Responding to prison suicides
The penal state and evidence-based policymaking
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24215404 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dominic Aitken (0000-0001-5991-1317, University of Edinburgh) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-09-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social & Legal Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0964-6639 • E-ISSN: 1461-7390 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09646639261491971 |
| OpenAlex | W7214597353 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 49 |
How do political elites in the penal state affect what goes on inside prisons, and can evidence-based policymaking reduce the toll of prison suicide in England and Wales? I begin by theorising the penal state, and draw attention to the formally hierarchical character of penal policy and prisons, where political elites officially possess vertical authority to rule in a top-down manner. I then set out the realities of penal policymaking, and argue that the penal state in practice has a limited ability to command and control prisons from the outside, including in relation to prison suicides. Finally, drawing on elite interviews with former members of The Ministerial Council on Deaths in Custody, I suggest that this public body shows the weaknesses of two different models of governance, concluding that evidence-based policymaking often struggles in contentious fields such as penal policy.
criminal policy · deaths in custody · England and Wales prisons · Evidence-based policy · penal state · political elites · prison governance · prison suicide · top-down governance · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Criminal Justice and Penology · Criminal Law and Policy
Using evidence
Evidence-Based Policy
What works?Evidence-based policy and practice in public services
Modernising Governance
Rethinking Governance
Evidence-based Policy
A typology of prison officer approaches to care
ONE. The Liberalism of Fear
Differentiating among penal states
The anthropology of elites
The Political Uses of Expert Knowledge
Managing Prisons
Punishment and Modern Society
Gold standard or fool’s gold? The pursuit of certainty in experimental criminology
Government, knowledge and the business of policy making
The Complexity of Evidence
Crime or insecurity
Depth, weight, tightness
Investigating prison suicides
Reconsidering evidence-based policy
Reconceptualizing multisectoral prison regulation
Fracturing the penal state
Prison Officers, Policing and the Use of Discretion
Getting Evidence into Practice
The Thrill of the Chase
Evidence-based policy’ and the government of the criminal justice system - only if the evidence fits
Penality and the Penal State
Vulnerability and Prison Suicide
Can Prisons Be Legitimate
Power and Purpose in an Immigration Removal Centre
Mind Games
The Politics of Evidence-Based Medicine in the United Kingdom
When does power listen to truth? A constructivist approach to the policy process
From Muddling Through to Muddling Up - Evidence Based Policy Making and the Modernisation of British Government
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From Power Elites to Influence Elites
The Sociology of Elites
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |