Doing time: an introduction to the sociology of imprisonment

310 Pages·2009·1.597 MB·English

by  Matthews, Roger

Doing Time
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Also by Roger Matthews
PROSTITUTION, POLITICS AND POLICY
ARMED ROBBERY
CONFRONTING CRIME (edited with Jock Young)
INFORMAL JUSTICE? (editor)
PRIVATIZING CRIMINAL JUSTICE (editor)
RETHINKING CRIMINOLOGY: THE REALIST DEBATE (edited with Jock Young)
ISSUES IN REALIST CRIMINOLOGY (edited with Jock Young)
PRISONS 2000 (editor)
CRIME, DISORDER AND COMMUNITY SAFETY (edited with John Pitts)
PROSTITUTION (with Megan O’Neill)
THE NEW POLITICS OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (edited with Jock Young)
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Doing Time
An Introduction to the
Sociology of Imprisonment
Second edition
Roger Matthews
London South Bank University, UK
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© Roger Matthews, 1999, 2009
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identifi ed as the author of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 1999 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
This edition published 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
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Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
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ISBN-13: 978–0–230–23551–9 hardback
ISBN-13: 978–0–230–23552–6 paperback
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Contents
List of Tables and Figures vi
Introduction viii
1 The Emergence of the Modern Prison 1
2 Space, Time and Labour 25
3 Order, Control and Adaptation in Prison 49
4 The Political Economy of Imprisonment 76
5 The Politics and Culture of Imprisonment 100
6 Crime, Sentencing and Imprisonment 123
7 Youth Justice and Youth Custody 147
8 Women’s Imprisonment 174
9 Race and Imprisonment 204
10 The Future of Imprisonment 232
Websites 256
Bibliography 261
Index 294
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List of Tables and Figures
Tables
3.1 Selected offences punished and punishments in prison,
2007 (England and Wales) 69
5.1 Characteristics of the prison population in England and
Wales 105
6.1 Changes in crime and punishment in England and Wales,
1991–99 (adults) 128
6.2 Average time served (in months) by country and crime type 138
8.1 The number and proportion of women processed in the
criminal justice system for selected offences, 1992–2007
(England and Wales) 178
9.1 Percentage breakdown by ethnic appearance of those
arrested for notifi able offences by offence group, 2004–05
(England and Wales) 215
9.2 Percentage of people at different stages of the criminal
justice process by ethnic group, 2005–06
(England and Wales) 216
Figures
1.1 Some key dates in the history of imprisonment in
England and Wales 23
2.1 Radial design prison 30
2.2 Panopticon 31
2.3 ‘Telegraph pole’ model 33
2.4 Podular design prison 34
3.1 Disorder amplifi cation spiral: riots and disturbances 74
6.1 Sentencing options 134
6.2 Prisoners in state prisons by offence type, 1980–2005 136
6.3 Flows in Probation Service supervision and prison
establishments 140
6.4 Adult correctional populations, 1980–2006 (US) 140
7.1 Secure estate population trends, 2000–08 171
vi
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List of Tables and Figures vii
8.1 Female immediate custodial sentenced prison population
by offence group and year 179
8.2 Female immediate custodial sentenced prison population
by length of sentence and year 189
10.1 Polarities of social control strategies 244
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Introduction
Since the publication of the fi rst edition of this book in 1999 the debates
around imprisonment have changed considerably and a great deal of
literature on the subject has been produced. Probably the most signifi cant
change has been the increasing focus on the growth of imprisonment
on both sides of the Atlantic in a period in which recorded crime is
decreasing. Addressing this development has prompted the writing of
three new chapters for the second edition, which critically examine the
role of economics, politics and culture in shaping the use and scale of
imprisonment, as well as looking at the role of crime and sentencing.
In the course of re-examining these processes it is suggested that much
of the available literature fails to adequately conceptualise or analyse
recent developments in penal policy. It also appears to be the case that
most of the current explanations do not fi t very well with the empirical
evidence. Thus the three new chapters in this book, while attempting to
remain expositional, take issue with a number of widely accepted claims
concerning the growth of imprisonment. Alternative explanations are
presented and discussed.
Most of the other chapters have also been revised and updated to
incorporate changing debates and more recent literature. In some cases
these revisions have been considerable. The literature and debates,
particularly in relation to women’s imprisonment and youth custody, have
moved on signifi cantly over the last decade and the revised nature of these
chapters in this volume is designed to refl ect these developments.
The basic format and approach of the book, however, remains much
the same as the fi rst edition; that is, the aim is not only to introduce the
reader to some of the key debates associated with imprisonment, but also
to engage in sociological theorisation and analysis. Each chapter takes up
different theoretical, conceptual, methodological and empirical issues.
In this way it is designed to go beyond a straightforward description
of the prison system or the cataloguing of ‘facts’ about imprisonment.
Instead, it emphasises the primacy of theory and the need to critically
engage with the subject matter.
The discerning reader will note that there are a number of sub-texts
running through the book. Although the book is largely expositional
it does not mean that it is theoretically or politically neutral. The fi rst
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Introduction ix
edition involved in part an attempt to provide something of a defence
of Rusche and Kirchheimer’s path-breaking book Punishment and Social
Structure against the critiques that their work was reductionist because it
focused on economic relations or that it was a book about the relation
between unemployment, the labour market and punishment. In this
edition of Doing Time I have tried to shore up this defence a little more
by suggesting that it is more appropriate and instructive to see recent
developments in the nature of punishment in relation to post-Fordism
rather than postmodernism. That is, the aim is to suggest that it is the
changing nature of productive relations with their effect on space and time
that provides a better understanding of the causal dynamics involved.
By the same token, more weight is given to socio-economic and
cultural processes, rather than political processes, in explaining the
changing nature of imprisonment. The current debate on imprisonment
tends to be dominated by an emphasis on politics and the ways in
which ‘populist punitiveness’ is driving up the prison population.
Attributing the changing nature and scale of imprisonment to the will
and interests of punitive politicians or an intolerant public is not only
a theoretically and empirically weak form of explanation, but one that
veers towards voluntarism, rather than seeing developments in the nature
of imprisonment as part of a wider dynamic.
Another theme running through the book is the attempt to reconnect
crime and imprisonment. One of the strange features of criminology is
the way in which scholars and researchers conveniently separate the
study of crime from the use of imprisonment and try hard to disassociate
these aspects of the criminal justice process. The result is that one half of
the criminological community concentrates on crime and victimisation,
while the other half focuses on aspects of social control, punishment
and imprisonment. Thus one group concentrates on the actions and
motivations of offenders and victims, while the other is mainly concerned
with the process of reaction and the labelling of deviant behaviour.
One of the main tasks of realist criminology is to reconnect crime and
punishment and to argue that ‘crime’ itself is the product of a complex
process of action and reaction. Realists developed the ‘square of crime’
to try to capture the process of crime creation and to show that crime
itself could not be reduced to an act or to the motivation of individual
offenders. Reference is made to realist literature throughout the book,
and the perspective that informs this book will become more apparent
if these references are followed up.
My involvement with critical realism in the last few years has increased
my awareness of methodological issues and in particular the limits of
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