Prison

About: Prison is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 25120 publications have been published within this topic receiving 470474 citations. The topic is also known as: jail & gaol.

Indigenous Over-representation in Prison: The Role of Offender Characteristics

Abstract: Fifteen years ago the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody drew attention to the fact that the rate of imprisonment of Indigenous Australians was 13 times higher than the corresponding rate for non- Indigenous Australians Efforts to reduce Indigenous imprisonment rates over the intervening period have met with little success Indeed, over the last few years, the rate of Indigenous imprisonment has increased The research reported here had two main objectives The first was to determine whether there is any evidence of racial bias in the sentencing of Indigenous offenders The second was to determine what other factors account for the higher proportion of Indigenous offenders sentenced to terms of imprisonment The research revealed no evidence of racial bias in sentencing The higher rate at which Indigenous offenders are sent to prison stems mainly from (a) a higher rate of conviction for violent crime and (b) a higher rate of re-offending, particularly following the imposition of sanctions intended as alternatives to full-time imprisonment The implications of these findings for policy are discussed

Can Prisons Work?: The Prisoner as Object and Subject in Modern Corrections

Abstract: Can individuals be reformed or rehabilitated in the prison? A persistent body of work indicates that rehabilitation and/or reformation through incarceration is illusory. Exceptions, according to this view, are the result of accident, not design. For many practitioners in corrections systems, the incarceration of criminals is a .fact. and the task of prisons is to isolate, deter, and punish and only then, perhaps reform the criminal. In .Can Prison Work?. Stephen Duguid contends that both critics and defenders of incarceration have erred in making the prisoner the object rather than the subject of their discourse; the critics see prisoners as victims of a monstrous institution and the defenders view them as incorrigibles persuaded only by coercion or manipulation. Duguid begins by reviewing the philosophical and cultural contexts that led to the idea of .curing. criminals (in addition to deterring crime) through treatment and incarceration, presenting diverse historical commentaries from Plato and Socrates to former inmates. The two dominant approaches to modern corrections are also discussed, the one based on sociology and the one based on psychology - the latter being seen as responsible for the rise in the twentieth century of a medicalized approach to corrections. It was the collapse of this 'medical' model (in the 1970s) that created possibilities for innovative approaches in penology and four of these approaches are examined in some depth. Focusing on prisons with broadly conceived educational programs organized by people from outside the field of corrections, Duguid describes how programs in Canada, England, Scotland, and the United States were successful largely because the relationship with prisoner-students was built around notions of reciprocity, mutual respect, and individual development. Empirical data from an extensive follow-up study of the Canadian program is presented as evidence of the potential success using these kinds of approaches. In each of these cases, however, these programs, others like them, were eventually terminiated by prison authorities. The book concludes with the exploration of the tension between prison systems and outsiders engaged with programs within prisons. It argues against the re-emergence of a new medical model in favour of more humane - and human - approaches to individual change and reformation. Winner of the Harold Adams Innis Prize, awarded by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

An Introduction to “Doing Prison Research Differently”

Abstract: This special section of this issue emerged from responses to an article I wrote, “Autoethnography and Emotion as Intellectual Resources: Doing Prison Research Differently,” published in Qualitative Inquiry (18:1) in 2012. The article was, in essence, a plea for researchers who conduct ethnographic studies in prisons to disclose in their published work the many and complex emotional feelings and experiences they go through prior to, during, and after their fieldwork. My argument was that prison ethnographers are highly attuned to analyzing the fine nuances of their respondents’ agency, identity management, and socialization and survival strategies, but are often silent on their own agency, identity management, and socialization and survival strategies. If such reflections are present at all, they make a slightly apologetic appearance in an appendix. The intention was not to encourage pointless emoting or to step over that fine line that demarcates honest disclosure and showy exposure. I attempted to caution that selfawareness can all too easily slip into self-absorption and that thoughtful contemplation may be read as uncomfortably confessional or narcissistic. To be clear, then, and to highlight a unifying theme of this special section (and I have for the most part organized what follows along thematic lines, rather than introducing the articles in conventional, chronological order), my objective was to explore how acknowledgment of the ethnographer’s biography, motivations, and emotions can uniquely enrich data, analysis, and writing up (Jewkes, 2012a). As Abigail Rowe puts it in her contribution to this issue, “ethnography proper” has the capacity to examine what can be learned from reflecting on our presence in the field that “we could not otherwise have access to.” My purpose was also to highlight that emotions, feelings, and subjective experiences perform several important functions in qualitative inquiry. Ben Crewe neatly sums up these multifarious roles in his contribution to this issue:

Young Men in Prison: Surviving and Adapting to Life Inside

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. The transition into prison 3. Adaptation to prison life 4. Supportive transactions between staff and prisoners 5. Peer interactions and relationships in prison 6. Self-harm among young adults in prison 7. Transition, adaptation and attachment