Institutional withdrawal
Power through omission in late modern imprisonment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8401740 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ed Schreeche-Powell (0000-0002-5551-9649, Old Royal Naval College, The University of Greenwich , London, SE10 9LF, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-13 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The British Journal of Criminology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-0955 • E-ISSN: 1464-3529 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/bjc/azag016 |
| OpenAlex | W7135181620 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 24 |
This article argues that institutional withdrawal—the retraction of institutional infrastructure—is a distinctive mode of late-modern penal power. Drawing on fieldwork into peer-led induction in open prisons in England and Wales, it shows how withdrawal operates across interpersonal, procedural and organizational dimensions as institutional actors step back while retaining surveillance and sanctioning powers. Whether intentional or unintentional, withdrawal produces responsibilization by default, generating uncertainty and retreatist adaptations amongst those imprisoned, who carry responsibility without scaffolding. Far from signalling institutional failure, withdrawal reflects neoliberal logics of organizational retrenchment and responsibilization. Drawing on Goffman’s concept of abandonment and Merton’s account of retreatism, the article reframes late-modern imprisonment as governance through withdrawal, demonstrating how penal power persists through omission, producing iatrogenic harm
Abandonment (legal) · Corporate governance · Entitlement (fair division) · Imprisonment · Managerialism · Neoliberalism (international relations) · Power (physics) · Prison · Retrenchment · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
Navigating Mental Health in the Male Open Prison
The Culture of Control
Caring and the Prison in Philosophy, Policy and Practice
The Prisoner SocietyPower, Adaptation and Social Life in an English Prison
Soft power in prison
Powers of Freedom
Neoliberal governance and ‘responsibilization’ of agents
Criminogenic needs and the transformative risk subject
Peer support and iatrogenic outcomes
Depth, weight, tightness
Tightness’, recognition and penal power
Theoretical advances and problems in the sociology of punishment
The myth of punitiveness
Policing Criminological Knowledge
Mapping the shadow carceral state
Abandoned Women and Spaces of the Exception
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Social Structure and Anomie
Heavy-light, absent-present
Spaces of abandonment
Doing sensitive research
Grounded Theory in Global Perspective
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |