Controversial Issues in Prisons - Hardcover

Scott, David; Codd, Helen

9780335223046: Controversial Issues in Prisons

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0335223044 ISBN 13: 9780335223046

Publisher: Open University Press, 2010

This specific ISBN edition is currently not available.

This textbook is designed to explore eight of the most controversial aspects of imprisonment in England and Wales. It looks at the people who are sent to prison and what happens to them when they are incarcerated. Each chapter examines a different dimension of the prison population and makes connections between the personal troubles and vulnerabilities of those confined.

The book investigates controversies surrounding the incarceration of people with mental health problems, women, children, BME and foreign nationals, offenders with suicidal ideation, sex offenders and drug takers, as well as looking at the consequences of incarceration on prisoners' families.

Each chapter addresses key questions, such as:

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?

The book concludes that the eight penal controversies highlighted in the text collectively provide a damning indictment of the current state of imprisonment in England and Wales and points to the need for radical alternatives for dealing with human wrongdoing rooted in the principles of human rights and social justice.

Controversial Issues in Prisons is key reading for students and academics in the fields of criminology and criminal justice, as well as those studying crime and punishment on courses in social policy, sociology, social work and addiction studies.

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About the Author

David Scott is Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. 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 Principal Lecturer in Law at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. 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, UK.

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