'A Perfect Storm'

An Ethnography of a Prison Crisis
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-5292-5314-6
Verlag: Bristol University Press

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

This ethnography of an English adult male prison explores a polycrisis of violence, self-harm, overcrowding and the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Bourdieu’s field theory, it uniquely highlights the complex interplay of policy, people and practices to reveal how prisons exacerbate social inequality.

The book uncovers paradoxes between prison’s stated aims of safety, security and (re)habilitation and their adverse realities, including the harms to prisoners’ reintegration upon release. The prison operates as a “perfect storm” of mutually reinforcing conditions that reproduce harmful outcomes. The book contends that the real crisis isn't that prisons fail, it’s that we continue to believe they're meant to succeed.

Autoren/Hrsg.

O'Mara, Oscar

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Strafrecht Kriminologie, Strafverfolgung
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Soziale Folgen von Katastrophen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. The Elephants in the Penal Corner

2. The Living Symphony

3. A Crisis of Imagination

4. Bowing to Caesar: The Paradox of Safety

5. ‘Arte et Labore’: The Paradox of Security

6. Unmasking the Pandemic Response in Prison: The Paradox of Health

Conclusion: The Storm That Never Breaks

Über Autor(innen)

Oscar O’Mara is Research Leader at RAND Europe & Senior Research Fellow at the University of Essex.