Introduction
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865810393108 |
| Author | Eileen Baldry,Mark Brown,Chris Cunneen |
| Date | 01 April 2011 |
| Published date | 01 April 2011 |
| Subject Matter | Introduction |
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
44(1) 4–6
Introduction
! The Author(s) 2011
Reprints and permissions:
Guest Editors:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0004865810393108
Eileen Baldry, Mark Brown and
anj.sagepub.com
Chris Cunneen
Australian Prisons Project
This special issue of the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology focuses on the
prison, its contexts and effects. Prison expansionism has defined the last several decades of
criminal justice policy. Even in the face of falling crime rates, the penal estate expanded,
simultaneously redefining itself (through for example post-sentence preventive detention)
and re-inventing its importance (for example by claiming improved community safety
through the incapacitation of dangerous and repeat offenders). Put simply, more and
more people have been incarcerated for ever longer periods of time. Meanwhile the effects
of imprisonment are unevenly felt: racial minority communities continue to bear the brunt
of extensive criminal justice interventions – indeed many would argue that imprisonment
and criminalization are key institutions in the construction and maintenance of the racial-
ized boundaries of late modern societies; women’s imprisonment rates have increased
more rapidly than men’s; and people diagnosed with mental illness and cognitive disability
are re-cycled in and out of prison more rapidly than ever.
Yet like all stories, the story of penal expansionism has multiple interpretations and
complexities. Some of those matters are addressed in this issue. We lay no claim to
comprehensiveness. This is hardly surprising given that the prison embodies a range
of different historical, political and cultural trajectories. The prison reflects and repro-
duces legal relations (for example, sentencing requirements, citizenship restrictions) and
social relations (for example, relationships between prisoner and the prisoner officer, the
community and family). How these relationships are understood and...
To continue reading
Request your trial