Prisons, Punishment and the Pursuit of Security

Nation states around the globe are struggling with increasing concerns over human and global insecurity. Within this climate crime and criminal justice policies in many countries have become key areas of political focus, with the prison poised to play an important role in security strategies. This book problematises the persistent use of prisons and punishment and their role in pursuing higher levels of human security. Drawing on extensive, qualitative research in men's long-term, maximum-security prisons in England, questions are raised about the means by which security is pursued. The book argues against the use of severe sanctions as a means through which to calm public fears, achieve greater political legitimacy, and improve public security. By considering problems of security alongside those of long-term prisons, the book grapples with thorny and perennial problems associated with violence, vengeance and calls for punishment.

Deborah H. Drake is Lecturer in Criminology at the Open University, UK. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK (2007), and her BA (2001) and MA (2003) in Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.

"Prisons, Punishment and the Pursuit of Security is a remarkable achievement. Confidently embracing an eclectic mix of the most exciting and influential scholarship of recent years, it is also a bold, brave and affecting empirical study of the very 'deepest' end of imprisonment at a time when security has risen to a level of prominence that eclipses every other consideration, including what it means to be human in such environments. With this study of all five men's maximum-security prisons in England, Deborah Drake has given us a beautifully written, impressively detailed and authoritative yet immensely readable book, which will undoubtedly make an enduring contribution to prison scholarship. Prisons, Punishment and the Pursuit of Security should reassure all those who have expressed concerns about the health of prison ethnography that reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated. This book already feels like a 'classic'." - Yvonne Jewkes, Professor of Criminology, University of Leicester