Policy Press

Prisons and Punishment

Showing 1-12 of 43 items.

What Are Prisons For?

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.

Bristol Uni Press

Welfare and Punishment

From Thatcherism to Austerity

From Margaret Thatcher’s first government to austerity politics, Ian Cummins traces changing attitudes to imprisonment and the social state. With fresh insights and critical thinking, he demonstrates how increasingly punitive approaches to crime and welfare have shaped the neoliberal economy and created stigma around those living in poverty.

Bristol Uni Press

Visiting Immigration Detention

Care and Cruelty in Australia’s Asylum Seeker Prisons

This study of immigration detention policy in Australia presents first-hand accounts of more than 70 people visiting and supporting asylum seekers. Documenting and theorising their experiences and treatment, it delivers new perspectives on the profound human costs of hardline immigration policy, both in Australia and beyond.

Bristol Uni Press

Transforming Probation

Social Theories and the Criminal Justice System

This book explores the politics of modernisation and transformation of probation in the criminal justice system. It draws upon innovative social theories and moral perspectives to analyse changes in the probation service and makes a timely contribution to criminal justice and probation theory.

Policy Press

Tackling prison overcrowding

Build more prisons? Sentence fewer offenders?

Lord Carter's "Review of Prisons" (2007), proposed the construction of vast 'Titan' prisons to deal with the problem of prison overcrowding, the establishment of a Sentencing Commission for keeping judicial demand for prison places in line with supply, and further use of the private sector. This book is a response to these controversial proposals.

Policy Press

Sound, Order and Survival in Prison

The Rhythms and Routines of HMP Midtown

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.

Bristol Uni Press

Solitary Confinement

Lived Experiences and Ethical Implications

This book is the first to consider the history of solitary confinement and how it is experienced by the individuals undergoing it. It provides first-hand accounts of the inhumane experience of solitary confinement to provide a better appreciation of the relationship between penal strategy and its effect on human beings.

Policy Press

The Short Guide to Criminal Justice

The Short Guide to Criminal Justice provides a comprehensive, yet concise, introduction to the criminal justice system in the United Kingdom. It includes many student-friendly features such as case study boxes, tables showing key facts and figures and links to data sources and further reading.

Policy Press

Privatising Probation

Is Transforming Rehabilitation the End of the Probation Ideal?

This topical book looks at the attitudes of probation practitioners and managers to the philosophy, values, and practicalities of the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda. It provides unique insights into the values, attitudes and beliefs of probation staff and their delivery of services.

Policy Press

Prisons of the World

This book discusses the failings of the prison system in many countries and offers positive pointers for the future. It shows the way forward will be through initiatives such as Justice Reinvestment and in the Human Development model.

Policy Press

Prisoners' Families, Emotions and Space

This original study of the lives of prisoners’ families adds a feminist perspective on the understanding of carceral geography. She relates the testimonies of families as they navigate new challenges, and measures the impact of imprisonment on their emotions, relationships, identities and experiences of spaces, both inside and outside prison.

Policy Press

Prison Suicide

What Happens Afterwards?

Prison suicides reached a record high in 2016 in England and Wales. Provides the first detailed case study of the investigations that follow prison suicides with findings relevant at a global level.

Bristol Uni Press