The imprisonment rate in America has grown by a factor of five since 1972. In that time, punishment policies have toughened, compassion for prisoners has diminished, and prisons have gotten worse-a stark contrast to the origins of the prison 200 years ago as a humanitarian reform, a substitute for capital and corporal punishment and banishment. So what went wrong? How can prisons be made simultaneously more effective and more humane? Who should be sent there in the first place? What should happen to them while they are inside? When, how, and under what conditions should they be released? The Future of Imprisonment unites some of the leading prisons and penal policy scholars of our time to address these fundamental questions. Inspired by the work of Norval Morris, the contributors look back to the past twenty-five years of penal policy in an effort to look forward to the prison's twenty-first century future. Their essays examine the effects of current high levels of imprisonment on urban neighborhoods and the people who live in them. They reveal how current policies came to be as they are and explain the theories of punishment that guide imprisonment decisions. Finally, the contributors argue for the strategic importance of controls on punishment including imprisonment as a limit on government power; chart the rise and fall of efforts to improve conditions inside; analyze the theory and practice of prison release; and evaluate the tricky science of predicting and preventing recidivism. A definitive guide to imprisonment policies for the future, this volume convincingly demonstrates how we can prevent crime more effectively at lower economic and human cost.

The twelve essays in this volume aim at providing philosophers, neuroscientists, psychologists, and legal theorists with an opportunity to examine the cluster of related issues that will need to be addressed as scholars struggle to come to grips with the picture of human agency being pieced together by researchers in the biosciences.

In 1999, the Nordic Council adopted a recommendation on prison education in a Nordic perspective. In September 2001, a Nordic project group was appointed to carry out a study, with representatives from the Prison and Probation Services and the educational authorities. The project was directed by the County Governor of Hordaland, Norway. According to this report, good cooperation between the Prison and Probation Services and other authorities is one of the key starting points for satisfying prisoners1 educational needs. The prison education offered today does not satisfactorily correspond to prisoners1 educational needs. It also only accounts for a small fraction of the cost of a place in prison. Increased investments in prison education would probably be of added value for society as a whole. The study also points out the importance of crime prevention both to prisons and to society in general.

“Few people can talk about prisons with the authority and experience thatAndrew Coyle brings to his subject. A former prison governor, an academicauthor, an international activist and a practical reformer, Professor Coyleknows prisons inside and out, home and abroad, past and present. InUnderstanding Prisons he uses his impressive expertise to guide researchersthrough the changing world of the English prison. The result is an accessible,up-to-date, and highly informative book that will be welcomed by studentsand practitioners alike.” David Garland, NYU, author of The Culture of Control “Andrew Coyle has drawn on his lifelong experience of governing prisons inScotland and England and, as the former Director of the International Centrefor Prison Studies, Kings College, London, studying prisons worldwide. Hehas written a comprehensive account of the use of imprisonment and thecharacter of prisons. He persuasively argues that our continued, extensiveuse of imprisonment cannot simply be explained or justified by the incidenceof crime and could otherwise. His book merits close attention.” Rod Morgan, Chairman, Youth Justice Board There are over nine million men, women and children in prison around the world, and the number of people in prison in England and Wales has increased significantly in recent years. Yet in many respects prison remains the last secretive public institution in our society. Understanding Prisons provides a unique, in-depth examination of prisons – how they function, what they achieve, and their historical and political context. The book: Describes how prisons developed into their present form Looks at who is sent to prison and what happens to them while they are there Explains how the prison system and staff in England and Wales are organised Examines how order and control is maintained and how high security prisons operate Looks at prisoners’ families and the wider community Offers a future vision of the prison system This is essential reading for criminology and sociology students and researchers, criminal justice practitioners, the media and members of the public who are interested in learning more about the closed world of the prison.

Theatre and Prison investigates how theatre-makers stage critical questions about the use of prison in society. Using examples from popular culture, dramatic texts and applied theatre it analyses how theatre and performance reveals economies of punishment, affects penal reform and both challenges and participates in narratives of reformation.

This book brings together a team of experts in the field of forensic psychology to demonstrate the scope of the discipline and the techniques employed in key areas of research, policy and practice. Its aim is to go beyond the introductory texts on the subject to challenge perceptions, to raise questions for research, to pose problems for practice, and to inspire and stimulate, demonstrating the ways in which forensic psychology can aid the practice of criminal justice. It will be essential reading for students, academics and practitioners. The book is divided into seven sections, addressing key topics with which the discipline is concerned − its broader context, investigation and prosecution, testimony and evidence, correlates of criminality, persistent offending, intervention and prevention and punishment and corrections. The contributors include both academics and practitioners, and are drawn from the UK, the USA and Australasia.