Controversial Issues in Prisons

Controversial Issues in Prisons is a textbook designed to explore eight of the most controversial aspects of imprisonment in England and Wales today. It is primarily a book about the people who are sent to prison and what happens to them when inside. Each chapter examines a different dimension of the prison population and draws upon the sociological imagination to make connections between the personal troubles and vulnerabilities of those incarcerated with wider structural divisions which plague the society we live in. The book investigates controversies surrounding the incarceration of people with mental health problems, women, children, foreign nationals, offenders' with suicidal ideation, sex offenders, drug takers and the collateral consequences of incarceration on prisoners' families. Each chapter on these eight substantive topics shares a common structure and answers the following key questions: How have people conceptualised this penal controversy? What does the official data tell us and what are its limitations? What is its historical context? What are the contemporary policies of the Prison Service? Are they legitimate and, if not, what are the alternatives? Ultimately the authors argue that in combination these controversial issues raise fundamental concerns about the legitimacy of the confinement project and the kind of society in which it is deemed essential. The book concludes with a discussion of why it remains important to make penal controversies visible, challenge penological illiteracy and provide alternative means of responding to human wrongdoing rooted in the principles of human rights and social justice.

Table of Contents:
Preface Thinking about controversial issues in prison Prisoners with mental health problems Women prisoners Children and young people in custody 'Race', racism and foreign national prisoners Self inflicted deaths The treatment of people who sexually offend Drug takers Prisoners and their families Beyond penal controversies and towards abolitionism Bibliography

About the Author :
David Scott is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Central Lancashire. David is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Criminal Justice Matters, the review board of the Journal of Social Criminology and is an ambassador for Make Justice Work. Helen Codd is a Principal Lecturer in law at the University of Central Lancashire. Helen is Chair of THOMAS, a social exclusion/drug rehabilitation charity based in Blackburn, and Associate Research Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London.