What Are Prisons For?

Reviews / Votes

"This highly engaging, accessible and well-researched book will most likely be of interest to probation practitioners and students with an interest in prison as well as a general reader who wants to know more about the hidden and all too often taken-for-granted social institution that is imprisonment." Jake Phillips, Probation Journal "An empathetic and forensic analysis that confronts the most important but hardest and most neglected question about prisons: what are they for?" Nick Hardwick, Royal Holloway, University of London





"With an ever-rising prison population, there has never been a better time to ask what prisons are for. This wide-ranging and thoughtful book, drawing on inspection experience and comparative research, points out that, despite the stated aim of rehabilitation, '[t]he vast majority of prisons are good at keeping people in and mediocre or poor at everything else'. So, prisons can and must be improved - but if we think that a massive investment in prisons is the answer to complex social problems, we are not asking the right question." Dame Anne Owers, previously Chief Inspector of Prisons and Chair of prison Independent Monitoring Boards





"An exceptional overview of the history and nature of imprisonment, managing to be highly comprehensive, analytically sophisticated and crystal clear." Ben Crewe, Prisons Research Centre, University of Cambridge





"Its key strength and unique contribution is an unusual fusion of experience, research and theory. Profoundly scholarly and evidence-based, it is also deeply rooted in Bhui's experience, and in his encounters with prisoners and staff inside prisons. His remarkable gift for asking normative questions (about what prisons should be) and critical and empirical questions (about what prison is and what it does) marks this book out as a compelling and important intervention. Anyone with an interest in prisons and, more generally, in punishment, should read this book, and reflect upon it deeply." Fergus McNeill, University of Glasgow





"Professor Bhui expertly weaves together his observations from a diversity of prisons, rich historical and social context and often overlooked perspectives to highlight the challenges facing modern carceral systems and - perhaps most uniquely - provide a compelling foundation for meaningful change." Jordan M. Hyatt, Drexel University





"To change it, we have to understand it. Bhui's engaging, informed and critical analysis of the purpose of prisons and the impact of those who spend large parts of their lives inside them, is a significant contribution towards this aim. Students, scholars, correctional professionals, abolitionists, penal enthusiasts and liberal reformers - this book is for all of them." Anna Eriksson, Monash University