Leading edge information and ideas from two of the UK's most respected practitioners and authorities. A handbook for people who want to make a difference when working with prisoners. It suggests the tools for this and offers guidance - and is wholly up to speed with what is happening in UK prisons. * Essential reading for every RJ practitioner and student * One of the most important penal reform books for years - Part of a major initiative across UK prisons * Designed to be used in conjunction with the free toolkits available for download from www.WatersidePress.co.uk/RJTools Restorative Justice in Prisons was launched at Brixton Prison in 2006. Prison as an institution is sometimes taken to represent the opposite of restorative justice. The culture of prisons includes coercion, highly structured and controlled regimes, banishment achieved through physical separation, and blame and punishment - whereas restorative justice values empowerment, voluntarism, respect, and treating people as individuals. Recent developments in some prisons demonstrate a far more welcoming environment for restorative work. Examples such as reaching out to victims of crime, providing prisoners with a range of opportunities to make amends and experimenting with mediation in response to conflicts within prisons show that it is possible to implement restorative justice principles in everyday prison activities. Guided by restorative justice, prisons can become places of healing and personal transformation, serving the community as well as those directly affected by crime: victims and offenders. This new book advocates the further expansion of restorative justice in prisons. Building on a widespread interest in the concept and its potential, the authors have produced a guide to enable prisons and the practitioners who work in and with them to translate the theory into action. Reviews 'This book is evidence that restorative approaches have much to offer the prison services in seeking to make their operations effective in meeting prisoner and public needs ...It successfully translates theory into practice and provides a model for organisational and cultural change in prisons': International Review of Victimology 'What strikes you as you read through this text is the sheer simplicity with which Edgar and Newell have captured the changes that are so apparently needed in the prison system today': Andy Bain, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth

Prison Law is the leading text in its field. It offers comprehensive coverage of the substantive law, the Prison Rules, and the remedies available to prisoners, including complaints procedures, civil claims, judicial review, and claims under the Human Rights Act. Both domestic and international avenues of redress are explained in detail. The book covers all aspects of prison life, from categorization and allocation to living conditions, access to the outside world, transfer and repatriation, discipline, and the procedures governing the release of fixed term prisoners and those serving life sentences. In recent years, restricted access to legal aid and the ongoing threat to the Human Rights Act have made it increasingly difficult for prisoners to exercise their rights. It would now be impossible for prison law to play the same major role in developing constitutional and public law as it has for the past 30 years. As a result, prison law practitioners are having to adapt and evolve their approach to cope with new challenges. The new edition has been completely revised and updated to take account of relevant decisions under the Human Rights Act and at the European Court of Human Rights, including important decisions on IPP sentences, ministerial involvement in prison release, conditions of detention, and their policy ramifications in the UK. The changes to the life sentence regime and the prison disciplinary system, implemented since publication of the previous edition, have been fully addressed. It also covers the Equality Act and its application in the prison context. Further, it includes a new introduction summarizing the development of prison law over the 20 years since the first edition, and its importance in the wider context of public law principles especially the expansion of jurisdiction (St Germain, Leech and Hague), fairness (Duggan, Doody), the principle of legality (Raymond v Honey, Leech No 2, Pierson, Simms and O'Brien) and HRA review (Daly and subsequent HRA decisions). Critical analysis is combined with practical guidance to make Prison Law immensely useful to practitioners, academics, and anyone with a professional interest in crime and punishment.

A leading text of worldwide renown: available in Norwegian, Danish, English, Swedish, German, Spanish, Italian - and now being translated into Chinese. Highly acclaimed, Prison On Trial is the classic critique of prisons and imprisonment: a book for everyone's library shelf and collection. For anyone seeking to understand the modern trend towards locking-up ever more people, it distills the arguments for and against incarceration in a readable, accessible and authoritative way - gaining in status each time prison populations increase across large parts of the world. In this new Third Edition - with its New Preface, Epilogue and other Revisions (plus all the material from earlier editions) - the author expands on the control aspects of prison, the gear change brought about by responses to international terrorism post-September 11 and the London bombings and explains how contemporary events are changing the boundaries of crime and punishment and increasing the risks to civil liberties and the Rule of Law. Thomas Mathiesen also argues for an 'Alternative Public Space' where discussion of serious and fundamental issues of this nature can take place free from the superficial world of knee-jerk reactions from politicians and the entertainment-driven needs of the press and media. Prison On Trial distils the arguments for and against imprisonment in a readable, accessible and authoritative way - making Thomas Mathiesen's work a classic for students and other people concerned to understand the real issues. It is as relevant today as when it was first published - arguably more so as policy-making becomes increasingly politicized and true opportunities to influence developments diminish. Mindful of this, Mathiesen recommends an 'alternative public space' where people can engage in valid discussion on the basis of sound information, free from the survival priority of the media - to entertain.

Al Capone, George 'Machine Gun' Kelly, Alvin Karpis, 'Dock' Barker - these were just a few of the legendary 'public enemies' for whom America's first supermax prison was created. In "Alcatraz: The Gangster Years", David Ward brings their stories to life, along with vivid accounts of the lives of other infamous criminals who passed through the penitentiary from 1934 to 1948. Ward, who enjoyed unprecedented access to FBI, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and Federal Parole records, conducted interviews with one hundred former Alcatraz convicts, guards, and administrators to produce this definitive history of 'The Rock'. "Alcatraz" is the only book with authoritative answers to questions that have swirled about the prison: How did prisoners cope psychologically with the harsh regime? What provoked the protests and strikes? How did security flaws lead to the sensational escape attempts? And what happened when these 'habitual, incorrigible' convicts were finally released? By shining a light on the most famous prison in the world, Ward also raises timely questions about today's supermax prisons.

Crime and young fatherhood have generally been viewed as separate social problems. Increasingly, researchers are finding that these problems are closely related and highly concentrated in low-income communities. "Fatherhood Arrested" is an in-depth study of these issues and the difficulties of parenting while in prison and on parole.

By taking us inside the prison system, Nurse shows how its structure actively shapes an inmate's relationship with his children. For example, visitation is sometimes restricted to blood relatives and wives. Because relationships between unmarried men and the mothers of their children are often strained, some mothers are unwilling to allow their children to go to the prison with the inmate's family. Or the father may be allowed to receive visits from only one "girlfriend," which forces a man with multiple relationships, or with children by different women, to make impossible choices. Special attention is paid to the gendered nature of prison, its patriarchal and punitive structure, and its high-stress environment. The book then follows newly paroled men as they are released and return to their children.

The author spent four years doing research at the California Youth Authority, during which time she surveyed 258 paroled fathers. The group included young white, black, and Latino men, ages sixteen to twenty-five. She conducted in-depth interviews with men selected from this group, participated in forty parenting class sessions, and observed visiting hours at three different institutions. The data provide fascinating information about the characteristics of the men, their attitudes toward fatherhood, and the ways they are involved with their children. The diversity of the fathers allows for an analysis of racial and ethnic variation in their attitudes and involvement. The study concludes with a series of policy suggestions, especially important in light of the large number of fathers now living under the care and control of the juvenile justice system.

Crime and young fatherhood have generally been viewed as separate social problems. Increasingly, researchers are finding that these problems are closely related and highly concentrated in low-income communities. "Fatherhood Arrested" is an in-depth study of these issues and the difficulties of parenting while in prison and on parole.

By taking us inside the prison system, Nurse shows how its structure actively shapes an inmate's relationship with his children. For example, visitation is sometimes restricted to blood relatives and wives. Because relationships between unmarried men and the mothers of their children are often strained, some mothers are unwilling to allow their children to go to the prison with the inmate's family. Or the father may be allowed to receive visits from only one "girlfriend," which forces a man with multiple relationships, or with children by different women, to make impossible choices. Special attention is paid to the gendered nature of prison, its patriarchal and punitive structure, and its high-stress environment. The book then follows newly paroled men as they are released and return to their children.

The author spent four years doing research at the California Youth Authority, during which time she surveyed 258 paroled fathers. The group included young white, black, and Latino men, ages sixteen to twenty-five. She conducted in-depth interviews with men selected from this group, participated in forty parenting class sessions, and observed visiting hours at three different institutions. The data provide fascinating information about the characteristics of the men, their attitudes toward fatherhood, and the ways they are involved with their children. The diversity of the fathers allows for an analysis of racial and ethnic variation in their attitudes and involvement. The study concludes with a series of policy suggestions, especially important in light of the large number of fathers now living under the care and control of the juvenile justice system.

Behind the Walls is a detailed description of the world's largest prison system by a long-time convict trained as an observer and reporter. It spotlights the day-to-day workings of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice -- what's good, what's bad, which programs work and which ones do not, and examines if practice really follows official policy.

Written to inform about the processes, services, activities, issues, and problems of being incarcerated, this book is invaluable to anyone who has a relative or friend incarcerated in Texas, or for those who want to understand how prisoners live, eat, work, play, and die in a contemporary U.S. prison.

Containing a short history of Texas prisons and advice on how to help inmates get out and stay out of prison, this book is the only one of its kind -- written by a convict still incarcerated and dedicated to dispelling the ignorance and fear that shroud Texas prisons. Renaud discusses living quarters, food, and clothing, along with how prisoners handle money, mail, visits, and phone calls. He explores the issues of drugs, racism, gangs, and violence as well as what an inmate can learn about his parole, custody levels, and how to handle emergencies. What opportunities are available for education? What is the official policy for discipline? What is a lockdown? These questions and many others are answered in this one-of-a-kind guide.

While the number of incarcerated women is dramatically escalating, women prisoners throughout the world are largely an invisible and neglected population. These comparative essays examine thoroughly the unique problems, challenges, and issues facing women inmates in the United States, Canada, England, New Zealand, Poland, and Thailand.
The insightful volume fills a major gap in criminal justice literature, and it provides a solid basis for further discussion of the too-long ignored subject of women's imprisonment.

From the summer of 1972 through 1975, Kenneth Wooden visited correctional facilities in thirty states where juveniles between the ages of five and sixteen were being held. During his research he uncovered an astoundingly high incidence of emotional and physical abuse, torture, and commercial exploitation of the children by their keepers, individuals who received public funds to care for them. After observing the brutal treatment of these youths, a significant number of whom were not criminals but runaways or mentally disabled, Wooden described the conditions in which these children lived in Weeping in the Playtime of Others.

Ursula Smartt's ground-breaking Grendon Tales lifts the lid on a highly acclaimed regime that was developed at Grendon Underwood in Buckinghamshire from the 1960s onwards. Grendon Tales is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand: What therapy with offenders consists of; What it can achieve; How Grendon Prison with its therapeutic communities became a world leader; What drives some people to commit heinous and unspeakable crimes; How 'prison democracy' works; Why Grendon is 'the last chance saloon'; Why some prisoners struggle to 'get into' Grendon whilst others avoid the place; The impact on prisoners when they first arrive at Grendon; What happens during their time there; The pressures they face on their return to the mainstream prison system; The approach in relation to different types of offenders (including sex offenders); The effect on prisoners' lives and relationships; The aims and mission of the those who work at Grendon; and Moves to replicate its success. Direct, raw, perceptive and at times shocking, Ursula Smartt's work gives a unique insight into a world famous prison. Based on unparalleled access to HMP Grendon and direct conversations with high-risk offenders, governors, prison officers, probation officers, psychologists and other prison staff as well as her own observations of the prison's day-to-day routines over 12 months, the book provides a modern-day account of the challenging environment that Tony Parker, writing in the 1970s, described as 'The Frying Pan'. A unique work from a criminologist whose researches have taken her to prisons across the UK and in other places, including Europe, the USA and India. Her words and penetrating insights repay close study and give cause for reflection about why such methods have not been embraced more widely by a Criminal Justice System whose key aims include crime prevention, crime reduction and ensuring public safety. Reviews 'As readable as a novel...I could not put it down until finished': The Magistrate 'A breathless personal slide through her year talking to some of the country's most difficult prisoners': Frances Crook, Community Care. 'The book is both comprehensive and thourough...This is not a book to engage with lightly, or to browse through. It needs to be read completely, with a degree of commitment, for it is, ultimately, encouraging and optimistic...I can firmly endorse Ursula Smartt's work': John Broughton, It's Wandsworth.

A major collection of writings about the transforming power of education in British prisons. Prison(er) Education comprises key essays by leading prison education practitioners, academics and prisoners, including new work on how to evaluate the 'success' of education within prison by Dr Ray Pawson of Leeds University, and Stephen Duguid of Simon Fraser University, Canada. A major challenge to penal policy-makers to accept the value of education - beyond 'basic skills', and at a time when prison regimes have come to be dominated by cognitive thinking skills courses. Edited by two leading experts on prison education in the United Kingdom - Professor David Wilson of the University of Central England (a former prison governor and co-presenter of BBC TV's Crime Squad), and Dr Anne Reuss of the University of Abertay (who previously taught at HM Prison Full Sutton). Weaving anecdote, research and evaluation, Prison(er) Education presents for the first time a comprehensive account of education inside British prisons. At the heart of the book lies the question 'Who is prison education for: prison or prisoners?' This book is a major challenge to penal policy-makers to accept the value of education - beyond 'basic skills', and at a time when regimes have come to be dominated by cognitive thinking skills courses. Weaving anecdote with solid research and evaluation, the book presents for the first time in Britain a comprehensive account of education inside prisons. Reviews 'Highly authoritative ...a major challenge': Inside Time 'This book will be of interest to anyone working in the Prison Service, and to educators in general...Non-academic staff will recognise the conflicts, constraints, and challenges, that teachers and learners face...': Sally Bishens, Prison Service Journal 'A diverse, informative survey...of great importance in more ways then can easily be listed': Michael McMullan, Justice of the Peace Editors Prison(er) Education is introduced and concluded by David Wilson and Anne Reuss (who also contributes a chapter on 'Conducting Research in Prisons') with their vision of the direction education in prison should take in the years to come. David Wilson is professor of criminology at the Centre for Criminal Justice Policy and Research at the University of Central England in Birmingham. A former prison governor, he is editor of the Howard Journal and a well-known author, broadcaster and presenter for TV and radio, including for the BBC, C4 and Sky Television. He has written three other books for Waterside Press: The Longest Injustice: The Strange Story of Alex Alexandrowicz (with the latter), Images of Incarceration: Representations of Prison in Film and Television Drama (with Sean O'Sullivan) (2004), and Serial Killers: Hunting Britons and Their Victims 1960-2006 (2007). Dr Anne Reuss lectures in the Sociology Department of the University of Abertay in Scotland. Prior to taking up this appointment, she taught degree level sociology to prisoners at HMP Full Sutton, which formed the basis of her doctoral dissertation - now regarded as the benchmark of research in this field.

The over two million men and women incarcerated in penitentiaries and jails have become America's forgotten population. This extraordinary anthology of autobiographical prison writings brings the reader inside their silent and hidden world.
Culled from more than four hundred submissions nationwide, the thirty-six pieces here represent works by a broad spectrum of prisoners: young and old, unknown and infamous, minimum security check forgers and death row inmates. The authors include notorious "Preppie Murderer" Robert Chambers; an elderly truck driver who strangled the woman he professed to love; and a gang member recalling his violent street life. All talk in their own uncensored words about themselves and their families, about their motives and personal demons, about committing crime and doing time.
Just as this collection gives prisoners the rare chance to communicate who they are and what went wrong, it also gives the reader a unique opportunity to see convicts not as hardened criminals but as human beings.

Incarcerated women in the United States are largely an invisible population because of their small numbers, their involvement in less violent and serious offenses, and their neglect by most criminologists. Yet all too often prison has become a dumping ground for women who lack options for self-support, or who need drug treatment, job training, or a haven from battering.
This work draws on the life stories of forty women inmates at a minimum security prison in North Carolina. It explores their lives before imprisonment, enabling the reader to understand their incarceration within the context of childhood and adolescent experiences, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, low education levels, and poor work histories. Lori B. Girshick relates the prisoners' views of doing time, the criminal justice system, and their own rehabilitation. She also interviews family members, friends, and social service providers to show how support networks function or fail.
Girshick argues convincingly that the treatment of women in society creates circumstances that lead some of them to break the law, and she makes specific recommendations for policies that address the need for social change and for community programs designed to deter crime.

In 1940 thousands of Jews were trying to flee Nazi persecution in Europe. This is the little-known story of a group of 1,600 Jewish refugees who, having escaped from Nazi-occupied Europe, were refused entry into Palestine by the British in 1940 because they were considered OillegalO immigrants. Their deportation after landing in the Promised Land, Eretz Israel, was unique. As a deterrent to others, they were deported to Mauritius, a remote island in the Indian Ocean. They were detained in a Mauritian prison until the end of the war and were deprived of all basic human rights_even that of family life. This story sheds light on the British governmentOs lack of understanding of the critical problem of Jewish refugees at that time.

Ashley Wilkes of "Gone with the Wind" helped to seal Rock Island's reputation as the "Andersonville of the North." McAdams separates truth from fiction about the Rock Island Barracks, the prison that held tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers. Revealing that Rock Island was not without its problems--ignominious punishments, inadequate facilities, malnutrition, and lack of basic supplies--McAdams shows how Union officers sought to maintain humane conditions in the face of a war that raged on longer than anyone anticipated. Two dozen rare photographs round out the unflinching descriptions of prison life.

Making it in Hell, says Bruce Jackson, is the spirit behind the sixty-five work songs gathered in this eloquent dispatch from a brutal era of prison life in the Deep South. Through engagingly documented song arrangements and profiles of their singers, Jackson shows how such pieces as "Hammer Ring," "Ration Blues," "Yellow Gal," and "Jody's Got My Wife and Gone" are like no other folk music forms: they are distinctly African in heritage, diminished in power and meaning outside their prison context, and used exclusively by black convicts.

The songs helped workers through the rigors of cane cutting, logging, and cotton picking. Perhaps most important, they helped resolve the men's hopes and longings and allowed them a subtle outlet for grievances they could never voice when face-to-face with their jailers.

Going Straight is the flagship publication behind the launch of Unlock, the National Association of Ex-Offenders. It contains revealing interviews with people who have 'succeeded' after prison and in some cases a 'criminal career'. The book looks at a range of offenders who have changed their way of life. They include famous, notorious, creative and ordinary people who were prepared to talk about the turning point in their lives when they left crime behind. Their candid explanations about how they rebuilt their lives - often full of remorse for their victims and determined to repay something to their communities - are challenging, illuminating and a cause for optimism. They include ex-burglar John Bowers (later an editor of prison newspaper Inside Time), former violent criminal Frank Cook (a sculptor and author), ex drug-dealer Peter Cameron (a successful artist whose work features on the front cover), Great Train Robbery mastermind Bruce Reynolds, actor Stephen Fry, former armed gangster Bob Cummines (the first Chief Executive of Unlock) and Cameron Mackenzie (Glasgow villain turned minister of religion). Others include a self-made millionaire, a one-time compulsive gambler, an individual involved in The Troubles in Northern Ireland - and one or two who chose to use a pseudonym.

This is the history of the foundations of modern carceral institutions in Ontario. Drawing on a wide range of previously unexplored primary material - including the papers of prison inspectors and officials and the correspondence of those who wrote to the authorities - Peter Oliver provides a narrative and interpretative account of the penal system in nineteenth-century Ontario.

In a century of massive social change, the penal system remained rural, local, decentralized, and resistant to transformations that were affecting other areas of society. Despite the efforts of reformers, neither the political elites nor Ontarians in general paid much attention to the inadequacies of a system plagued by neglect, penny-pinching, and the vagaries of local control. In the 1830s, the Kingston penitentiary and punishment by incarceration became the cornerstones of the system, and these elements, however flawed, dominated the Ontario correctional system until the late twentieth century.

'Terror to Evil-Doers' focuses on the purposes and internal management of particular institutions. By synthesizing a wealth of new material into a comprehensive framework, Oliver's seminal study lays the groundwork for future students and scholars of Canadian history, criminology, and sociology.

I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! is the amazing true story of one man's search for meaning, fall from grace, and eventual victory over injustice. In 1921, Robert E. Burns was a shell-shocked and penniless veteran who found himself at the mercy of Georgia's barbaric penal system when he fell in with a gang of petty thieves. Sentenced to six to ten years' hard labor for his part in a robbery that netted less than $6.00, Burns was shackled to a county chain gang. After four months of backbreaking work, he made a daring escape, dodging shotgun blasts, racing through swamps, and eluding bloodhounds on his way north. For seven years Burns lived as a free man. He married and became a prosperous Chicago businessman and publisher. When he fell in love with another woman, however, his jealous wife turned him in to the police, who arrested him as a fugitive from justice. Although he was promised lenient treatment and a quick pardon, he was back on a chain gang within a month. Undaunted, Burns did the impossible and escaped a second time, this time to New Jersey. He was still a hunted man living in hiding when this book was first published in 1932. The book and its movie version, nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 1933, shocked the world by exposing Georgia's brutal treatment of prisoners. I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! is a daring and heartbreaking book, an odyssey of misfortune, love, betrayal, adventure, and, above all, the unshakable courage and inner strength of the fugitive himself.

As new jails fill up almost as soon as they open, conflict continues to grow among public officials, who, in turn, create policies that do little more than avoid blame and temporarily control the crisis. This book proposes that we can understand this crisis by tracing the interdependence of the jail system with local agencies of criminal justice.

The author's father was a Kenyan nationalist detained by the British. And thus his son was unable to benefit from anything more than a rudimentary education. He turned to crime for a living, spent fifteen years in prison, then decided to reform. This is his second book about his adventurous life.

Penologists, social services administra-tors, and students of criminal justice as well as of Indian studies will welcome this groundbreaking study, the product of close observation of and direct involvement on behalf of Indians in the Nebraska state penal system. Opening with a group profile, it discusses in detail the special concerns of that population: cultural and spiritual activities (Indians incarcerated in Nebraska were among the first to seek court permission to practice their religion behind bars), the seriously underestimated rates of alcoholism and drug addiction and the need for culturally appropriate treatment, and high rates of recidivism and their effect on parole. The final chapters present comparative data on Indians incarcerated in other states and offer recommendations for dealing with recurrent problems. "Indians in Prison" is particularly timely for its focus on how the social environments of Indian youth contribute to their delinquency and substance abuse and how Indians in prison perceive rehabilitation strategies, parole, and the law.

Investigates the sexual behavior and relationships of prison inmates and examines the attitudes of officials and guards toward sex in prison By far the best book on the subject. Painfully accurate. This book far surpasses other studies of male sex in prison.--Laud Humphreys, PhD, Pitzer College, author of Tearoom Trade It expands the existing literature into a realm not previously addressed. . . . No one book will answer all questions about sex in prison, but what impresses me about [the authors'] work is that it answers some questions most people have not even yet thought of asking . . . a pioneering work.--A. Nicholas Groth, PhD, Director, Sex Offender Program, State of Connecticut Department of Corrections

A journey into the experiences of incarcerated women in rural areas, revealing how location can reinforce gendered violence Incarceration is all too often depicted as an urban problem, a male problem, a problem that disproportionately affects people of color. This book, however, takes readers to the heart of the struggles of the outlaw women of the rural West, considering how poverty and gendered violence overlap to keep women literally and figuratively imprisoned. Outlaw Women examines the forces that shape women's experiences of incarceration and release from prison in the remote, predominantly white communities that many Americans still think of as "the Western frontier." Drawing on dozens of interviews with women in the state of Wyoming who were incarcerated or on parole, the authors provide an in-depth examination of women's perceptions of their lives before, during, and after imprisonment. Considering cultural mores specific to the rural West, the authors identify the forces that consistently trap women in cycles of crime and violence in these regions: felony-related discrimination, the geographic isolation that traps women in abusive relationships, and cultural stigmas surrounding addiction, poverty, and precarious interpersonal relationships. Following incarceration, women in these areas face additional, region-specific obstacles as they attempt to reintegrate into society, including limited social services, significant gender wage gaps, and even severe weather conditions that restrict travel. The book ultimately concludes with new, evidence-based recommendations for addressing the challenges these women face.