This article critiques a case of modern prison-labour by exploring prisoners' attitudes towards the prison-work they undertake while incarcerated. The study is based at a privatised male prison in the UK, assigned the pseudonym 'Bridgeville'. Bridgeville contracts with privatesector firms in providing market-focused prison-work -so-called real work -for inmates in some of its workshops. In exploring prisoners' perceptions of this privatised prison-work, it is found that it mainly comprises mundane, low-skilled activities typical of informalised, poorquality jobs that are socially, legally and economically devalued and categorised as forms of 'invisible work'. At Bridgeville, such privatised prison-work largely fails in engaging or upskilling inmates, leaving them pessimistic about its value as preparation for employment post-release. Its rehabilitative credentials are therefore questioned. The article contributes to the debate around invisible work more generally by problematising this example of excluded work and the cycle of disadvantage that underpins it.

This interview with James Timpson, Chief Executive of Timpson retailers, explores his innovative approach to recruitment and empowerment in the workplace. James Timpson is passionate about the employment of ex-offenders, working closely with the prison service in the United Kingdom and creating a workplace that invests in its employees. This interview offers some interesting insights into how organizations can contribute positively to society and engage seriously with improving our communities. Drawing on James’s insights, we provide a commentary on the impact that James’s work can have on ex-offenders in terms of reducing reoffending and improving the lives of a vulnerable group of people through creating a workplace culture that emphasizes empowerment. James shows how organizations can support ex-offenders and simultaneously ensure the success of the company. In fact, he shows how these two things can go hand in hand.

This paper draws on a ten-month ethnographic study of private prison work in a UK prison to drawn attention to the prevalence of neoliberalism; even in an institution as secreted and isolated as a prison, the neoliberal ideology can flourish. Prisoners expressed attitudes heavily influenced by consumer culture and egoistic individualism. Most participants expressed a desire to become profitable entrepreneurs. On this basis, it should come as no surprise that prisoners admired the organizations sending work into prison. They despised the work, despised the prison for forcing them to conduct this work, but they were impressed by the firms sending this work in, who they saw as the ultimate exploitative entrepreneurs. They aspired to be entrepreneurs, and with limited opportunities to achieve this legitimately, and the exposure to poorly paid, unskilled work during their incarceration, many prisoners concluded that the best way to become entrepreneurs was through criminal means. Individualism and entrepreneurial rhetoric has clearly trickled down into the depths of our society, with those most vulnerable fighting for a place at the table; they have adopted, embraced and welcomed neoliberalism.

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