The Politics of Prison Building Programmes
Description
Prison building has moved from the margins to the mainstream of our penal politics. In recent years the UK Government has invested billions in new prison building and the main political parties are currently locked into a penal arms race over who can, and who will, build the most additional prison places in England and Wales. Prison building is now widely lauded as the definitive policy solution to the current prisons crisis and yet, this remains an elusive sphere of penal policymaking. Academic research remains in its infancy, and we still know very little about how these large investment decisions are made, by whom and for what reasons.
In seeking to shine a light on this subterranean and largely closed sphere of contemporary penal policymaking, this book presents the first systematic study of prison building programmes in England and Wales since the mid-1990's punitive turn. Drawing upon extensive archival research, 28 exploratory qualitative interviews, publicly recorded data, historic satellite imagery and other mapping techniques this book has three main aims: (1) to provide an authoritative historical account of prison building activity in England and Wales since the mid-1990s punitive turn, (2) to explain why successive governments have chosen to invest in new prison building programmes and (3) to reflect upon how the prisons we build - functionally, architecturally, geographically - continue to shape our politics long after they have been constructed.
Reviews / Votes
"This book is that rare thing - an insight that makes you look at something that has always been there in a completely new way. This is the first work I am aware of that considers how the physical reality of the prison estate as a whole has shaped prison policy. At the heart of this work is the contradiction between prison sentences, which are getting longer and longer, prison buildings which stand for decades - and prison policy that lurches this way and that as it responds to immediate 'capacity crises'. Tom Guiney explorers how the prison estate has been pushed and pulled to fit the political priorities of the moment and how those priorities are seemingly inexorably shaped by construction decisions taken long ago. But Tom Guiney provides hope that if we better understand these processes we do have choices and can halt the conveyor belt of prison expansion." (Professor Emeritus Nick Hardwick, UK)
"The Politics of Prison Building Programmes offers a unique and timely perspective on the political and institutional dynamics that have motivated successive governments' investments in prison capacity. At a time when the UK Government has committed billions to the construction of new prison places, this meticulously researched study should be applauded for placing prison building in a broader historical perspective and presenting a fascinating explanation of how these complex policy legacies continue to shape the world around us. These overlooked questions merit further scrutiny, and I have no doubt this excellent book will be of interest to penal reformers, academics, policymakers, as well as students in the interdisciplinary fields of criminology, criminal justice, carceral geography, architecture and the sociology of punishment." (Stephen Farrall, Professor of Criminology, University of Nottingham, UK)
"Across the globe, prison building programmes continue at pace. In Building Legacies, Guiney traces how political and policy agendas influence new building programmes, but also how such programmes shape and re-shape penal practice, penal policy and the penal estate. This much needed, timely and meticulously researched book not only provides crucial insights into the overlooked topic of prison building programmes, but also offers fresh insights on penal policy decision-making and their legacies." (Kate Gooch, Senior Lecturer, Department of Social & Policy Sciences, University of Bath, UK)
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Person
Thomas Guiney is Assistant Professor of Criminology in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at University of Nottingham, UK. Tom has published widely on the politics of punishment and recently published an edited collection Parole Futures: Rationalities, Institutions and Practices with Hart Bloomsbury (Oñati International Series in Law and Society). Tom sits on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Criminology and is a regular contributor to public debates on criminal justice.
Content
Introduction: The Politics of Prison Building Programmes.- Part I: The Opening Stages .- Politics.- Penal Policy.- Finance and Public Expenditure.- Part II: Design and Delivery . Architecture and Design.- Site Acquisition and Planning.- Construction and Handover.- Part III: Legacy Building .- Conclusion: The Impact of Prison Building.- Postscript: What Next for Prison Building?.