Handbook of Basic Principles and Promising Practices on Alternatives to Imprisonment


Book Description

Introduces the reader to the basic principles central to understanding alternatives to imprisonment as well as descriptions of promising practices implemented throughout the world. This handbook offers information about alternatives to imprisonment at various stages of the criminal justice process.




Handbook on Women and Imprisonment


Book Description

This handbook aims to assist legislators, policymakers, prison managers, staff and non-governmental organizations in implementing international standards and norms related to the gender-specific needs of women prisoners, in particular the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Offenders and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders ('the Bangkok Rules'). It further aims to increase awareness about the profile of female offenders and to suggest ways in which to reduce their unnecessary imprisonment, including by rationalizing legislation and criminal justice policies, and by providing a wide range of alternatives to prison at all stages of the criminal justice process. The handbook forms part of a series of tools developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to support countries in implementing the rule of law and the development of criminal justice reform.




Handbook for Prison Managers and Policymakers on Women and Imprisonment


Book Description

The main focus of the handbook is female prisoners and guidance on the components of a gender-sensitive approach to prison management, taking into account the typical background of female prisoners and their special needs as women in prison. This handbook forms part of a series of tools developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to support countries in implementing the rule of law and development of criminal justice systems, including policymakers, legislators, prison managers, prison staff, members of non-governmental organizations and other individuals interested or active in the field of criminal justice and prison reform. It can be used in a variety of contexts, both as a reference document or as a training tool.







Gendered Justice


Book Description

Gendered Justice addresses the complex questions that arise regarding female offenders and criminal justice policy. It raises serious questions about current criminal justice policy and practice that ignore gender, as well as practices that have been widely accepted by mainstream criminologists, policy makers, and practitioners, without regard for their implications for women and girls. Bloom discusses the special circumstances faced by female offenders and the "equal treatment" tradition that has guided criminal law and practice for the past century and has generated the phenomenon known as "vengeful equity." The book challenges mainstream policies of "gender neutrality" in terms of their implications for women and girls in conflict with the law. With the dramatic rise of women and girls in the criminal justice system, gender-based issues are now receiving attention in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.




Are Prisons Obsolete?


Book Description

With her characteristic brilliance, grace and radical audacity, Angela Y. Davis has put the case for the latest abolition movement in American life: the abolition of the prison. As she quite correctly notes, American life is replete with abolition movements, and when they were engaged in these struggles, their chances of success seemed almost unthinkable. For generations of Americans, the abolition of slavery was sheerest illusion. Similarly,the entrenched system of racial segregation seemed to last forever, and generations lived in the midst of the practice, with few predicting its passage from custom. The brutal, exploitative (dare one say lucrative?) convict-lease system that succeeded formal slavery reaped millions to southern jurisdictions (and untold miseries for tens of thousands of men, and women). Few predicted its passing from the American penal landscape. Davis expertly argues how social movements transformed these social, political and cultural institutions, and made such practices untenable. In Are Prisons Obsolete?, Professor Davis seeks to illustrate that the time for the prison is approaching an end. She argues forthrightly for "decarceration", and argues for the transformation of the society as a whole.




Women's Imprisonment


Book Description

First published in 1983, Women’s Imprisonment explores the meanings of women’s imprisonment and, in particular, the wider meanings of the ‘moment’ of prison. Based on officially sponsored research in Cornton Vale, Scotland’s only women’s prison, the book makes extensive use of interviews with sheriffs, policemen, and social workers, as well as observation in the prisons, the courts, and the lodging-houses. The author quotes from interviews with women recidivist prisoners, the judges who send them to prison, and the agencies which assist them in between their periods of imprisonment. In doing so, questions are raised about the meanings of imprisonment and the penal disciplining of women at the time of original publication. The book also examines the changing and various meanings of imprisonment in general and the invisible nature of the social control of women in particular.




The Growth of Incarceration in the United States


Book Description

After decades of stability from the 1920s to the early 1970s, the rate of imprisonment in the United States has increased fivefold during the last four decades. The U.S. penal population of 2.2 million adults is by far the largest in the world. Just under one-quarter of the world's prisoners are held in American prisons. The U.S. rate of incarceration, with nearly 1 out of every 100 adults in prison or jail, is 5 to 10 times higher than the rates in Western Europe and other democracies. The U.S. prison population is largely drawn from the most disadvantaged part of the nation's population: mostly men under age 40, disproportionately minority, and poorly educated. Prisoners often carry additional deficits of drug and alcohol addictions, mental and physical illnesses, and lack of work preparation or experience. The growth of incarceration in the United States during four decades has prompted numerous critiques and a growing body of scientific knowledge about what prompted the rise and what its consequences have been for the people imprisoned, their families and communities, and for U.S. society. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States examines research and analysis of the dramatic rise of incarceration rates and its affects. This study makes the case that the United States has gone far past the point where the numbers of people in prison can be justified by social benefits and has reached a level where these high rates of incarceration themselves constitute a source of injustice and social harm. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States examines policy changes that created an increasingly punitive political climate and offers specific policy advice in sentencing policy, prison policy, and social policy. The report also identifies important research questions that must be answered to provide a firmer basis for policy. This report is a call for change in the way society views criminals, punishment, and prison. This landmark study assesses the evidence and its implications for public policy to inform an extensive and thoughtful public debate about and reconsideration of policies.




Alternatives to Imprisonment


Book Description

Study of community corrections in Sweden provides policy guidance, based on highly original research and profound thought, that should interest and benefit all who are concerned with alternatives to imprisonment.




Prisonomics


Book Description

In March 2013, Vicky Pryce was sentenced to eight months in prison for accepting her ex-husband's penalty points on her driving licence some ten years earlier. After a very public trial, she was sent first to the notorious Holloway and then to East Sutton Park, an open prison in Kent. Inside, she kept a diary documenting her views and experiences; from this diary, Prisonomics was born. Faced with the realities of life behind bars and inspired by the stories of the women she met, Pryce began to research the injustices she found within the prison system. In this informed and important critique, she draws upon her years of experience in economics to call for radical reform and seeks to change how we look at crime and punishment. Prisonomics is not only a personal account of Pryce's experience in prison. It is also a compelling analysis of both the economic and the very human cost of keeping women behind bars.