What are today's prisons really like? How do prison conditions compare worldwide? "The State of the Prisons -- 200 Years On" breaks new ground in its exploration of prisons in various parts of the world. Many of the prisons described, such as those in South Africa, Poland, and Nicaragua, have never been subject to outside scrutiny before.
In 1777, John Howard, the father of penal reform, wrote "The State of the Prisons in England and Wales, with Preliminary Observations and an Account of some Foreign Prisons," This innovative and powerful book inspired a determined campaign to improve the conditions in Europe's jails -- a campaign which still continues. "The State of the Prisons -- 200 Years On" examines the present state of the prisons, two centuries after Howard's death. In the spirit of Howard himself, and to commemorate his achievements, the Howard League for Penal Reform has compiled this extraordinary document. The contributors to this volume represent a wide range of academics and practitioners within the criminal justice system, and their study is a highly readable and valuable resource which includes unique insights into previously undocumented prison regimes.

This book focuses on the philosophy, politics and impact of the 'New Right' which originated in France and has since influenced activism, ideology and policy in a number of European countries. This book explores the idea that revolutionaries do not necessarily need to come from the left, nor use arms in order to overturn liberal democracy. In the post-World War Two era, the extremists of the revolutionary right took three different paths: 1) parliamentary; 2) extra-parliamentary; and 3) metapolitical. The New Right (nouvelle droite - ND in France) took the metapolitical path, but that did not mean it abandoned its revolutionary desire to smash liberal democracy throughout Europe. The book examines four interpretations of the New Right. These interpretations include the following: 1) The New Right as a fascist or quasi-fascist movement; 2) The New Right as a challenge to the traditional right-left dichotomy, which has structured European political debates for more than 200 years; 3) The New Right as an alternative modernist movement, which rejects liberal and socialist narratives of modernity; accepts the technical but not political or cultural effects of modernity; and longs for a pan-European political framework abolishing liberal multiculturalism and privileging ethnic dominance of so-called original Europeans; and 4) The New Right as a variant of political religion and conversionary processes. The book concludes by analysing the positions, cultural and political impact, and relationship to democracy of the New Right. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of racism, fascism, extremism, European politics, French politics and contemporary political theory.

This study, first published in 1987, focuses on Victorian approaches to the moral reformation of prisoners, and aims to emphasise the ways in which the human value and social inclusion of prisoners were pursued. The author begins by discussing the evangelical view of social problems and human value in early-industrial Britain as well as the 'associationist' psychological analysis of human attitude developed by theorists from John Locke to Jeremy Bentham. The workings of these two theoretical frameworks in the practice of British prisons are then analyses, arguing that by 1860 both theories were basic to the approach to the incarceration of wrongdoers. After 1860 the picture changed radically to an unambiguous deterrent severity. This was linked to a more 'scientific' and evolutionist analysis of human conduct and attitude; theological objections to reformism were also brought into play. In the last forty years of the nineteenth century prisoners came to be seen as constitutionally inferior beings for whom no hope of reform could be generally entertained. This title will be of interest to students of history and of criminology.

Parental Incarceration makes available personal stories by adults who have had the childhood experience of parental incarceration. These stories help readers better understand the complex circumstances that influence these children's health and development, as well as their high risk for intergenerational crime and incarceration. Denise Johnston examines her own children's experience of her incarceration within the context of what the research and her 30 years of practice with prisoners and their children has taught her, arguing that it is imperative to attempt to understand parental incarceration within a developmental framework. Megan Sullivan, a scholar in the Humanities, examines the effects of her father's incarceration on her family, and underscores the importance of the reentry process for families. The number of arrested, jailed, and imprisoned persons in the United States has increased since 1960, most dramatically between 1985 and 2000. As the majority of these incarcerated persons are parents, the number of minor children with an incarcerated parent has increased alongside, peaking at an estimated 2.9 million in 2006. The impact of the experience of parental incarceration has garnered attention by researchers, but to date attention has been focused on the period when parents are actually in jail or prison. This work goes beyond that to examine the developmental impact of children's experiences that extend long beyond that timeframe. A valuable resource for students in corrections, human services, social work, counseling, and related courses, as well as practitioners, program/agency administrators, policymakers, advocates, and others involved with families of the incarcerated, this book is testimony that the consequences of mass incarceration reach far beyond just the offender.

"Jeanne Stinchcomb's book makes an excellent contribution to the field of corrections serving as a substantial resource for those teaching corrections and as a practical inspiration for those students who will ultimately lead the profession. Stinchomb carefully crafts a balanced perspective that presents a powerful argument for why corrections is an important and necessary part of our criminal justice system while at the same time cautioning that justice can only be served when corrections is implemented with integrity and held to the highest of professional standards....This book will dare those who care about corrections to move beyond the ease of accepting the status quo to optimistically embracing the greater challenges of implementing a just and effective system of corrections." - Faith E. Lutze, Ph.D., Washington State University Written by a master teacher with over a decade of experience in federal, state, and local justice agencies, this is the most comprehensive, yet affordable, corrections text on the market. Students will like everything about it - from the reasonable cost to the user-friendly narrative that keeps them engaged. Chapters are written with the passion of a former correctional trainer and administrator, while balancing both sides of every issue. Based on proven concepts of instructional design, the narrative features: measurable learning outcomes that are placed strategically throughout the chapters material is presented in a "building-block" method designed to enhance learning "Close-up on Corrections" boxes reinforce content with real-life stories and examples. Realistic insights are provided into virtually every aspect of the "correctional conglomerate" - from the impact of sentencing policies to the effects of institutional life and the difficulties of re-entry. Unlike most other texts, an entire chapter is devoted to the correctional workforce - which gives students insights into the challenges as well as rewards of such employment. Best of all for the instructor, the book's flexibility and supplemental material make it a breeze to use in the classroom. Electronic versions are available for online and hybrid courses, and it is customizable in inexpensive paperback form. The instructor's manual, written entirely by the Author of the text itself, includes over 500 high-quality test questions directly correlated with each learning outcome featured in the text, along with annotated websites, teaching tips, and powerpoint slides.

This book explores the theoretical and empirical dimensions of community crime prevention in China, examining in particular the role of social capital in a rapidly modernizing economic, social and political context. In doing so it provides a vivid picture of contemporary crime and crime control in China as well as analyzing the very particular Chinese approach to community crime prevention, looking at such social institutions as the household registration system, the neighbourhood committee, the work unit and the public security bureau. The particular focus of this book is on BLSCC Building Little Safe and Civilized Communities in the city of Shenshen which has been undergoing rapid change. The book looks at two contrasting communities within the city, looking at their different characteristics and the differing ways in which social capital operates in relation to crime and crime prevention. As well as shedding light on the hitherto largely hidden subject of crime prevention in China this book also makes an important contribution to wider debates about social capital and its potential, an invaluable study based on unique research.

At the age of 18, Mansoor Adayfi left his home in Yemen for a cultural mission to Afghanistan. He never returned. Kidnapped by warlords and then sold to the US after 9/11, he was disappeared to Gauntanamo Bay, where he spent the next 15 years as Detainee #441. In the vein of Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, Don't Forget Us Here tells two coming-of-age stories in parallel: a makeshift island outpost becoming the world's most notorious prison and an innocent young man emerging from its darkness. Arriving as a stubborn teenager, Mansoor survived the camp's infamous interrogation program and became a feared and hardened resistance fighter leading prison riots and hunger strikes. With time though, he grew into the man prisoners nicknamed "Smiley Troublemaker": a student, writer, historian, and dedicated pop culture fan. With unexpected warmth and empathy, he unwinds a narrative of fighting for hope and survival in unimaginable circumstances, illuminating the limitlessness of the human spirit. And through his own story as well as those who were there with him--detainees and guards--Mansoor also tells Gauntanamo's story, offering an unprecedented window into one of the most secretive places on earth. Putting a human face on the Gauntanamo we know from the news, as well as showing the side we never see--the art, the community, the joyful reclamation of stolen humanity--this book reconstructs the camp's history in human terms, bearing witness to the lives lost and destroyed there. Twenty years later, Gauntanamo remains open. At a moment of due reckoning, Mansoor helps us understand what actually happened there--both the horror and the beauty--offering a vital chronicle of an experience we cannot afford to forget.

Corrections: Exploring Crime, Punishment, and Justice in America provides a thorough introduction to the topic of corrections in America. In addition to providing complete coverage of the history and structure of corrections, it offers a balanced account of the issues facing the field so that readers can arrive at informed opinions regarding the process and current state of corrections in America. The 3e introduces new content and fully updated information on America's correctional system in a lively, colorful, readable textbook. Both instructors and students benefit from the inclusion of pedagogical tools and visual elements that help clarify the material.

'Compelling, urgent and devastating. A triumph' The Secret Barrister 'Funny, heart-breaking and utterly authentic' Dr Amanda Brown, author of THE PRISON DOCTOR 'A breath-taking account of the UK's crumbling prison system. Every politician and decision-maker involved in our prisons should be placed on 23-hour lockdown and made to read this book' Nick Pettigrew, author of ANTI-SOCIAL "I was what the older generation of prison officers called a 'care bear'. It was my job to work with the prisoners most in danger of falling through the cracks and, if not deliver them safely to the community upon release, fully rehabilitated, then at least stop them from killing themselves or anyone else..." Come with Angela Kirwin for a journey inside prison like no other. For over a decade she was a social care worker in some of Britain's most notorious prisons. Now she wants to tell the stories of the men she met, because she believes that prison is failing everyone, damaging the most vulnerable people in our societies, creating habitual criminals, leaving us all less safe and contributing to a society that is immeasurably less humane. Every year, we spend billions of pounds on a system that fundamentally doesn't work. Rather than a separate world full of people that aren't like us, prison is where the most damaged and vulnerable people in our society end up and we all need to urgently care about that, so we can change it. Because the state of our prisons is criminal.

Sir Leon Radzinowicz is one of the key figures in the development of criminology in the twentieth century. This account of the development of criminology intertwines his personal narrative as a criminologist with the progression of criminology itself. His experience gained from a career which has spanned 70 years since the 1920s, offers a profound overview of how the understanding of crime and criminals, of criminal justice systems and penology has changed, and of the tensions and dilemmas these pose for democratic societies.

Powerful, wry essays offering modern takes on a primitive practice, from one of our most widely read death penalty abolitionists As Ruth Bader Ginsburg has noted, people who are well represented at trial rarely get the death penalty. But as Marc Bookman shows in a dozen brilliant essays, the problems with capital punishment run far deeper than just bad representation. Exploring prosecutorial misconduct, racist judges and jurors, drunken lawyering, and executing the innocent and the mentally ill, these essays demonstrate that precious few people on trial for their lives get the fair trial the Constitution demands. Today, death penalty cases continue to capture the hearts, minds, and eblasts of progressives of all stripes-including the rich and famous (see Kim Kardashian's advocacy)-but few people with firsthand knowledge of America's "injustice system" have the literary chops to bring death penalty stories to life. Enter Marc Bookman. With a voice that is both literary and journalistic, the veteran capital defense lawyer and seven-time Best American Essays "notable" author exposes the dark absurdities and fatal inanities that undermine the logic of the death penalty wherever it still exists. In essays that cover seemingly "ordinary" capital cases over the last thirty years, Bookman shows how violent crime brings out our worst human instincts-revenge, fear, retribution, and prejudice. Combining these emotions with the criminal legal system's weaknesses-purposely ineffective, arbitrary, or widely infected with racism and misogyny-is a recipe for injustice. Bookman has been charming and educating readers in the pages of The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and Slate for years. His wit and wisdom are now collected and preserved in A Descending Spiral.

The first collection on this important topic, Captive Audience examines the social, gendered, ethnic, and cultural problems of incarceration as explored in contemporary theatre. Beginning with an essay by Harold Pinter, the original contributions discuss work including Harold Pinter's screenplays for The Handmaid's Tale and The Trial, Theatrical Prison Projects and Marat/Sade. Kimball King, Thomas Fahy, Rena Fraden, Tiffany Ana Lopez, Fiona Mills, Harold Pinter, Ann C. Hall, Christopher C. Hudgins, Pamela Cooper, Robert F. Gross, Claudia Barnett, Lois Gordon

This book describes what homelessness is like for women and the extent to which female homelessness is gender-based. It tells what their lives are like and what their point of view is, both towards themselves and mainstream society. Because female homelessness is a serious social problem and is still poorly understood, the author describes the world of these women not only as an exercise in cultural analysis, but also with the intention of providing understanding which may help to improve their situation or alleviate their problems.

First published in 1976, this book examines rehabilitation within the penal system in Britain in the 1970s. It argues that the 'rehabilitative ideal' is not the only possible alternative to a penal policy but an option which has now become institutionalized and alien to traditional concepts of justice. Using a framework derived from the sociology of law, Philip Bean looks at aspects of rehabilitation as it is operated in the courts and in certain penal institutions. He shows how the concept of rehabilitation has had an important but harmful effect on penal policy as it is often incompatible with penal aims. This book considers the impact that sentencing, social enquiry reports and modern prison policies have on rehabilitation. The concluding chapter asks for a return to concepts of justice and a move away from discussions about personal lives of deviant members of society.

The first volume of the Trends in Corrections: Interviews with Corrections Leaders Around the World series introduced readers to the great diversity that exists cross-culturally in the political, social, and economic context of the correctional system. Presenting transcribed interviews of corrections leaders, it offered a comprehensive survey of correctional programming and management styles used across nations. The general conclusion drawn from the inaugural publication was that the correctional leaders interviewed exhibited striking similarities despite vast differences in the social and political climates in which they worked. They all appeared to struggle with some of the same issues. With a fresh set of interviews exploring further cross-cultural differences and similarities, Volume Two extends the reach to several new countries, including Slovenia, Slovakia, Northern Ireland, Switzerland, and France. The interviews are conducted by scholars or practitioners with intimate knowledge of correctional practice and who are familiar with the correctional system in the country of the interviewees. They expand the knowledge base by asking correction leaders specifically about the impact of the economic downturn on corrections in each country, the changes in correctional practice they've experienced, and how they think about and evaluate trends and developments. This revealing series affords correctional leaders an unprecedented opportunity to express their views on current practices and the future of corrections in their countries, facilitating the development of solutions to corrections challenges worldwide. This book is a volume in the Interviews with Global Leaders in Policing, Courts and Corrections series.

This accessible book introduces the key concepts and theoretical developments of queer criminology and explains what they mean for modern criminal justice frameworks and practitioners. The book sets out experiences of the LGBTQ+ population as victims, offenders and professionals in legal systems in the US and internationally and explores what they mean for elements of those systems including police, courts, corrections and victims' services. It is both a useful reference point for academics, students and professionals and a guide to how queer criminology can be theoretically applied and practically implemented in the worlds of policing, courts, corrections, and victims' services.

This volume provides an essential update on current thinking, practice and research into the use of restorative justice in the area of family violence. It contains contemporary empirical, theoretical and practical perspectives on the use of restorative justice for intimate partner and family violence, including sexual violence and elder abuse. Whilst raising issues relating to the implications of reporting, it provides a fresh look at victims' issues as well as providing accounts of those who have participated in restorative justice processes and who have been victims of abusive relationships. Contributions are included from a wide range of perspectives to provide a balanced approach that is not simply polemic or advocating. Rather, the book genuinely raises the issue for debate, with the advantage of bringing into the open new research which has not been widely published previously. Given its unique experience in the development of restorative justice, the book includes empirical studies relating to New Zealand, contextualized within the global situation by the inclusion of perspectives on practices in the UK, Australia and North America. This book will be key reading for people who work with violent offending of a family nature as well as for those who are interested in the study of family violence.

Clare Anderson provides a radical new reading of histories of empire and nation, showing that the history of punishment is not connected solely to the emergence of prisons and penitentiaries, but to histories of governance, occupation, and global connections across the world. Exploring punitive mobility to islands, colonies, and remote inland and border regions over a period of five centuries, she proposes a close and enduring connection between punishment, governance, repression, and nation and empire building, and reveals how states, imperial powers, and trading companies used convicts to satisfy various geo-political and social ambitions. Punitive mobility became intertwined with other forms of labour bondage, including enslavement, with convicts a key source of unfree labour that could be used to occupy territories. Far from passive subjects, however, convicts manifested their agency in various forms, including the extension of political ideology and cultural transfer, and vital contributions to contemporary knowledge production.

This poignant play, written by current and formerly incarcerated authors, uses gripping truths and soulful dialogue to reveal the human cost of America's for-profit justice system. The story follows Omar, pulled back into the prison system after trying to lift his family out of poverty, who struggles to maintain a sense of humanity while fighting to keep his loved ones close. According to NJ.com, "From institutionalized racism to addiction to the prison-industrial complex, this is a play about a great many large, pressing social challenges, but at its core it is a play about one family and its struggles to remain united as their world steadily crumbles. Impactful, warm, and unrelenting, this play that began as an experiment turns out to be an excellent examination of the human cost of a harsh and inhospitable world." All profits from the book will go to a prison re-entry fund run by The Second Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth, New Jersey to help the playwrights secure housing and continue their schooling upon release.

This latest volume in the Cambridge Criminal Justice Series focuses upon young adults and their treatment in the criminal justice system. The subject is very topical because there is increasing evidence that a rigid distinction between 'youth' and 'adulthood' is not appropriate in modern societies. For example, important developmental tasks such as finishing one's education, finding regular work and the foundation of one's own family are now completed later than in former times; neuropsychological brain functions are still developing beyond age 18; and desistance from criminal offending occurs most rapidly in early adulthood. Despite such evidence, the United Kingdom and other countries have largely neglected policies for young adult offenders in comparison with young people under 18. Although there seems to be no general transnational solution for this problem, there is a clear need for differentiation. This book brings together leading authorities in the field to analyse theoretical, empirical and policy issues relating to this neglected group of people, exploring different approaches to both crime prevention and offender treatment. It will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the fields of criminology, criminal justice, prisons, probation, forensic psychology and psychiatry, sociology, education and social work.

Criminological and penological scholarship has in recent years explored how and why institutions and systems of punishment change - and how and why these changes differ in different contexts. Important though these analyses are, this book focuses not so much on the changing nature of institutions and systems, but rather the changing nature of penal practice and practitioners Bringing together leading researchers from around the world, this collection unites studies that aim to describe and critically analyse penal practice with studies that investigate its effectiveness and prescribe its future development. Reversing penology's usual preoccupation with the prison, the book focuses mainly on penal practice in the community (i.e. on probation, parole, offender supervision and 'community corrections'). The first part of the book focuses on understanding practice and practitioners, exploring how changing social, cultural, political, and organisational contexts influence practice, and how training, development, professional socialisation and other factors influence practitioners. The second part is concerned with how practitioners can be best supported to develop the skills and approaches that seem most likely to generate positive impacts. It contains accounts of new practice models and approaches, as well as reports of research projects seeking both to discover and to encourage effective practices. This book explores internationally significant and cutting-edge theoretical and empirical work on the cultures, practices, roles and impacts of frontline practitioners in delivering penal sanctions. As such, it will be of interest to researchers in criminology, social work and social policy as well as correctional policy makers and those involved in community supervision.

In 2003, the US Senate and Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), prompting a number of research projects that cumulatively began to broaden and deepen our understanding of this complex aspect of prison life. Risk Markers for Sexual Victimization and Predation in Prison contains the results of Dr. Warren and Dr. Jackson s study, and it extends the literature on prison rape in important and distinct ways. Their research, which encompasses the full continuum of sexual behavior among incarcerated individuals, succeeds in identifying multi-layered predictive models for different types of sexual behavior across and within genders. The process by which the authors came to their study design, their experiences while implementing it, and the nature and significance of their findings, represent the content of this book. "

This book focuses on the philosophy, politics and impact of the 'New Right' which originated in France and has since influenced activism, ideology and policy in a number of European countries. This book explores the idea that revolutionaries do not necessarily need to come from the left, nor use arms in order to overturn liberal democracy. In the post-World War Two era, the extremists of the revolutionary right took three different paths: 1) parliamentary; 2) extra-parliamentary; and 3) metapolitical. The New Right (nouvelle droite - ND in France) took the metapolitical path, but that did not mean it abandoned its revolutionary desire to smash liberal democracy throughout Europe. The book examines four interpretations of the New Right. These interpretations include the following: 1) The New Right as a fascist or quasi-fascist movement; 2) The New Right as a challenge to the traditional right-left dichotomy, which has structured European political debates for more than 200 years; 3) The New Right as an alternative modernist movement, which rejects liberal and socialist narratives of modernity; accepts the technical but not political or cultural effects of modernity; and longs for a pan-European political framework abolishing liberal multiculturalism and privileging ethnic dominance of so-called original Europeans; and 4) The New Right as a variant of political religion and conversionary processes. The book concludes by analysing the positions, cultural and political impact, and relationship to democracy of the New Right. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of racism, fascism, extremism, European politics, French politics and contemporary political theory.

Here are the stories of a dozen men on probation from the busiest criminal court in Massachusetts who met together on a college campus for three months to read and talk about Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, Bill Russell, as well as Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, and other authors who write about major life changes not only issues that have gotten probationers in trouble, such as anger and violence, substance abuse, or family breakdown, but also background problems like poverty and racism, the need for social justice, the weakening of community bonds, and the thinning of spiritual sustenance."Changing Lives" presents its students with two challenges: personal self-examination in the reflective mirror of literary experience and group participation in a democratic classroom in which civic virtues are fostered by being exercised. Probationers see themselves in the characters they read about, and they acquire new attitudes as they talk with one another about their own plight. The classroom promotes respect for other voices and points of view, and they learn to take each other seriously in new ways. "Changing Lives" provides a safe haven for reflection and earnest conversation, in which students no longer have to bluff or be cool, guarded, or evasive. Self-esteem grows as they discover they can hold their own in heartfelt debate, not just street corner banter. And because the classroom puts them on equal footing with authority figures teachers, probation officers, and even judges a new social awareness begins to emerge. The goal is partly to validate one s personal worthiness and partly to build a new citizenly identity to replace the labels they have always been stuck with. Reawakening moral consciousness and a fresh commitment to society is essential if probationers are not to cycle endlessly through the limbo of street life and jail time. "