‘It's Kinda Punishment’: Tandem Logics and Penultimate Power in the Penal Voluntary Sector for Canadian Youth

Abstract

This article draws on original empirical research in Ontario, Canada which analyses penal voluntary sector practice with youth in conflict with the law. I illustrate how youth penal voluntary sector (YPVS) practice operates alongside, or in tandem with the statutory criminal justice system. I argue that examining the penal voluntary sector and the statutory criminal justice system simultaneously, or in tandem, provides fuller understandings of penal voluntary sector inclusionary (and exclusionary) control practices (Tomczak and Thompson 2019). I introduce the concept of penultimate power, which demonstrates the ability of penal voluntary sector workers to trigger criminal justice system response towards a young person in conflict with the law. My novel concepts of tandem logics and penultimate power are useful for understanding penal voluntary sector practice, explaining how seemingly contradictory approaches across state and 'community' organisations not only coexist, but depend upon the tandem relationship between the penal voluntary sector and the statutory criminal justice system.This article provides a global first examination of the youth penal voluntary sector (YPVS) and a fresh analysis of 'helping' penal power. It illustrates how the penal voluntary sector operates alongside, or in tandem with, the statutory criminal justice system. I argue that examining the penal voluntary sector and the statutory criminal justice system simultaneously, or in tandem, provides fuller understandings of penal voluntary sector inclusionary (and exclusionary) control practices. 1 I introduce the concept of penultimate power, which demonstrates the ability of penal voluntary sector workers to trigger criminal justice system responses towards a young person in conflict with the law. My novel concepts of tandem logics and penultimate power are useful for understanding penal voluntary sector practice, explaining how seemingly contradictory approaches (for example,

Youth carceral deinstitutionalisation and transinstitutionalisation in Ontario: Recent developments and questions

“…The third usage refers to the ways in which community‐based settings are increasingly made to function like institutional settings. Here we are concerned with how community agencies supporting criminalised youth are increasingly compelled to liaise with, and perform roles similar to, formal detention and custodial institutions (Salole, 2019). The final facet refers to the ways in which institutional logics of confinement and control continue to be written onto the bodies of mad, deaf/Deaf and disabled people.…”

“…In the youth justice sector, such processes are not unheard of. Salole (2019) maps the intricate connections and patterns of carceral replication between the formal youth justice sector and the youth voluntary penal sector. Salole shows that declining youth crime rates since the passing of the YCJA have been used to justify the closure of youth detention centres, increasing reliance on the ‘youth penal voluntary sector’ (YPVS).…”

Shaping the road to reentry: Organizational variation and narrative labor in the penal voluntary sector

“…Beyond filtering potential clients, PVS organizations also have the power to discipline clients for inadequate participation by initiating the process of returning certain individuals to prison—a responsibility Salole (2019) calls penultimate power. This prospect was experienced acutely for Pun:Pun (Liam-House): It can happen and it did happen.…”

“How you keep going”: Voluntary sector practitioners' story‐lines as emotion work

“…PVS organizations undertake a variety of “social incorporation” functions with criminalized individuals (Kaufman, 2015), including providing housing support, employment counseling, and “soft” skills programming. Recent analyses have explored the diverse practices undertaken by PVS practitioners (e.g., Quinn, 2019; Salole, 2019; Tomczak & Buck, 2019) and the nature of PVS relationships with the state (e.g., Corcoran et al., 2018). Scholars are increasingly examining the PVS in jurisdictions around the world (e.g., Kaufman, 2015 in the US; Quirouette, 2021 in Canada).…”