191-531 Penal Policy and Practice

Admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth year honours in socio-legal studies.

The subject will examine the history and philosophy of imprisonment and contemporary debates in penal policy and practice. Through a combination of theoretical and practical case studies students will be introduced to and will examine four topical areas: the prison in history; penal doctrines; offender management; and the prison in contemporary society. The subject engages with arguments and debates over the nature and purposes of imprisonment, raises questions about the continuity of penal practices through time, examines current thinking - including the notion of 'best practice' benchmarks - about prison administration and offender management, and places contemporary developments in the penal sphere within a wider framework of transformations in modes of social control. By the end of the subject students should have a greater appreciation of how contemporary policy and practice reflects both new and recurrent themes in social and bureaucratic responses to the criminal offender.

Written work totalling 5000 words.