Penal Policies and Institutional Sociologies

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-131
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Watson
Keyword(s):  
Current Approach ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Penal Policy ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
What Matters

Given that respect is, almost without exception, one of the first values to emerge in conversations with inmates about ‘what matters’ in prison, one could be forgiven for assuming that scholars had given the issue thorough attention. This is not the case. This chapter—the first of two on prisons—situates a number of institutional sociologies of the prison in relation to the key trends in penal policy with which they coincided. In so doing, it offers a critique of the current approach to respect in prisons in England and Wales and identifies moments in recent history when respect—however reductively understood—was especially pronounced.

Bridging the Gap between Political and Penal Legitimacy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Henham
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Social Value ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Social Morality ◽  
Penal Policy ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Sentencing Policy ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter argues that the relationship between penal policy and the political economy provides important insights into the political and institutional reforms required to minimize harsh and discriminatory penal policies. However, the capacity of sentencing policy to engage with this social reality in a meaningful way necessitates a recasting of penal ideology. To realize this objective requires a profound understanding of sentencing’s social value and significance for citizens. The greatest challenge then lies in establishing coherent links between penal ideology and practice to encourage forms of sentencing that are sensitive to changes in social value. The chapter concludes by explaining how the present approach taken by the courts of England and Wales to the sentencing of women exacerbates social exclusion and reinforces existing divisions in social morality. It urges fundamental changes in ideology and practice so that policy reflects a socially valued rationale for the criminalization and punishment of women.

“Tough on Crime”: Penal Policy in England and Wales

2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 425-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Newburn
Keyword(s):  
Penal Policy ◽  
England And Wales

Lisbon College: the Penultimate Chapter

2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-95
Author(s):  
Michael E. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Recent History ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Small College ◽  
Secular Clergy ◽  
Complete Account

It is more than twenty-five years since the English College Lisbon closed. While it may still be too soon to give a complete account of that closure, one can consider some of the events in its more recent history that preceded its final end. The closure cannot be attributed solely to the conditions obtaining in 1971 and the decline in the recruitment to the secular clergy of England and Wales. In that year vocations to the priesthood had not yet reached their lowest point. Moreover, throughout its 350 years Lisbon had not depended for its viability on enrolling a large number of students. It had always been a small college. Although its primary purpose was to prepare men for the priesthood it had frequently found itself having to fulfil other functions in addition to those of a seminary.

Postscript

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Guiney
Keyword(s):  
New Labour ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Differential Treatment ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Penal Policy ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Early Release ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Serious Offenders

The Postscript traces the evolution of early release since the events described in this book. It examines the growing influence of a ‘strategy of bifurcation’ within penal policy and considers how the differential treatment of low-level and serious offenders has transformed the policy and practice of early release in England and Wales. Given the space available, this involves painting with broad brush strokes and this postscript is loosely divided into three political interludes: the early years of New Labour, 1997 to 2003; the later stages of the New Labour project, 2004 to 2010; and the Coalition and Conservative governments that have followed since 2010.

The religious and personalist tradition: or, reflections on the moral economy of criminal justice

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Penal Policy

When excavating probation and criminal justice since 1997, it is not possible to remain content with the bodies of theoretical resources established in chapter 2. This is precisely because there is a distinctive religious and personalist tradition of considerable longevity that must be factored into this analysis. Furthermore, the perspective advanced in this chapter is developed by refining the conceptual device of moral economy. Not only does moral economy critique the recent history within the criminal justice domain, it also provides the intellectual resources to reconstruct the moral dynamics of what is a people-facing organisation. Moral economy constructs an original perspective that can be applied to probation, criminal justice, and penal policy with illuminating effects.

scholarly journals The role of storylines in penal policy change

2021 ◽  
pp. 146247452198953
Author(s):  
Harry Annison
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Internal Dynamics ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Penal Policy ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Reform Project

Bringing policy reform to fruition is an enterprise fraught with difficulty; penal policy is no different. This paper argues that the concept of ‘storylines’, developed within policy studies, is capable of generating valuable insights into the internal dynamics of penal policy change and particularly the ‘commmunicative miracle’ whereby policy participants sufficiently align to achieve reform. I utilize the part-privatization and part-marketization of probation services in England and Wales (‘Transforming Rehabilitation’) as a pertinent case study: a policy disaster foretold, but nonetheless inaugurated at breakneck speed. Drawing on interviews with policy makers, I demonstrate the means by which the ‘rehabilitation revolution’ storyline resolved (at least temporarily) the tensions and problems inherent in the reform project; without which it would have struggled to succeed. We see that storylines play at least three important roles for policy makers: they enable specific policies to ‘make sense’, to ‘fit’ in line with their pre-existing beliefs. They provide a sense of meaning, moral mission and self-legitimacy. And they deflect contestation. In closing, I consider the implications for scholars of penal policy change.

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