Suchergebnisse

Despite broad scholarship documenting the compounding effects and self-reproducing character of incarceration, ways of conceptualising imprisonment and the post-prison experience have scarcely changed in over a century. Contemporary correctional thinking has congealed around notions of risk and management. This book aims to cast new light on men's experience of release from prison. Drawing on research conducted in Australia, it speaks to the challenges facing people leaving prison and seeking acceptance amongst the non-imprisoned around the world. Johns reveals the complexity of the post-prison experience, which is frequently masked by constructions of risk that individualise responsibility for reoffending and reimprisonment. This book highlights the important role of community in ex-prisoner integration, in providing opportunities for participation and acceptance. Johns shows that the process of becoming an 'ex'-prisoner is not simply one of individual choice or larger structural forces, but occurs in the spaces in between. Being and Becoming an Ex-Prisoner reveals the complex interplay between internal and external meanings and practices that causes men to feel neither locked up, nor wholly free. It will appeal to scholars and students interested in desistance, criminology, criminological or penological theory, sociology and qualitative research methods. Book jacket.

Most prisoners get out of prison. Staying out, for some, can be challenging. Understanding these challenges can help ex-prisoners and those supporting them to interrupt cycles of offending and imprisonment. This paper considers the possibilities of 'culture' as an analytical tool for uncovering aspects of the post-imprisonment experience that may contribute to imprisonment cycles. It draws on interviews with released prisoners and post-release support workers in Victoria, Australia, to illustrate how culture interpreted as 'semiotic practices' illuminates processes underpinning and constituting the cycle of reimprisonment. A semiotic-practical lens reveals how such processes can counteract efforts towards reintegration and reduced reoffending, on the part of ex-prisoners themselves and society more broadly.

In August 2019, a research workshop at the University of Melbourne brought together academics, practitioners, advocates, people with experience of living and working in confined settings to explore parallels between the spaces and practices of care and control in different places of confinement. A former immigration detention officer, later inspector and monitor of closed environments, joined the discussion. Along with other voices of 'lived experience', he offered a unique perspective on working in places where a 'duty of care' can mean less about how people should be treated or cared for, and more about guarding oneself and one's employer against personal and institutional criticism. In the following conversation (with one of the editors of this Special Themed Collection of papers that arose from that workshop) he shares experiences of working in immigration detention, in both operational and oversight roles, and the tensions between the two. He reflects on cultures of suspicion and silence, bearing witness to experiences of violence and suffering, and what it means to be human in conditions of confinement.

On 9 August 2019, a workshop convened at the University of Melbourne, Australia, brought together academics, practitioners and advocates to explore patterns of violence and neglect within and across a range of confined settings: youth and adult prisons, immigration detention, aged and disability care and residential 'child protection'. Some of the participants in that workshop reflect here in eight pieces of writing that comprise this Special Themed Collection on 'Confinement: The spaces and practice of care and control'. The contributions are anchored and connected by the parallels in how violence manifests within and across these diverse sites of confinement – corporeally and subtly, individually and collectively. Yet as we reflect, separately and together, the differentiation and demarcation of these sites and systems of confinement serves to maintain their material and symbolic separation, and to conceal their connecting threads and commonalities.In our Editorial Introduction, we draw out themes running through the contributions to illustrate how they connect and collide, and how they illuminate intersections, differences and (sometimes unexpected) resonances between spaces, practices, settings and experiences of confinement. We identify three themes running through the seven other pieces that comprise this collection: erasure, identity and voice. Against the backdrop of the global pandemic and its implications for how we think about and experience freedom, autonomy, isolation and connection, we consider these themes: how violence is hidden from view and erased from public and political memory; how identities are shaped and swallowed by institutional practices and patterns of dehumanisation, coercion and control; and how the voices of those with lived experience of confinement – both as 'keepers' and the confined – help deepen our understanding of the threads that connect and comprise the carceral webs in which we are all entangled.

Co-production; prisons; criminal justice; youth detention

"This book explores practical examples of co-production in criminal justice research and practice. Through a series of seven case studies, the authors examine what people do when they co-produce knowledge in criminal justice contexts: in prisons and youth detention centres; with criminalised women; from practitioners' perspectives; and with First Nations communities. Co-production holds a promise: that people whose lives are entangled in the criminal justice system can be valued as participants and partners, helping to shape how the system works. But how realistic is it to imagine criminal justice 'service users' participating, partnering, and sharing genuine decision-making power with those explicitly holding power over them? Taking a sophisticated yet accessible theoretical approach, the authors consider issues of power, hierarchy and different ways of knowing to understand the perils and possibilities of co-production under the shadow of 'justice'. In exploring these complexities, the book brings cautious optimism to co-production partners and project leaders. This book provides a foundational text for scholars and practitioners seeking to apply co-production principles in their research and practice. With stories from Australia, the UK and Ireland, the text will appeal to the international community. For students of criminology and social work, the book's critical insights will enhance their work in the field"--

Place, Race and Politics presents an integrated analysis of the social and political processes that combined to construct a media-driven 'crisis' concerning African youth crime in the city of Melbourne, Australia. Combining original research and analysis alongside published sources, the authors carefully dissect the anatomy of a racialized and politicized public discourse and delve into the profound impact of this on African-Australian communities in Melbourne. Drawing on political and media analysis and community-based research, the authors investigate how South Sudanese Australians in Melbourne came to be identified, supposedly, as a unique threat to community safety, the role played by the media, state and federal politics, the policing and perceptions of race in this process, and the physical and emotional impacts on affected communities of the law and order crisis concerning 'African crime'. While deeply rooted in local conditions, the book resonates with similar examples of the criminalization and othering of racialized communities, the surveillance and exclusion of 'crimmigrants', and with popular punitivism and the rise of far-right politics globally in response to deeply felt anxieties about rapid social, economic and cultural change.

Current evidence about the impact of specialized sex offender treatment on reoffending remains inconsistent, drawing attention to the need to focus more on those program characteristics that potentially moderate outcome. This review considers current professional perspectives and evidence on two defining aspects of treatment: its intensity and timing. It is concluded that insufficient evidence currently exists to articulate best practice in this area and there is a pressing need to collect empirical evidence about the effectiveness of different intensity treatments offered at different stages of sentence.

Youth justice settings should provide safe, therapeutic environments, tailored to young people's needs. Current custodial models rarely meet these aims, mainly because a focus on security tends to outweigh an emphasis on care, diminishing rather than encouraging young people's positive development. This article reports on a three-year evaluation of youth justice reforms in the Netherlands, including small-scale, community-embedded facilities with an emphasis on relational security. We outline key operational elements and conditions for implementation of these facilities to provide guidance for youth justice professionals, and for managers and policymakers seeking to promote political and financial investments in effective youth justice strategies.