The Politics of Prison Building Programmes

Building Legacies and the State Capacity to Punish
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-3-032-01740-6
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 294 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 516 g

Reihe: Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology

Prison building has moved from the margins to the mainstream of our penal politics. In recent years the UK Government has invested billions in new prison building and the main political parties are currently locked into a penal arms race over who can, and who will, build the most additional prison places in England and Wales. Prison building is now widely lauded as the definitive policy solution to the current prisons crisis and yet, this remains an elusive sphere of penal policymaking. Academic research remains in its infancy, and we still know very little about how these large investment decisions are made, by whom and for what reasons.

In seeking to shine a light on this subterranean and largely closed sphere of contemporary penal policymaking, this book presents the first systematic study of prison building programmes in England and Wales since the mid-1990’s punitive turn. Drawing upon extensive archival research, 28 exploratory qualitative interviews, publicly recorded data, historic satellite imagery and other mapping techniques this book has three main aims: (1) to provide an authoritative historical account of prison building activity in England and Wales since the mid-1990s punitive turn, (2) to explain why successive governments have chosen to invest in new prison building programmes and (3) to reflect upon how the prisons we build - functionally, architecturally, geographically – continue to shape our politics long after they have been constructed.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Guiney, Thomas

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Verwaltungswissenschaft, Öffentliche Verwaltung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Innen-, Bildungs- und Bevölkerungspolitik
• Rechtswissenschaften Strafrecht Kriminologie, Strafverfolgung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: The Politics of Prison Building Programmes.- .- Politics.- Penal Policy.- Finance and Public Expenditure.- . Architecture and Design.- Site Acquisition and Planning.- Construction and Handover.- .- Conclusion: The Impact of Prison Building.- Postscript: What Next for Prison Building?.

Über Autor(innen)

Thomas Guiney is Assistant Professor of Criminology in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at University of Nottingham, UK. Tom has published widely on the politics of punishment and recently published an edited collection   with Hart Bloomsbury (Oñati International Series in Law and Society). Tom sits on the Editorial Board of the  and is a regular contributor to public debates on criminal justice.