Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Crewe, Ben
• Liebling, Alison
• Hulley, Susie

Titel

Staff-Prisoner Relationships, Staff Professionalism, and the Use of Authority in Public- and Private-Sector Prisons

Ist Teil von

• Law & social inquiry, 2015-03, Vol.40 (2), p.309-344

Ort / Verlag

Cambridge: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2015

Quelle

PAIS Index

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Prison privatization has generally been associated with developments in neoliberal punishment. However, relatively little is known about the specific impact of privatization on the daily life of prisoners, including areas that are particularly salient not just to debates about neoliberal penality, but the wider reconfiguration of public service provision and frontline work. Drawing on a study of values, practices, and quality of life in five private-sector and two public-sector prisons in England and Wales, this article seeks to compare and explain three key domains of prison culture and quality: relationships between frontline staff and prisoners, levels of staff professionalism (or jailcraft), and prisoners' experience of state authority. The study identifies some of the characteristic strengths and weaknesses of the public and private prison sectors, particularly in relation to staff professionalism and its impact on the prisoner experience. These findings have relevance beyond the sphere of prisons and punishment.