Prison Readings

Prison Readings provides a comprehensive, critical introduction to the main debates and dilemmas associated with prisons and imprisonment, bringing together a selection of the key readings on the subject, along with a comprehensive introduction and commentary written by the editors. It will be essential reading for students studying prisons as part of courses in criminology, sociology, law, psychology and other disciplines and practitioners working in this field.

Prison Readings introduces students to the history and development of prisons, contemporary theories and issues relating to prison populations, to sociological and psychological literature on the 'effects' of imprisonment, and to debates about the management and privatisation of the prison estate and emerging trends.

Yvonne Jewkes is Reader in Criminology at the Open University, the author of a number of books in the field of criminology and penology, and one of the founding editors of the journal Crime, Media, Culture; she is also the editor of Handbook on Prisons (Willan Publishing 2006).

Helen Johnston is Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Hull, teaches a wide range of subjects at undergraduate and postgraduate level and has a particular research interest in the history of prison and imprisonment.