stabilisation of a black working class. These contradictions were manifested, amongst others, in the continued existence of the closed punishment Main Block housing the ‘hard core’, constant overcrowding of the institution, continued absconding, and the perpetuation of the apprenticeship system, a system which ensured the distribution of labour to white farmers.

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