Jennifer Sloan - The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Ethnography

The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Ethnography

Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology

This is a unique and innovative series, the first of its kind dedicated entirely to prison scholarship. At a historical point in which the prison population has reached an all-time high, the series seeks to analyse the form, nature and consequences of incarceration and related forms of punishment. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology provides an important forum for burgeoning prison research across the world.

Series Editors:

Dr Ben Crewe

Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK

Professor Yvonne Jewkes

Department of Criminology, Leicester University, UK

Dr Thomas Ugelvik

Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Political Science and Community Planning, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway

Series Advisory Board:

Anna Eriksson, Monash University, Australia

Andrew M. Jefferson, Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims, Denmark

Shadd Maruna, Queens University Belfast, UK

Jonathon Simon, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Michael Welch, Rutgers University, USA

Titles include:

Vincenzo Ruggiero and Mick Ryan

PUNISHMENT IN EUROPE

A Critical Anatomy of Penal Systems

Phil Scraton and Linda Moore

THE INCARCERATION OF WOMEN

Punishing Bodies, Breaking Spirits

Peter Scharff Smith

WHEN THE INNOCENT ARE PUNISHED

The Children of Imprisoned Parents

Thomas Ugelvik

POWER AND RESISTANCE IN PRISON

Doing Time, Doing Freedom

Marguerite Schinkel

BEING IMPRISONED

Punishment, Adaptation and Desistance

Mark Halsey and Simon Deegan

YOUNG OFFENDERS

Crime, Prison and Struggles for Desistance

Andrew M. Jefferson and Liv S. Gaborit

HUMAN RIGHTS IN PRISONS

Comparing Institutional Encounters in Kosovo, Sierra Leone and the Philippines

Deborah H. Drake, Rod Earle and Jennifer Sloan (editors)

THE PALGRAVE HANDBOOK OF PRISON ETHNOGRAPHY

Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology

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(outside North America only)

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The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Ethnography

Edited by

Deborah H. Drake

Senior Lecturer in Criminology, The Open University, UK

Rod Earle

Lecturer in Youth Justice, The Open University, UK

Jennifer Sloan

Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Introduction, selection and editorial matter Deborah H. Drake, Rod Earle and Jennifer Sloan 2015

Individual chapters Respective authors 2015

Foreword Yvonne Jewkes 2015

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

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First published 2015 by

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

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ISBN 9781137403872

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Contents

Deborah H. Drake, Rod Earle and Jennifer Sloan

Rod Earle

Martyn Hammersley

David Scott

Alison Liebling, Helen Arnold and Christina Straub

Laura Piacentini

Gilles Chantraine and Nicolas Salle

Ben Crewe and Alice Ievins

Jennifer Sloan and Serena Wright

Deborah H. Drake

Andrew M. Jefferson

Elisabeth Fransson and Berit Johnsen

Benita Moolman

James B. Waldram

Rod Earle and Coretta Phillips

Deborah H. Drake

Lorna A. Rhodes

Rod Earle

Jamie Bennett

Lilian Ayete-Nyampong

Lindsay Whetter

Abigail Rowe

Lucy Carr

Joel Harvey

Jennifer Sloan

Thomas Ugelvik

Tomas Max Martin

Mahuya Bandyopadhyay

William Davies

Kristel Beyens and Miranda Boone

Figures

Foreword

What has prison ethnography to offer in an age of mass incarceration?

Being invited to write a Foreword to this groundbreaking collection, following the equally impressive symposium on prison ethnography (Resisting the Eclipse), hosted by The Open Universitys International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research (ICCCR) just over a year earlier, is a great honour. But as I sit down to write a few words that will preface this testament to the importance of ethnographic studies of the prison, I have a slight nagging feeling that the mood of optimism and excitement that marked the conference in September 2013 may have diminished slightly. Many of us work in countries that are experiencing an era of highly politicised penal policy and, relatively rapidly, it seems that doing research in prisons has become a great deal more difficult. The necessary reliance on government agencies to authorise access to prisons, the sometimes tortuous process of liaising with gatekeepers and the intimidation that can be applied by organisations that do not like ones methods or findings have all made the ethnographic endeavour trickier than in previous times. From the perspective of someone working in the UK, it is tempting to rail against the current government and, in particular, at a Secretary of State for Justice who has taken the hardening of penal sensibilities to new levels, made swingeing financial cuts to prison budgets (resulting in many prisons operating with a skeleton staff) and back-pedalled on his predecessors promise of a rehabilitation revolution. In the current climate, many prison governors are understandably reluctant to open their doors to academic researchers. But, equally, these obstacles mean that prison ethnography has never been more necessary.