Penology & punishment

This timely book addresses an overlooked area of criminal justice by focusing on the reality of pregnancy and new motherhood in prison. Based on the experiences of women in mother and baby units, it passionately argues the case for minimising harm, making key reading for criminology and midwifery students and researchers.

This book is a unique ethnographic study of a racially exclusive Malay Muslim gang, Omega, which has its roots in Singapore’s prisons. In demonstrating that gang involvement can be an adaptive strategy for marginalized groups, this book promotes a more inclusive and restorative justice model for people with repeat convictions.

The soundscape of prison life is that of constant clangs, bangs and jangles. What is the significance of this cacophonous din to those who live and work with it? This book is the story of a year spent with a UK prison community, bringing its social world vividly to life through aural ethnography.

Hindpal Singh Bhui argues that we need to look at who is sent to prison and why to disentangle reality from ideology and myth. Including the voices of prisoners, prison staff and victims, he asks whether prison is an institution for managing marginalized people, or if there is a better way to achieve the socially useful goals of prisons.

This book is the first to organize and explain current scholarship on convict criminology, corrections and criminal justice in an accessible manner. From activism to the emergence of undergraduate programmes in prisons, it provides a clear guide to the complexities of the field.

The ultimate expression of power is the ability to act beyond the confines of law. Illuminating the condition of ‘panoramic power’, this book offers new thinking on damaging structures of power and privilege – and the political activities needed to achieve intervention and change.

Why have so many radical thinkers advocated for the abolition of prisons and punishment and why have their ideas been so difficult to communicate and garner widespread support? This book outlines the long and nuanced history of penal abolitionism and shows how these ideas have continued topicality.