The Prisons We Deserve

Politics & Social Sciences

Coyle, Andrew

Stern, Vivien

Social Sciences

HarperCollins Publishers,Inc.

Few people can talk about prisons with the authority and experience that Andrew Coyle brings to his subject. A former prison governor, an academic author, an international activist and a practical reformer, Professor Coyle knows prisons inside and out, home and abroad, past and present. In Understanding Prisons he uses his impressive expertise to guide researchers through the changing world of the English prison. The result is an accessible, up-to-date, and highly informative book that will be welcomed by students and practitioners alike. - David Garland, NYU, author of The Culture of Control. Andrew Coyle has drawn on his lifelong experience of governing prisons in Scotland and England and, as the former Director of the International Centre for Prison Studies, Kings College, London, studying prisons worldwide. He has written a comprehensive account of the use of imprisonment and the character of prisons.

Understanding Prisons: Key Issues in Policy and Practice (Crime & Justice)

Open University Press

“Few people can talk about prisons with the authority and experience that Andrew Coyle brings to his subject. A former prison governor, an academic author, an international activist and a practical reformer, Professor Coyle knows prisons inside and out, home and abroad, past and present. In Understanding Prisons he uses his impressive expertise to guide researchers through the changing world of the English prison. The result is an accessible, up-to-date, and highly informative book that will be welcomed by students and practitioners alike.” David Garland, NYU, author of The Culture of Control “Andrew Coyle has drawn on his lifelong experience of governing prisons in Scotland and England and, as the former Director of the International Centre for Prison Studies, Kings College, London, studying prisons worldwide. He has written a comprehensive account of the use of imprisonment and the character of prisons. He persuasively argues that our continued, extensive use of imprisonment cannot simply be explained or justified by the incidence of crime and could otherwise. His book merits close attention.” Rod Morgan, Chairman, Youth Justice Board  There are over nine million men, women and children in prison around the world, and the number of people in prison in England and Wales has increased significantly in recent years. Yet in many respects prison remains the last secretive public institution in our society. Understanding Prisons provides a unique, in-depth examination of prisons – how they function, what they achieve, and their historical and political context. The book:  Describes how prisons developed into their present form  Looks at who is sent to prison and what happens to them while they are there Explains how the prison system and staff in England and Wales are organised Examines how order and control is maintained and how high security prisons operate Looks at prisoners’ families and the wider community Offers a future vision of the prison system This is essential reading for criminology and sociology students and researchers, criminal justice practitioners, the media and members of the public who are interested in learning more about the closed world of the prison.

Understanding Prisons

Prisons of the World

How do governments and societies use prison to respond to underlying and fundamental social, economic and political issues?Using data on world imprisonment and numerous international examples from his personal experience, Coyle, a prison practitioner, academic and international expert, discusses the failings of prison around the world.Acknowledging the influence of external agencies, such as the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and court interventions in the use of solitary confinement, he offers some positive pointers for the future and how there might be a better distribution of resources between criminal justice and social justice by an application of the principles of Justice Reinvestment.

Policy Press

Capitalist Punishment: Prison Privatization and Human Rights

Prison privatization is rapidly increasing in many Western countries. But how is public well-being served when prisons are run for maximum profit? Bringing together an accomplished group of writers and activists, Capitalist Punishment discusses prison privatization within its historical and ideological context, and in relation to international standard minimum rules developed by the United Nations. Capitalist Punishment examines the adverse effects of private prisons on inmates related to physical and sexual abuse, health care, education, training, and rehabilitation. It describes the impact on prison staff, from whose salaries corporate profits are wrung, and of cost cutting in the design of facilities and allocation of personnel. Special attention is paid to the effect on vulnerable groups such as women, children, and disproportionately incarcerated minority and indigenous communities. Revealing important links between neo-liberal policies locally and their global effects, Capitalist Punishment offers a disturbing glimpse into the transnational spread of privatized incarceration, as developing nations bound by IMF restrictions are forced into the hands of transnational corporations.

Campbell, Allison

Neufeld, Rodney

Zed Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Coyle, Andrew. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Coyle, Andrew