Prisons in transition

The role of the prison has changed, in some ways dramatically, over the last two decades. The prison population has grown and its composition has altered. There has been an increase in the depth and weight of imprisonment, and a hardening of its emotional tone. Prisoners' voices have been silenced, outcomes have deteriorated, and yet public presentation of the prison has improved. Power has shifted upwards, as senior managers have an unprecedented grip on establishments and their ‘performance’. There are new fantasies about, and constructions of, the prison's role, with little evidence to support such public and political dreams. Such sleights of hand are only possible without knowledge of the prison's interior life. Punitive prisons which treat prisoners, and possibly prison staff, unfairly and with little or no respect add to human suffering and do not address either the problem of crime or the problem of public fear.