Nos últimos trinta trinta anos, houve profundas mudanças na forma como compreendemos o crime e a justiça criminal. O crime tornou-se um evento simbólico, um verdadeiro teste para a ordem social e para as políticas governamentais, um desafio para a sociedade civil, para a democracia e para os direitos humanos. Segundo David Garland, professor da Faculdade de Direito da New York University, um dos principais autores no campo da Sociologia da Punição e com artigo publicado na Revista de Sociologia e Política , número 13, na modernidade tardia houve uma verdadeira obsessão securitária, direcionando as políticas criminais para um maior rigor em relação às penas e maior intolerância com o criminoso. Há trinta anos, nos EUA e na Inglaterra essa tendência era insuspeita. O livro mostra que os dois países compartilham intrigantes similaridades em suas práticas criminais, a despeito da divisão racial, das desigualdades econômicas e da letalidade violenta que marcam fortemente o cenário americano. Segundo David Garland, encontram-se nos dois países os “mesmos tipos de riscos e inseguranças, a mesma percepção a respeito dos problemas de um controle social não-efetivo, as mesmas críticas da justiça criminal tradicional, e as mesmas ansiedades recorrentes sobre mudança e ordem sociais”1 (GARLAND, 2001, p. 2). O argumento principal da obra é o seguinte: a modernidade tardia, esse distintivo padrão de relações sociais, econômicas e culturais, trouxe consigo um conjunto de riscos, inseguranças e problemas de controle social que deram uma configuração específica às nossas respostas ao crime, ao garantir os altos custos das políticas criminais, o grau máximo de duração das penas e a excessivas taxas de encarceramento.

http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rsocp/n20/n20a15.pdf

The culture of control: crime and social order in contemporary, society

Prison on trial

Recent penal policy developments in England and Wales emphasize the role for voluntary organizations. Voluntary organizations play an important and increasing role in punishment, including imprisonment and supervision, but the effects of their work are ill understood. Existing literature is ambivalent: some argue such work empowers and builds social capital; for others, it extends control. This tension is addressed by analysing two payment-by-results pilot schemes. This analysis adds to the limited empirical knowledge about voluntary organizations. It demonstrates how their involvement in these pilots enabled and justified the new 12-month mandatory statutory supervision requirement, significantly extending the spatial and temporal reach of carceral power. The conclusion considers the theoretical implications of this analysis.

/pdf/the-voluntary-sector-and-the-mandatory-statutory-supervision-j2jh5xd0zf.pdf

The Voluntary Sector and the Mandatory Statutory Supervision Requirement: Expanding the Carceral Net

Recent scholarship has indicated that the voluntary sector is becoming increasingly important in marketised penal service delivery. However, market policy reforms are thought to pose risks to distinctive voluntary sector work with prisoners. Although commentators have suggested that the voluntary sector and its staff make distinctive contributions to prisoners, these have long been poorly understood. This article uses original interview data to demonstrate that voluntary sector practitioners can offer prisoners distinctive opportunities and relational experiences. Prisoner relationships with voluntary sector practitioners can be differentiated from those with education and custodial staff. Furthermore, these relationships may have distinctively enduring effects.

/pdf/prisoner-relationships-with-voluntary-sector-practitioners-3klmg6jkay.pdf

Prisoner Relationships with Voluntary Sector Practitioners

PurposeForensic services provide care for mentally disordered offenders. In England this is provided at three levels of security—low, medium and high. Significant number of patients within these settings remain detained for protracted periods of time. This is both very costly and restrictive for individuals. No national studies have been conducted on this subject in England.MethodsWe employed a cross-sectional design using anonymised data from medical records departments in English secure forensic units. Data were collected from a large sample of medium secure patients (n = 1572) as well as the total high secure patient population (n = 715) resident on the census date (01-04-2013). We defined long-stay as a stay of more than 10 years in high, 5 years in medium or 15 years in a mix of high and medium secure settings. Long-stay status was assessed against patient demographic and admission information.ResultsWe identified a significant proportion of long-stayers: 23.5% in high secure and 18.1% in medium secure care. Amongst medium secure units a large variation in long-stay prevalence was observed from 0 to 50%. Results indicated that MHA section, admission source and current ward type were independent factors associated with long-stay status.ConclusionThis study identified a significant proportion of long-stayers in forensic settings in England. Sociodemographic factors identified in studies in individual settings may be less important than previously thought. The large variation in prevalence of long-stayers observed in the medium secure sample warrants further investigation.

Long-stay in forensic-psychiatric care in the UK [In Press]

/pdf/re-imagining-futures-exploring-arts-interventions-and-the-3jpx37aoo2.pdf

Re-imagining futures: Exploring arts interventions and the process of desistance

This paper discusses an innovative approach to teaching and learning, under which students on the undergraduate Criminology, (and related) programmes at Northumbria University are offered work experience positions in prisons in the North East of England Increasing media distortion and populist political rhetoric about imprisonment has influenced the way that students think and reflect about prison and prisoners This paper explores how introducing prison based work experience has had a dramatic effect on students’ thinking and understanding of imprisonment The paper outlines the setting up of the scheme in one of the prisons, considers the initial impact on the first cohort of participating students, and discusses the staff and student work experiences to date It also demonstrates how experiencing the prison in this way ensures that these students leave university with well-defined ideas about incarceration and better equipped for working in prison environments

Keywords: prison, carceral tour, penal populism, media representation; student learning

/pdf/no-substitute-for-the-real-thing-the-impact-of-prison-based-gk120lrif3.pdf

No Substitute for the Real Thing: The Impact of Prison‐based Work Experience on Students' Thinking about Imprisonment

A pragmatic solution for the provision of care for prisoners with serious mental illness, who are often subject to delays in hospital transfer, is the creation of specialist prison units. This pape...

https://northumbria-test.eprints-hosting.org/id/document/272899

The Development of a Prison Mental Health Unit in England: Understanding Realist Context(s)

Making space for mental health care within the penal estate

This paper discusses an innovative approach to teaching and learning, under which students on the BSc (Hons) Criminology programme (and related programmes), are offered work experience positions in prisons within the North East of England. It reviews the background to setting up the work experience scheme in one of the prisons, considers the initial impact on the first cohort of students taking part, and discusses the staff and student work experiences to date. It is co-authored by three students who worked within HMP Durham and the member of staff responsible for setting up the work experience initiative.

https://northumbria-test.eprints-hosting.org/id/document/262265

Louise Ridley

Papers

Re-imagining futures: Exploring arts interventions and the process of desistance

No Substitute for the Real Thing: The Impact of Prison‐based Work Experience on Students' Thinking about Imprisonment

The Development of a Prison Mental Health Unit in England: Understanding Realist Context(s)

Making space for mental health care within the penal estate

Doing Time: the impact of prison work experience on learning and teaching