Philippa Tomczak
Biographic Data
| ID | 3580843 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Philippa Tomczak |
| GIVEN NAMES | Philippa |
| FAMILY NAME | Tomczak |
| SIGNATURE | TOMCZAK P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Nottingham |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2347-2479 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 78 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
How regulation constructs and constrains the problems of imprisonment: A case study of prison regulation in England and Wales
Prison regulation is commonly conceptualised as an independent factfinding and assessment exercise, providing vital oversight and accountability. Drawing on an original analysis of 51 reports and 14 interviews, that informed our case study of prison regulation in England and Wales, we argue that prison regulation is more productively understood as a site of problematisation . Following this approach, we explore four central questions: (a) how doe…
Volunteer monitoring of police and prison detention: Independent custody visitors and independent monitoring boards in England and Wales
Volunteer monitoring occupies an important yet under-researched role in detention regulation. This article examines volunteer detention monitoring using original empirical data about prison Independent Monitoring Boards and police Independent Custody Visitors. Using a novel cross-institutional and cross-scale approach to data analysis, we draw on 129 semi-structured interviews with detainees, custody staff and monitors, alongside 41 days of non-p…
Resisting and enabling domination: Voluntary organizations’ efforts to regulate prison and police detention
Mobilizing a neo-republican account of domination, we explore voluntary organizations’ efforts to regulate prison and police detention. We find that regulatory functions ‘on the books’ are insufficient to counteract detainee domination ‘in action’, as power is neither reliably controlled by common knowledge and effective rules, nor under sufficient control by persons and groups subject to those rules. Using a large, original qualitative dataset, …
Mobilizing Metaphors in Criminological Analysis: A Case Study of Emotions in the Penal Voluntary Sector
Metaphors pervade media and political constructions of crime and justice, provoking responses and shaping actions. Scholarship in adjacent disciplines illustrates that emotion-metaphors offer unique insight into emotional and interpretive processes, valuably illuminating sense-making, problem solving and action. Yet, metaphors are rarely analysed within criminology, leaving an important opportunity for theorizing emotions and their implications l…
Complaints: Mechanisms for prisoner participation
In prisons, participatory mechanisms can foster important outcomes including fairness, legitimacy and dignity. Complaints are one significant (symbolic) mechanism facilitating prisoner participation. Ombud institutions/Ombudsmen handle complaints externally, providing unelected accountability mechanisms and overseeing prisons around the world. A fair complaints process can stimulate prisoner voice, agency and rights protection, potentially averti…
(Re)constructing Prisoner Death Investigations: A Case Study of Suicide Investigations from England and Wales
Because states must rebut the presumption of responsibility, all prisoner deaths must be investigated. These investigations frequently illustrate the tip of an iceberg of rights abuses and systemic hazards but have largely escaped analysis in prison-monitoring scholarship. Focusing on suicides, we assemble some of the first evidence illustrating how the staff of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, who investigate prisoner deaths in England and W…
The Cruel Optimism of International Prison Regulation: Prison Ontologies and Carceral Harms
This article examines the development of international human rights standards and oversight mechanisms directed at addressing the negative effects of imprisonment. We identify this as the rules-based prison-regulation project, widely endorsed by international organizations and legal scholars. However, with a focus on the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, we argue that this project has inherent limitations, as i…
Highlighting “Risky Remands” Through Prisoner Death Investigations: People With Very Severe Mental Illness Transitioning From Police and Court Custody Into Prison on Remand
Prison suicide/self-inflicted death is an international public health crisis, harming stakeholders including bereaved families, prisoners, prison staff and death investigators. England and Wales' record prison suicide numbers in 2016 cost at least £400 million. Death rates are an indicator of prison safety, and unsafe prisons mean unsafe societies. I present four case studies of people with very severe mental illness who were remanded to prison f…
Prisoners regulating prisons: Voice, action, participation and riot
Prisoners are a critical source of prison regulation around the world, but regulation by (rather than of ) prisoners remains little analysed. In this article, we utilise the 1990 riots at HMP Strangeways (England), as a case study of prisoners (re)shaping imprisonment. We examine prisoners' roles in these riots and subsequent cross-sectoral regulatory activities. We innovatively use the four-phase process of translation from actor-network theory …
Bereaved Family ‘Involvement’ in (Prisoner) Death Investigations: Whose ‘Satisfaction’
A duty to investigate deaths in detention is enshrined within international legislation including Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). A core purpose of these investigations, following UK case law, is that bereaved families ‘have the satisfaction of knowing that lessons learned [...] may save the lives of others.’ We highlight the striking absence of evidence illustrating the ‘satisfaction’ of bereaved families, utilising …
This is how it Feels: Activating Lived Experience in the Penal Voluntary Sector
Increasing calls for ‘nothing about us without us’ envision marginalized people as valuable and necessary contributors to policies and practices affecting them. In this paper, we examine what this type of inclusion feels like for criminalized people who share their lived experiences in penal voluntary sector organizations. Focus groups conducted in England and Scotland illustrated how this work was experienced as both safe, inclusionary and rewar…
How you keep going: Voluntary sector practitioners' story-lines as emotion work
The voluntary sector acts as the last line of defense for some of the most marginalized people in societies around the world, yet its capacities are significantly reduced by chronic resource shortages and dynamic political obstacles. Existing research has scarcely examined what it is like for voluntary sector practitioners working amidst these conditions. In this paper, we explore how penal voluntary sector practitioners across England and Scotla…
Reconceptualizing multisectoral prison regulation: Voluntary organizations and bereaved families as regulators
Prison health, prisoner safety and imprisonment rates matter: intrinsically and for health and safety outside. Existing prison regulation apparatuses (e.g. OPCAT) are extensive and hold unrealized potential to shape imprisonment. However, criminologists have not yet engaged much with this potential. In this article, I reconceptualize prison regulation by exploring the work of a broad range of multisectoral regulators who operate across stakeholde…
Prisoner death investigations: A means for improving safety in prisons and societies
(Inter)national law imposes obligations to investigate prisoner deaths. These investigations create rich data which are little utilised by academia, policy or practice (inter)nationally, but provide a window to identify, organise and apply learning that could safeguard prisons and societies. We report preliminary findings from a research partnership, aiming to utilise England and Wales' Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigation…
Practitioner Niches in the (Penal) Voluntary Sector: Perspectives from Management and the Frontlines
Voluntary sector and non-profit studies require theoretical frameworks facilitating better understandings of what occurs on the ground. Following Lipsky’s (Street-level bureaucracy: dilemmas of the individual in public service, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1980) formulation of street-level bureaucracies, scholars have emphasized workplace hierarchies, reproducing dichotomous ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ conceptualizations of practice which ca…
Practitioner Emotions in Penal Voluntary Sectors: Experiences from England and Canada
Mixed economies of welfare have seen increasing numbers of service users funnelled into voluntary, rather than statutory sector services. Many service users with (complex) human needs now fall within the remit of ill-researched voluntary organisations that are rarely social work led. Voluntary sector practitioners comprise a large and rising proportion of the social services workforce, but their experiences have received minimal analysis. Despite…
What next for courtroom special measures? Embodying legal geographies through “appreciative‐assemblage” methodology
Courtrooms globally are being reshaped by (1) (legal) special measures, and (2) increasing voluntary sector involvement. We examine multisectoral efforts to change conditions under which vulnerable people give evidence in Scotland. Vulnerable complainers (in Scotland)/complainants and witnesses are now often shielded by screens and accompanied by volunteer witness supporters when testifying. These developments have important (geo)political implic…
Evaluating voluntary sector involvement in mass incarceration: The case of Samaritan prisoner volunteers
Mass incarceration and supervision operate through a mixed economy. Using the case study of Samaritans’ emotional support for prisoners in distress in England and Wales, we present an original framework of five normative criteria to facilitate nuanced assessment of voluntary sector criminal justice participation. This is an urgent, significant task for theory and practice: we need to find forms of public input that can deconstruct bloated penal s…
The Penal Voluntary Sector: A Hybrid Sociology
The penal voluntary sector (PVS) is an important, complex, under-theorized area. Its non-profit, non-statutory organizations are highly significant in the operation of punishment around the world, yet ill understood. Burgeoning scholarship has begun to examine specific parts of the sector, particularly individualized service delivery. We offer a five-paradigm framework that more fully conceptualizes the PVS, including different types of service d…
Prison suicide: What happens afterwards?
Prison Suicide: What Happens Afterwards?
Prison suicide is a global problem, but little is known about about investigatory processes occurring after prison suicides. This book addresses this gap, providing a case study of the investigations that follow prison suicides in England and Wales. Despite the large range of prison oversight institutions in England and Wales, prison suicides reached a record high in 2016, with the rate having doubled between 2012 and 2016. These deaths represent…
Prison Suicide: What Happens Afterwards
Prison suicides reached a record high in 2016 in England and Wales. This book provides the first detailed case study of the investigations that follow prison suicides with findings relevant at a global level
Inclusionary control? Theorizing the effects of penal voluntary organizations’ work
Recent penal policy developments in many jurisdictions suggest an increasing role for voluntary organizations. Voluntary organizations have long worked alongside penal institutions, but the multifaceted ways their programmes affect (ex-)offenders remain insufficiently understood. This article addresses the implications of voluntary organizations’ work with (ex-)offenders, using original empirical data. It adds nuance to netwidening theory, refram…
The Voluntary Sector and the Mandatory Statutory Supervision Requirement: Expanding the Carceral Net
Recent penal policy developments in England and Wales emphasize the role for voluntary organizations. Voluntary organizations play an important and increasing role in punishment, including imprisonment and supervision, but the effects of their work are ill understood. Existing literature is ambivalent: some argue such work empowers and builds social capital; for others, it extends control. This tension is addressed by analysing two payment-by-res…
The Penal Voluntary Sector
Winner of the 2017 British Society of Criminology Book Prize The penal voluntary sector and the relationships between punishment and charity are more topical than ever before. In recent years in England and Wales, the sector has featured significantly in both policy rhetoric and academic commentary. Penal voluntary organisations are increasingly delivering prison and probation services under contract, and this role is set to expand. However, the …
Inclusionary control? Theorizing the effects of penal voluntary organizations’ work
Recent penal policy developments in many jurisdictions suggest an increasing role for voluntary organizations. Voluntary organizations have long worked alongside penal institutions, but the multifaceted ways their programmes affect (ex-)offenders remain insufficiently understood. This article addresses the implications of voluntary organizations’ work with (ex-)offenders, using original empirical data. It adds nuance to netwidening theory, refram…
The Penal Voluntary Sector: A Hybrid Sociology
The penal voluntary sector (PVS) is an important, complex, under-theorized area. Its non-profit, non-statutory organizations are highly significant in the operation of punishment around the world, yet ill understood. Burgeoning scholarship has begun to examine specific parts of the sector, particularly individualized service delivery. We offer a five-paradigm framework that more fully conceptualizes the PVS, including different types of service d…
How you keep going: Voluntary sector practitioners' story-lines as emotion work
The voluntary sector acts as the last line of defense for some of the most marginalized people in societies around the world, yet its capacities are significantly reduced by chronic resource shortages and dynamic political obstacles. Existing research has scarcely examined what it is like for voluntary sector practitioners working amidst these conditions. In this paper, we explore how penal voluntary sector practitioners across England and Scotla…
This is how it Feels: Activating Lived Experience in the Penal Voluntary Sector
Increasing calls for ‘nothing about us without us’ envision marginalized people as valuable and necessary contributors to policies and practices affecting them. In this paper, we examine what this type of inclusion feels like for criminalized people who share their lived experiences in penal voluntary sector organizations. Focus groups conducted in England and Scotland illustrated how this work was experienced as both safe, inclusionary and rewar…
Reconceptualizing multisectoral prison regulation: Voluntary organizations and bereaved families as regulators
Prison health, prisoner safety and imprisonment rates matter: intrinsically and for health and safety outside. Existing prison regulation apparatuses (e.g. OPCAT) are extensive and hold unrealized potential to shape imprisonment. However, criminologists have not yet engaged much with this potential. In this article, I reconceptualize prison regulation by exploring the work of a broad range of multisectoral regulators who operate across stakeholde…
Practitioner Niches in the (Penal) Voluntary Sector: Perspectives from Management and the Frontlines
Voluntary sector and non-profit studies require theoretical frameworks facilitating better understandings of what occurs on the ground. Following Lipsky’s (Street-level bureaucracy: dilemmas of the individual in public service, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1980) formulation of street-level bureaucracies, scholars have emphasized workplace hierarchies, reproducing dichotomous ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ conceptualizations of practice which ca…
Practitioner Emotions in Penal Voluntary Sectors: Experiences from England and Canada
Mixed economies of welfare have seen increasing numbers of service users funnelled into voluntary, rather than statutory sector services. Many service users with (complex) human needs now fall within the remit of ill-researched voluntary organisations that are rarely social work led. Voluntary sector practitioners comprise a large and rising proportion of the social services workforce, but their experiences have received minimal analysis. Despite…
Bereaved Family ‘Involvement’ in (Prisoner) Death Investigations: Whose ‘Satisfaction’
A duty to investigate deaths in detention is enshrined within international legislation including Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). A core purpose of these investigations, following UK case law, is that bereaved families ‘have the satisfaction of knowing that lessons learned [...] may save the lives of others.’ We highlight the striking absence of evidence illustrating the ‘satisfaction’ of bereaved families, utilising …
What next for courtroom special measures? Embodying legal geographies through “appreciative‐assemblage” methodology
Courtrooms globally are being reshaped by (1) (legal) special measures, and (2) increasing voluntary sector involvement. We examine multisectoral efforts to change conditions under which vulnerable people give evidence in Scotland. Vulnerable complainers (in Scotland)/complainants and witnesses are now often shielded by screens and accompanied by volunteer witness supporters when testifying. These developments have important (geo)political implic…
The Voluntary Sector and the Mandatory Statutory Supervision Requirement: Expanding the Carceral Net
Recent penal policy developments in England and Wales emphasize the role for voluntary organizations. Voluntary organizations play an important and increasing role in punishment, including imprisonment and supervision, but the effects of their work are ill understood. Existing literature is ambivalent: some argue such work empowers and builds social capital; for others, it extends control. This tension is addressed by analysing two payment-by-res…
The Cruel Optimism of International Prison Regulation: Prison Ontologies and Carceral Harms
This article examines the development of international human rights standards and oversight mechanisms directed at addressing the negative effects of imprisonment. We identify this as the rules-based prison-regulation project, widely endorsed by international organizations and legal scholars. However, with a focus on the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, we argue that this project has inherent limitations, as i…
Evaluating voluntary sector involvement in mass incarceration: The case of Samaritan prisoner volunteers
Mass incarceration and supervision operate through a mixed economy. Using the case study of Samaritans’ emotional support for prisoners in distress in England and Wales, we present an original framework of five normative criteria to facilitate nuanced assessment of voluntary sector criminal justice participation. This is an urgent, significant task for theory and practice: we need to find forms of public input that can deconstruct bloated penal s…
Mobilizing Metaphors in Criminological Analysis: A Case Study of Emotions in the Penal Voluntary Sector
Metaphors pervade media and political constructions of crime and justice, provoking responses and shaping actions. Scholarship in adjacent disciplines illustrates that emotion-metaphors offer unique insight into emotional and interpretive processes, valuably illuminating sense-making, problem solving and action. Yet, metaphors are rarely analysed within criminology, leaving an important opportunity for theorizing emotions and their implications l…
(Re)constructing Prisoner Death Investigations: A Case Study of Suicide Investigations from England and Wales
Because states must rebut the presumption of responsibility, all prisoner deaths must be investigated. These investigations frequently illustrate the tip of an iceberg of rights abuses and systemic hazards but have largely escaped analysis in prison-monitoring scholarship. Focusing on suicides, we assemble some of the first evidence illustrating how the staff of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, who investigate prisoner deaths in England and W…
Prisoners regulating prisons: Voice, action, participation and riot
Prisoners are a critical source of prison regulation around the world, but regulation by (rather than of ) prisoners remains little analysed. In this article, we utilise the 1990 riots at HMP Strangeways (England), as a case study of prisoners (re)shaping imprisonment. We examine prisoners' roles in these riots and subsequent cross-sectoral regulatory activities. We innovatively use the four-phase process of translation from actor-network theory …
Prisoner death investigations: A means for improving safety in prisons and societies
(Inter)national law imposes obligations to investigate prisoner deaths. These investigations create rich data which are little utilised by academia, policy or practice (inter)nationally, but provide a window to identify, organise and apply learning that could safeguard prisons and societies. We report preliminary findings from a research partnership, aiming to utilise England and Wales' Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigation…
The penal voluntary sector in England and Wales: Beyond neoliberalism
In response to policy developments aiming to increase the involvement of penal voluntary organizations in criminal justice, a recent flurry of commentary has provided a marketized understanding of the penal voluntary sector and attempts to privatize it. Although this commentary has contributed significantly to the limited literature on the sector, the centrality of neoliberal policy in analysis is problematic. This article provides a critique of …
The penal voluntary sector in England and Wales: Beyond neoliberalism
In response to policy developments aiming to increase the involvement of penal voluntary organizations in criminal justice, a recent flurry of commentary has provided a marketized understanding of the penal voluntary sector and attempts to privatize it. Although this commentary has contributed significantly to the limited literature on the sector, the centrality of neoliberal policy in analysis is problematic. This article provides a critique of …
The Penal Voluntary Sector
Winner of the 2017 British Society of Criminology Book Prize The penal voluntary sector and the relationships between punishment and charity are more topical than ever before. In recent years in England and Wales, the sector has featured significantly in both policy rhetoric and academic commentary. Penal voluntary organisations are increasingly delivering prison and probation services under contract, and this role is set to expand. However, the …
Inclusionary control? Theorizing the effects of penal voluntary organizations’ work
Recent penal policy developments in many jurisdictions suggest an increasing role for voluntary organizations. Voluntary organizations have long worked alongside penal institutions, but the multifaceted ways their programmes affect (ex-)offenders remain insufficiently understood. This article addresses the implications of voluntary organizations’ work with (ex-)offenders, using original empirical data. It adds nuance to netwidening theory, refram…
The Voluntary Sector and the Mandatory Statutory Supervision Requirement: Expanding the Carceral Net
Recent penal policy developments in England and Wales emphasize the role for voluntary organizations. Voluntary organizations play an important and increasing role in punishment, including imprisonment and supervision, but the effects of their work are ill understood. Existing literature is ambivalent: some argue such work empowers and builds social capital; for others, it extends control. This tension is addressed by analysing two payment-by-res…
Prison suicide: What happens afterwards?
Prison Suicide: What Happens Afterwards?
Prison suicide is a global problem, but little is known about about investigatory processes occurring after prison suicides. This book addresses this gap, providing a case study of the investigations that follow prison suicides in England and Wales. Despite the large range of prison oversight institutions in England and Wales, prison suicides reached a record high in 2016, with the rate having doubled between 2012 and 2016. These deaths represent…
Prison Suicide: What Happens Afterwards
Prison suicides reached a record high in 2016 in England and Wales. This book provides the first detailed case study of the investigations that follow prison suicides with findings relevant at a global level
The Penal Voluntary Sector: A Hybrid Sociology
The penal voluntary sector (PVS) is an important, complex, under-theorized area. Its non-profit, non-statutory organizations are highly significant in the operation of punishment around the world, yet ill understood. Burgeoning scholarship has begun to examine specific parts of the sector, particularly individualized service delivery. We offer a five-paradigm framework that more fully conceptualizes the PVS, including different types of service d…
Evaluating voluntary sector involvement in mass incarceration: The case of Samaritan prisoner volunteers
Mass incarceration and supervision operate through a mixed economy. Using the case study of Samaritans’ emotional support for prisoners in distress in England and Wales, we present an original framework of five normative criteria to facilitate nuanced assessment of voluntary sector criminal justice participation. This is an urgent, significant task for theory and practice: we need to find forms of public input that can deconstruct bloated penal s…
Reconceptualizing multisectoral prison regulation: Voluntary organizations and bereaved families as regulators
Prison health, prisoner safety and imprisonment rates matter: intrinsically and for health and safety outside. Existing prison regulation apparatuses (e.g. OPCAT) are extensive and hold unrealized potential to shape imprisonment. However, criminologists have not yet engaged much with this potential. In this article, I reconceptualize prison regulation by exploring the work of a broad range of multisectoral regulators who operate across stakeholde…
Prisoner death investigations: A means for improving safety in prisons and societies
(Inter)national law imposes obligations to investigate prisoner deaths. These investigations create rich data which are little utilised by academia, policy or practice (inter)nationally, but provide a window to identify, organise and apply learning that could safeguard prisons and societies. We report preliminary findings from a research partnership, aiming to utilise England and Wales' Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigation…
Practitioner Niches in the (Penal) Voluntary Sector: Perspectives from Management and the Frontlines
Voluntary sector and non-profit studies require theoretical frameworks facilitating better understandings of what occurs on the ground. Following Lipsky’s (Street-level bureaucracy: dilemmas of the individual in public service, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1980) formulation of street-level bureaucracies, scholars have emphasized workplace hierarchies, reproducing dichotomous ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ conceptualizations of practice which ca…
Practitioner Emotions in Penal Voluntary Sectors: Experiences from England and Canada
Mixed economies of welfare have seen increasing numbers of service users funnelled into voluntary, rather than statutory sector services. Many service users with (complex) human needs now fall within the remit of ill-researched voluntary organisations that are rarely social work led. Voluntary sector practitioners comprise a large and rising proportion of the social services workforce, but their experiences have received minimal analysis. Despite…
What next for courtroom special measures? Embodying legal geographies through “appreciative‐assemblage” methodology
Courtrooms globally are being reshaped by (1) (legal) special measures, and (2) increasing voluntary sector involvement. We examine multisectoral efforts to change conditions under which vulnerable people give evidence in Scotland. Vulnerable complainers (in Scotland)/complainants and witnesses are now often shielded by screens and accompanied by volunteer witness supporters when testifying. These developments have important (geo)political implic…
Highlighting “Risky Remands” Through Prisoner Death Investigations: People With Very Severe Mental Illness Transitioning From Police and Court Custody Into Prison on Remand
Prison suicide/self-inflicted death is an international public health crisis, harming stakeholders including bereaved families, prisoners, prison staff and death investigators. England and Wales' record prison suicide numbers in 2016 cost at least £400 million. Death rates are an indicator of prison safety, and unsafe prisons mean unsafe societies. I present four case studies of people with very severe mental illness who were remanded to prison f…
Prisoners regulating prisons: Voice, action, participation and riot
Prisoners are a critical source of prison regulation around the world, but regulation by (rather than of ) prisoners remains little analysed. In this article, we utilise the 1990 riots at HMP Strangeways (England), as a case study of prisoners (re)shaping imprisonment. We examine prisoners' roles in these riots and subsequent cross-sectoral regulatory activities. We innovatively use the four-phase process of translation from actor-network theory …
Bereaved Family ‘Involvement’ in (Prisoner) Death Investigations: Whose ‘Satisfaction’
A duty to investigate deaths in detention is enshrined within international legislation including Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). A core purpose of these investigations, following UK case law, is that bereaved families ‘have the satisfaction of knowing that lessons learned [...] may save the lives of others.’ We highlight the striking absence of evidence illustrating the ‘satisfaction’ of bereaved families, utilising …
This is how it Feels: Activating Lived Experience in the Penal Voluntary Sector
Increasing calls for ‘nothing about us without us’ envision marginalized people as valuable and necessary contributors to policies and practices affecting them. In this paper, we examine what this type of inclusion feels like for criminalized people who share their lived experiences in penal voluntary sector organizations. Focus groups conducted in England and Scotland illustrated how this work was experienced as both safe, inclusionary and rewar…
How you keep going: Voluntary sector practitioners' story-lines as emotion work
The voluntary sector acts as the last line of defense for some of the most marginalized people in societies around the world, yet its capacities are significantly reduced by chronic resource shortages and dynamic political obstacles. Existing research has scarcely examined what it is like for voluntary sector practitioners working amidst these conditions. In this paper, we explore how penal voluntary sector practitioners across England and Scotla…
Complaints: Mechanisms for prisoner participation
In prisons, participatory mechanisms can foster important outcomes including fairness, legitimacy and dignity. Complaints are one significant (symbolic) mechanism facilitating prisoner participation. Ombud institutions/Ombudsmen handle complaints externally, providing unelected accountability mechanisms and overseeing prisons around the world. A fair complaints process can stimulate prisoner voice, agency and rights protection, potentially averti…
(Re)constructing Prisoner Death Investigations: A Case Study of Suicide Investigations from England and Wales
Because states must rebut the presumption of responsibility, all prisoner deaths must be investigated. These investigations frequently illustrate the tip of an iceberg of rights abuses and systemic hazards but have largely escaped analysis in prison-monitoring scholarship. Focusing on suicides, we assemble some of the first evidence illustrating how the staff of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, who investigate prisoner deaths in England and W…
The Cruel Optimism of International Prison Regulation: Prison Ontologies and Carceral Harms
This article examines the development of international human rights standards and oversight mechanisms directed at addressing the negative effects of imprisonment. We identify this as the rules-based prison-regulation project, widely endorsed by international organizations and legal scholars. However, with a focus on the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, we argue that this project has inherent limitations, as i…
Mobilizing Metaphors in Criminological Analysis: A Case Study of Emotions in the Penal Voluntary Sector
Metaphors pervade media and political constructions of crime and justice, provoking responses and shaping actions. Scholarship in adjacent disciplines illustrates that emotion-metaphors offer unique insight into emotional and interpretive processes, valuably illuminating sense-making, problem solving and action. Yet, metaphors are rarely analysed within criminology, leaving an important opportunity for theorizing emotions and their implications l…
How regulation constructs and constrains the problems of imprisonment: A case study of prison regulation in England and Wales
Prison regulation is commonly conceptualised as an independent factfinding and assessment exercise, providing vital oversight and accountability. Drawing on an original analysis of 51 reports and 14 interviews, that informed our case study of prison regulation in England and Wales, we argue that prison regulation is more productively understood as a site of problematisation . Following this approach, we explore four central questions: (a) how doe…
Volunteer monitoring of police and prison detention: Independent custody visitors and independent monitoring boards in England and Wales
Volunteer monitoring occupies an important yet under-researched role in detention regulation. This article examines volunteer detention monitoring using original empirical data about prison Independent Monitoring Boards and police Independent Custody Visitors. Using a novel cross-institutional and cross-scale approach to data analysis, we draw on 129 semi-structured interviews with detainees, custody staff and monitors, alongside 41 days of non-p…
Political science (23 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (22 works) · Law (20 works) · Criminology (18 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (14 works) · Prison (14 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Public relations (10 works)