prisons

Question 1

what are the definitions of prisons?

Answer 1

• a paradoxical social institution - steel bars and stone walls is not an environment in which serious efforts at rehabilitation can be carried out
• segregated and confined in special institutions designed to remove them either temporarily or permanently from mainstream society

Question 2

what are the 2 approaches of prisons?

Answer 2

1 = penal pragmatist - give immediate practical, ‘pragmatic’ responses to disturbance by implementing a tougher system of control
2 = sociologist of imprisonment - study the historical evolution of imprisonment, focus on how the prison has been historically shaped through key elements

Question 3

what is the ‘prison works’ ideology for deterrence?

Answer 3

ignores the evidence that prison is not always a deterrent. 49% of adults are reconvicted within one year of release from prison

Question 4

what is the ‘prison works’ ideology for incapacitation?

Answer 4

ignores the evidence that prison does not always achieve incapacitation and public protection, e.g. prisoner on prisoner violence, staff violence, and assaults of the staff. Assaults on prison staff have risen by 143% in the past 4 years

Question 5

what is the ‘prison works’ ideology on rehabilitation?

Answer 5

ignores the pains of imprisonment, which can affect rehabilitation, e.g. loss of liberty, deprivation of autonomy, frustration of sexual desire

Question 6

explain the emergence of the modern prison?

Answer 6

• 17th century shift from punishment bodies to depriving liberty
• from capital punishment (public executions, whippings) to workhouses, prisons
• in medieval period, prisons were primarily places where prisoners were held while awaiting trial, executive or deportation. While in the modern prison, the deprivation of liberty itself for a specified period of time becomes the dominant mode of punishment

Question 7

what is the just measure of pain?

Answer 7

old feudal society was breaking down. There were major socio-economic changes, the old feudal order was breaking down, and protocapitalism gradually evolved. Private property and a growing number of goods, new penal codes to protect private property, and a new system of punishment came to protect property

Question 8

how is prison a site of social engineering?

Answer 8

the role of the prison as achieving several aims including the following:
- repression of threats to the capitalist order and control of surplus labour
- preserving the conscious collective
- dispersal of power and discipline to achieve control and conformity

Question 9

what is the panopticon?

Answer 9

allows those watching to view all inmates from a central vantage point without knowing they are being watched. Main functions include reform of prisoners, deter crime and reform individuals, and surveillance instilling fear of getting caught and being punished

Question 10

what is the reform and prison education?

Answer 10

• introduced in the 19th century
• Gaols Act 1823 aimed at improving conditions in prison
• initially seen as opportunity to reform but punitive aims of deterrence and retribution shifted the balance
• prison education in the 20th and 21st century = boost employment prospects, seen as privilege and not a right, since 1997 there was a focus on basic skills

Question 11

explain the end of rehabilitation?

Answer 11

• by the mid 1970s, support for this idea began to collapse and expect penology was gradually replaced by a focus on political populism
• the use and cost of ‘treatment’ was questioned, the idea that criminal behaviour might be pathological was questioned, the effectiveness of criminal justice process was questioned
• rehab practices continue in UK prisons but as the exception rather than rule