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Book Details
Abstract
Market society is producing more crime around the world. More acts are being defined as crimes. Ever increasing numbers of people are classified as criminals and more are being locked up in prison. With globalization, the crime and punishment problem is no longer insulated from pressures beyond national borders. The rich may retreat behind their expensive security into gated communities, but the poor are more and more at the mercy of criminals and corrupt policing. Yet, Vivien Stern argues, the trends towards more criminalization and more imprisonment are not making for more effective crime control or safer communities.
This important book demonstrates that the prospects for the future are serious unless NGOs and reformers join in a new movement for reform that gives more control of justice policy back to communities and neighbourhoods.
Dr Vivien Stern is one of the world's leading authorities on criminal justice issues. For many years she was Director of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO) in Great Britain. She is Honorary Secretary General of Penal Reform International; a former Council Member of the Howard League for Penal Reform; an Honorary Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE); holds an Eisenhower Foundation trusteeship; and is a Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Prison Studies, King's College, London. The author of numerous books and reports, her most widely read book has been A Sin Against the Future: Imprisonment in the World (1998).
"This book sparkles with hopeful ideas about how we could reduce crimeand the prison population. It shows how the worldwide move to privately owned prisons and the ideas that flow from marketed services are leading to increased fear of crime, costly prisons and cruel regimes. It outlines very clearly how we could do better.'
Clare Short, MP
'Recently, overcrowding and frequent use of incarceration started here in Japan. Vivien's New book encourages us to build up a more humane and more effective way against crimes.'
Yuichi Kaido , lawyer, Secretary General of Center for Prisoner's Rights, Japan
'This passionate, accessible book provides a challenging critique of the conventional views of crime and imprisonment throughout the world...this is a book that everyone should read.'
Prison Service Journal
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Table of Contents | iv | ||
| Tables | vi | ||
| Foreword and Acknowledgements | ix | ||
| Introduction | 1 | ||
| Crime and Justice in the Twenty-first Century | 1 | ||
| Global Trends | 7 | ||
| The Structure of This Book | 8 | ||
| Notes | 9 | ||
| 1 Behind the Bars: the Injustice of Prison | 11 | ||
| A Bad Day in Quito Prison | 12 | ||
| Prisons and the Rule of Law | 14 | ||
| Too Many Prisoners: Not Enough Space | 15 | ||
| Waiting for Trial | 18 | ||
| Prisons and Violence | 19 | ||
| Corruption Thrives in Prisons | 22 | ||
| Living in Prison | 24 | ||
| Life Sentences | 27 | ||
| What Happens to Dangerous Prisoners? | 27 | ||
| Where Did the Idea of Prison Come from? | 30 | ||
| The People in Prison – Who Are They? | 32 | ||
| Women in Prison – Few and Far Between | 35 | ||
| Should Children Be in Prison? | 38 | ||
| Prisons Are Bad for Health | 40 | ||
| Working in Prisons – What Sort of Job Is It? | 42 | ||
| Life after Prison – How Easy Is It? | 43 | ||
| What Is American ‘Exceptionalism’? | 44 | ||
| How Much Imprisonment? | 47 | ||
| If Imprisonment Is an Unjust System, Does It Matter? | 49 | ||
| Notes | 50 | ||
| 2 Crime and Its Definition:How Just Is Criminal Justice? | 56 | ||
| Do Prisons Make Society Safer? | 56 | ||
| Measuring Crime – Is It Easy? | 59 | ||
| The Creation of Crimes | 61 | ||
| Who Can Be a Criminal? | 62 | ||
| Measuring Crime Levels Is Difficult | 66 | ||
| Comparing Crime Rates in Different Countries | 69 | ||
| A Biased System? | 72 | ||
| The Poor and Policing | 75 | ||
| How Do Poor People Fare When the Case Comes to Court? | 76 | ||
| The Laws Can Be Biased, Too | 79 | ||
| Even a Good Criminal Justice System is a Limited Way to Control Crime | 81 | ||
| Notes | 86 | ||
| 3 Crime – a Good Business? The Impact of the Free Market | 90 | ||
| More Free Markets – More Crime? | 92 | ||
| More Free Markets – More Violence? | 97 | ||
| Trends in the Use of Prison | 99 | ||
| The Market in Imprisonment | 100 | ||
| Speculative Commercial Prison Building | 103 | ||
| The Argument for Commercially Run Prisons | 106 | ||
| Private Sector Prisons – Some Experiences | 107 | ||
| Are Commercially Run Prisons Better? | 113 | ||
| The Opposition to Private Prisons | 116 | ||
| Does Privatization Influence the Direction of Penal Policy? | 117 | ||
| Cashing in on Insecurity | 121 | ||
| A Market in Criminal Justice – Some Implications | 125 | ||
| Notes | 126 | ||
| 4 The ‘War on Drugs’and Migration | 132 | ||
| Crime, Drugs and Migration | 132 | ||
| The Drugs War | 133 | ||
| The Links between Illegal Drugs and Crime | 134 | ||
| The War on Drugs Fills the Prisons | 137 | ||
| American ‘Exceptionalism’ Again | 140 | ||
| Drug Policies Make Prisons Worse | 141 | ||
| The Role of the United Nations | 143 | ||
| The Criminalization of Migration | 145 | ||
| Notes | 150 | ||
| 5 ‘In the Name of Justice’: Is There a Better Way? | 153 | ||
| Penal Reform in Retreat? | 153 | ||
| Movements for Change | 155 | ||
| Human Rights in Prisons | 158 | ||
| Reform from Inside | 159 | ||
| Fighting for Reform from Outside | 165 | ||
| Ex-prisoners’ Organizations | 168 | ||
| The Contribution of Individuals | 168 | ||
| Using the Law to Protect Prisoners | 171 | ||
| Reducing the Use of Prison | 172 | ||
| Reducing Pre-trial Detention | 177 | ||
| A New View of Punishment | 179 | ||
| A Return to Social Interventions | 181 | ||
| What Is to Be Done? | 183 | ||
| Join the Reform Movement | 184 | ||
| Notes | 185 | ||
| 6 Criminal Justice and Social Justice | 189 | ||
| The Penal Journey | 189 | ||
| Criminal Justice as It Should Be | 190 | ||
| Why Should We Care about Prisoners and Prisons? | 193 | ||
| A Regional Approach | 196 | ||
| A Plan of Action | 197 | ||
| The Future | 199 | ||
| Notes | 199 | ||
| Selected Further Reading | 200 | ||
| Index | 201 |