Prisons and the Problem of Order

The administration of prison regimes in modern Britain has remained a subject of intense debate and controversy for a number of years; in this book, based upon pioneering empirical research, three leading authorities examine the character of social life within two maximum-security prisons. By systematic comparison of the two prisons the authors compare the institutional structures and strategies they deploy for control of inmates. The material is set within the framework of a broader, social theory context. Original, scholarly, and carefully argued, this study will be of central interest to all those with an interest in prisons and their control mechanisms.

This book presents a substantial new statement on the character of social life in confinement. Drawing upon extensive fieldwork in two contrasting English maximum security prisons, the authors systematically compare their institutional order, including the differing control strategies deployed in each, as seen by both custodians and captives, controllers and controlled. The authors discuss the implications of their research for the tradition of sociological concern within the`prison community'. They re-examine the resources of that rich but latterly somewhat dormant field in the light of some of the main currents in contemporary social theory, and thereby provide a new perspective on the `problem of order' in maximum custody. This book will have significant policy implications, and it will be required reading for scholars and students in criminology and criminal justice, as well as for administrators and reformers in penal system.