Effects Of Privatisation

What Are the Effects of Privatisation on Staff-prisoner Relationships

Alison Liebling, from the University of Cambridge, made a contribution to the 2012 Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, in the category “Criminal Justice and Human Rights,” under the title “What Are the Effects of Privatisation on Staff-prisoner Relationships”. Here is the abstract: It is a well-known maxim that staff-prisoner relationships are ‘at the heart’ of prison life: “At the end of the day, nothing else that we can say will be as important as the general proposition that relations between staff and prisoners are at the heart of the whole prison system and that control and security flow from getting that relationship right. Prisons cannot be run by coercion: they depend on staff having a firm, confident and humane approach that enables them to maintain close contact with prisoners without abrasive confrontation” (Home Office, 1984: para. 16). What does this statement mean, in practice? What changes have been brought about to the nature and quality of staff-prisoner relationships, in particular, by the introduction of private sector competition? What are the implications of this analysis? What do relationships in private sector prisons look like? How (and where) do ‘effective’ and ‘professional’ relationships work? I have argued elsewhere that the moral quality of prison life is enacted and embodied by the attitudes and conduct of prison officers. This paper draws on several recent studies to explore what kind of moral reckoning can be made of the current, competitive, and rapidly changing state of prison life. It explores the current nature and quality of staff-prisoner relationships, describing and explaining how they are being (re-)shaped.[rtbs name=”criminology”]

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Further Reading

• “What Are the Effects of Privatisation on Staff-prisoner Relationships”, by Alison Liebling (Proceedings)