Penal Culture and Hyperincarceration: The Revival of the Prison

Chris Cunneen · Eileen Baldry · David Brown · Mark Brown · Melanie Schwartz · Alex Steel

May 2016 · Routledge

About this ebook

What are the various forces influencing the role of the prison in late modern societies? What changes have there been in penality and use of the prison over the past 40 years that have led to the re-valorization of the prison? Using penal culture as a conceptual and theoretical vehicle, and Australia as a case study, this book analyses international developments in penality and imprisonment. Authored by some of Australia’s leading penal theorists, the book examines the historical and contemporary influences on the use of the prison, with analyses of colonialism, post colonialism, race, and what they term the ’penal/colonial complex,’ in the construction of imprisonment rates and on the development of the phenomenon of hyperincarceration. The authors develop penal culture as an explanatory framework for continuity, change and difference in prisons and the nature of contested penal expansionism. The influence of transformative concepts such as ’risk management’, ’the therapeutic prison’, and ’preventative detention’ are explored as aspects of penal culture. Processes of normalization, transmission and reproduction of penal culture are seen throughout the social realm. Comparative, contemporary and historical in its approach, the book provides a new analysis of penality in the 21st century.

About the author

Professor Chris Cunneen is a conjoint professor of criminology in the Faculty of Law of the University of New South Wales. He held the NewSouth Global Chair in Criminology at UNSW from 2006 to 2010.

Professor Eileen Baldry's main areas of research and publishing are in: the criminal justice system focusing on critical criminology-critical disability studies development, vulnerable persons and minority groups - people with mental health disorders and cognitive disability, women and Indigenous persons; throughcare, transition from prison, post-release and homelessness; and criminal justice-human service system interactions; and in Indigenous social work; and community and social development in social housing.

Emeritus Professor David Brown taught Criminal Law, Advanced Criminal Law, Criminal Justice, Crime Prevention, Community Corrections and Penology courses at the University of NSW in Sydney from 1974 to 2008.

Dr Mark Brown's primary teaching and research interests lie in the areas of penality, corrections and colonial penal history.

Alex Steel is the Associate Dean (Education) and an Associate Professor in the Law School. He has published widely on theft, fraud and dishonesty law and theory.