Penal practices have undergone important transformations over the period from 1990 to 2003. Part of this transformation included a serious flirtation with a liberal penal project that went wrong. A significant contributory factor in this unfortunate turn of events was a lack of clarity, by those working in and managing prisons, about important terms such as 'justice', 'liberal', and 'care', and how they might apply to daily penal life. Official measures of the prison service seem to lack relevance to many who live and work in prison and to their critics. The author proposes that a truer test of the quality of prison life is what staff and prisoners have to say about those aspects of prison life that 'matter most': relationships, fairness, order, and the quality of their treatment by those above them. The book attempts a detailed analysis and measurement of these dimensions in five prisons. It finds significant differences between establishments in these areas of prison life, and some departures from the official vision of the prison supported by the performance framework.

Based on in-depth fieldwork in a medium-security training prison for men, The Prisoner Society offers a comprehensive analysis of contemporary imprisonment. In particular, it explains how penal power is exerted by the institution, how prisoners adapt to its terms, and the relationships, hierarchies, and everyday dynamics that characterise the prisoner social world.

This book aims to explore a number of connected themes relating to compliance, legitimacy and trust in different areas of criminal justice and socio-legal regulation.

Gaes and his distinguished co-authors offer a comprehensive analysis of public vs. private management of prisons, a competition that originated with the introduction of private facilities into the criminal justice system in the 1980s. The authors measure prison performance with the technique of multi-level modeling for simultaneous measurement of the individual and the institution. Their work points the way to improved penal policy and accountability, and will be a valuable resource for public administrators, policy analysts, corrections personnel and criminologists. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Conducting research into crime and criminal justice carries unique challenges. This Handbook focuses on the application of ′methods′ to address the core substantive questions that currently motivate contemporary criminological research. It maps a canon of methods that are more elaborated than in most other fields of social science, and the intellectual terrain of research problems with which criminologists are routinely confronted. Drawing on exemplary studies, chapters in each section illustrate the techniques (qualitative and quantitative) that are commonly applied in empirical studies, as well as the logic of criminological enquiry. Organized into five sections, each prefaced by an editorial introduction, the Handbook covers: • Crime and Criminals • Contextualizing Crimes in Space and Time: Networks, Communities and Culture • Perceptual Dimensions of Crime • Criminal Justice Systems: Organizations and Institutions • Preventing Crime and Improving Justice Edited by leaders in the field of criminological research, and with contributions from internationally renowned experts, The SAGE Handbook of Criminological Research Methods is set to become the definitive resource for postgraduates, researchers and academics in criminology, criminal justice, policing, law, and sociology. David Gadd is Professor of Criminology at Manchester University School of Law where he is also Director of the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice. Susanne Karstedt has a Chair in Criminology and Criminological Justice at the University of Leeds. Steven F. Messner is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology, University at Albany, State University of New York.

The articles in this collection examine recent research on the causes, prevention and control of prison violence. Experts discuss new work being done on inmate, staff, and management culture, the links between prison and community culture and violence, and identify best practices and ‘what works’ in reducing violence and changing offender behaviour.

What are the primary constituents of stress in prison, and how can it be ameliorated? The specific conditions that create stress -- from the initial loss of freedom, to overcrowding, victimization and riots -- are described and analyzed. The effects of prison on specific populations: women, minorities, adolescents, and parolees, are also researched. Recommendations for long-term policy are made for maximizing the environmental resources of the prison, and improving classification and treatment. `...highly recommended for all professional and academic libraries. It is suitable for both upper-division undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of stress, psychology, penology, sociology, and criminal justice.' -- Choi

Corrections criminology / Sean O'Toole and Simon Eyland --World correctional population trends and issues / Mike Bartlett --Prison populations in Australia / Kyleigh Heggie --Australian coomunity corrections population trends and issues / David Daley --Prisonography : Sources of knowledge and perspectives about prisons / Lucien Lombard --Commissions of inquiry and penal reform / David Brown --Security in correctional systems / Ron Woodham --Privatisation in the corrections industry / Sean O'Toole --Human rights in corrections practice / Brian Tkachuk and Eileen Skinnider --"Good corrections" : implications for leadership and organisational performance / Ole Ingstrup --Inspecting prisons / Richard Harding --Causes and prevention of violence in prisons / Ross Homel and Carleen Thompson --The over-representation of indigenous persons in custody / Bill Anscomb --Risk and responsibilities in women's prisons / Pat Carlen --Managing an ageing prison population / John Dawes --Prisoner health / Michael Levy, Tony Butler, Tony Falconer --Managing mentally ill offenders released from jail - the US experience / Dale Sechrest and Don Josi --Offenders with drug and alcohol dependencies / Maria Kevin --A framework for minimising the incidence of self-harm in prison / Greg Dear --Beyond what works : a retrospective of Robert Martinson's famous article / Rick Sarre --Bridging the gap between prison and the community : post-release support and supervision / Stuart Ross --Prison industries in a time of science-based prison programming / Judy McHutchison --The effect of post-release housing on prisoner re-integration into the community / Eileen Baldry --Ethics and the role of the correctional officer / Anna Grant --Measuring prisons and their moral performance / Alison Liebling --Professionalising the correctional officer : the US perspective / Don A josi and Dale K Sechrest --Human resources analysis of the Australian corrections industry / Sean O'Toole --Towards crime prevention / David Biles --What future for the prison? / Paul Wilson.