Book Review: Surviving Russian prisons: Punishment, economy and politics in transition
| Author | Pat Carlen |
| Published date | 01 October 2005 |
| Date | 01 October 2005 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/146247450500700416 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
rooted in the writings of affirmative (i.e. not ‘sceptical’) postmodernists and is shaped
by two main tenets: that justice involves adopting a stance of critical openness to differ-
ence, to ‘otherness’ (p. 191); and that in the balancing of risks with rights, justice must
strive for equality of respect for ‘varieties of difference’ (p. 207). The book then ends
with discussion of the implications of such an ideal of justice for human rights, restora-
tive justice and communitarianism, concluding that:
The fearfulness of risk society is leading western societies to respond to dangers in ways that
undermine the basic values of liberal societies, values honed to guard against the dangers of
repression and inhumanity as well as to express commitment to democratic governance
(Dworkin, 2002). A doctrine of fundamental rights, with some regarded as inviolable, and no
human being regarded as outside the moral community of rights, is the necessary counter-
weight to a discursive mode of hearing of harms, providing redress and trying to reduce the
likelihood of future harms. (p. 226)
So – an Introduction and much more than an Introduction: the clarity of the exposi-
tion and the complexity of the questions raised in the silences created by the very persua-
siveness of the argument allow the book to be read (and rewritten) in a range of modes
and for a variety of purposes. Students of politics, philosophy and criminology will
certainly find the theoretical expositions both clear and wonderfully concise. Many will
find the book a pleasure to read because of its committed engagement with some of the
main political, ethical and penal questions of the day, e.g. Should terrorists be denied
human rights? Should paedophiles be denied due process and punished for possible
future crimes? And some others of us will listen to the silences and wonder if the ideal
of a never-to-be known justice can ever constrain the force of law – or whether such a
justice merely turns its back on a mortality which will (must?) almost certainly continue
to put its faith in the mirage of law’s truth rather than in the certain uncertainty of
justice’s right.
Justice in the risk society is a tour de force. Unlike some recent works of cultural crim-
inology, it manages the difficult feat of both developing an original and closely argued
theoretical perspective and then employing it to inform discussions of global, inter-
national, regional, local and personal ethics with an ease that makes the reading of the
book a joy. Everyone should read it.
Reference
Dworkin, R. (2002) ‘The real threat to US values’, Guardian Saturday Review 9
March: 3.
Pat Carlen
University of Kent, UK
Surviving Russian prisons: Punishment, economy and politics in transition, Laura
Piacentini. Cullompton: Willan, 2004. 220 pp.
Surviving Russian prisons, the first study of Russian penality to be published in the West
with English as its original language (i.e. not in translation), is the remarkable achieve-
ment of a young Scottish PhD student who took postgraduate studies in criminology
BOOK REVIEWS
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