A collection of original articles from a number of the world's leading authorities on imprisonment. The aim of the book is to review the current state of imprisonment around the world and to look at possible future developments. The underlying theme of the book is that imprisonment is undergoing a significant change in a number of different countries and that there are important lessons which can be learned from the analysis of these changes. At the same time this book is perceived as a 'state of the art' collection which provides an informed and comprehensive analysis of the major aspects of imprisonment. Consequently the book should be of interest to a wide-ranging international audience of academic researchers and policy-makers as well as students.

This book aims to focus on major administrative, inmate, and societal issues. Examines historical, philosophical, and legal issues related to corrections. The course discusses correctional objectives and principles in the context of the prevailing practices.

This book examines the current state of both the theory and practice of prison privatization in the United States in the 21st century, providing a balanced compendium of research that allows readers to draw their own conclusions about this controversial subject. This three-volume set brings together noted scholars and experts in the field to provide a comprehensive treatment of the subject of privatized prisons in the United States. It is a definitive work on the topic that synthesizes current thought on both the theory and practice of prison privatization. Volume I provides a broad-brush overview of private prisons that discusses the history of prison privatization and examines the expansion of the private prison industry and the growth of inmate populations in the United States. Volume II focuses on the corrections industry itself, providing essays that explore the business models, profit motivations, economic factors, and operations of the corporations that offer corrections services, while Volume III explores the political and social environment of prison privatization. Academics, practitioners, policy makers, and advocates for and against private prisons will find this work useful and enlightening, while general readers can use the unbiased information to draw their own conclusions in respect to the merits of prison privatization.

Click ′Additional Materials′ for downloadable samples The two-volume Encyclopedia of Prisons and Correctional Facilities aims to provide a critical overview of penal institutions within a historical and contemporary framework. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, a fact that has caused lawmakers, advocates, and legal professionals to rethink punishment policies as well as develop new policies on prisoner education and rehabilitation. Issues of race, gender, and class are fully integrated throughout in order to demonstrate the complexity of the implementation and intended results of incarceration. The Encyclopedia contains biographies, articles describing important legal statutes, and detailed and authoritative descriptions of the major prisons in the United States. Comparative data and examples are employed to analyze the American system within an international context. The Encyclopedia′s 400 entries are all written by recognized authorities. The appendix contains a comprehensive listing of every federal prison in the U.S., complete with facility details and service information. Key Themes Juvenile Justice Labor Prison Architecture Prison Populations Prison Reform Privatization Race, Gender, Class Security and Classification Sentencing Policy and Laws Staff Theories of Punishment Treatment Programs Editorial Board Stephanie Bush-Baskette, National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) Jeanne Flavin, Fordham University Esther Heffernan, Edgewood College Jim Thomas, Northern Illinois University

The Routledge Handbook on American Prisons is an authoritative volume that provides an overview of the state of U.S. prisons and synthesizes the research on the many facets of the prison system. The United States is exceptional in its use of incarceration as punishment. It not only has the largest prison population in the world, but also the highest per-capita incarceration rate. Research and debate about mass incarceration continues to grow, with mounting bipartisan agreement on the need for criminal justice reform. Divided into four sections (Prisons: Security, Operations and Administration; Types of Offenders and Populations; Living and Dying in Prison; and Release, Reentry, and Reform), the volume explores the key issues fundamental to understanding the U.S. prison system, including the characteristics of facilities; inmate risk assessment and classification, prison administration and employment, for-profit prisons, special populations, overcrowding, prison health care, prison violence, the special circumstances of death row prisoners, collateral consequences of incarceration, prison programming, and parole. The final section examines reform efforts and ideas, and offers suggestions for future research and attention. With contributions from leading correctional scholars, this book is a valuable resource for scholars with an interest in U.S. prisons and the issues surrounding them. It is structured to serve scholars and graduate students studying corrections, penology, institutional corrections, and other related topics.

The second edition of Suicide and Self-Harm in Prisons and Jails provides a comprehensive exploration of how the stress associated with arrest, sentencing, and incarcerated life can contribute to the onset of a suicidal crisis even among those who never before experienced suicidal ideation or self-harmed. Using the most recent prison and jail suicide data available Christine Tartaro discuses prison and jail administrations’ efforts to curtail the use of restrictive housing for inmates with mental illness, more recent suicide screening forms for incarcerated populations, therapeutic options for working with inmates in crisis, appropriate monitoring of people in danger of self-harm, and situational and environmental prevention tactics. Tartaro also provides examples of ways to structure and implement diversion and transition planning programs to improve the odds of facilitating offenders’ successful integration into the community and reduce communities’ reliance on jails to house and treat people who suffer from mental illness.

Between 1975 and 2007, the American incarceration rate increased nearly fivefold, a historic increase that puts the United States in a league of its own among advanced economies. We incarcerate more people today than we ever have, and we stand out as the nation that most frequently uses incarceration to punish those who break the law. What factors explain the dramatic rise in incarceration rates in such a short period of time? In Why Are So Many Americans in Prison? Steven Raphael and Michael A. Stoll analyze the shocking expansion of America’s prison system and illustrate the pressing need to rethink mass incarceration in this country. Raphael and Stoll carefully evaluate changes in crime patterns, enforcement practices and sentencing laws to reach a sobering conclusion: So many Americans are in prison today because we have chosen, through our public policies, to put them there. They dispel the notion that a rise in crime rates fueled the incarceration surge; in fact, crime rates have steadily declined to all-time lows. There is also little evidence for other factors commonly offered to explain the prison boom, such as the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill since the 1950s, changing demographics, or the crack-cocaine epidemic. By contrast, Raphael and Stoll demonstrate that legislative changes to a relatively small set of sentencing policies explain nearly all prison growth since the 1980s. So-called tough on crime laws, including mandatory minimum penalties and repeat offender statutes, have increased the propensity to punish more offenders with lengthier prison sentences. Raphael and Stoll argue that the high-incarceration regime has inflicted broad social costs, particularly among minority communities, who form a disproportionate share of the incarcerated population. Why Are So Many Americans in Prison? ends with a powerful plea to consider alternative crime control strategies, such as expanded policing, drug court programs, and sentencing law reform, which together can end our addiction to incarceration and still preserve public safety. As states confront the budgetary and social costs of the incarceration boom, Why Are So Many Americans in Prison? provides a revealing and accessible guide to the policies that created the era of mass incarceration and what we can do now to end it.

Covers the rapidly developing and increasingly professionalized field of contemporary prison practice with its increased emphasis on skills and qualifications and its new set of ideas and concepts.

The second edition of the Handbook on Prisons provides a completely revised and updated collection of essays on a wide range of topics concerning prisons and imprisonment. Bringing together three of the leading prison scholars in the UK as editors, this new volume builds on the success of the first edition and reveals the range and depth of prison scholarship around the world. The Handbook contains chapters written not only by those who have established and developed prison research, but also features contributions from ex-prisoners, prison governors and ex-governors, prison inspectors and others who have worked with prisoners in a wide range of professional capacities. This second edition includes several completely new chapters on topics as diverse as prison design, technology in prisons, the high security estate, therapeutic communities, prisons and desistance, supermax and solitary confinement, plus a brand new section on international perspectives. The Handbook aims to convey the reality of imprisonment, and to reflect the main issues and debates surrounding prisons and prisoners, while also providing novel ways of thinking about familiar penal problems and enhancing our theoretical understanding of imprisonment. The Handbook on Prisons, Second edition is a key text for students taking courses in prisons, penology, criminal justice, criminology and related subjects, and is also an essential reference for academics and practitioners working in the prison service, or in related agencies, who need up-to-date knowledge of thinking on prisons and imprisonment.

This book provides a practical guide to the establishment of effective multidisciplinary working methods in the care of mentally disordered offenders and others. It examines the theoretical basis of multidisciplinary working in a mental health context, provides a practical guide to establishing multidisciplinary working, considers training needs, team building, risk assessment, and gives an overview of research in the field [Ed.].