Modelling penal transformation

Abstract

Using a systems analytical framework, this article explains how and why the Scottish penal system has followed a different trajectory to a number of its European and US counterparts. It highlights the manner in which penal-welfare values have continued to dominate all aspects of policy and practice in the face of the social and cultural factors that have been identified as prompting significant shifts in the nature and function of penality in other jurisdictions. The article argues that pressures for change within Scotland have been mediated by a number of localized political and cultural processes (relating specifically to elite policy networks and the characteristics of Scottish civic culture). These processes have facilitated a degree of boundary closure and self-reflexive modes of communication within the Scottish system and it is these which, to date, have mitigated against the sense of structural and cultural strain driving transformation elsewhere. The Scottish case suggests: that the environments which penal systems inhabit are complex and turbulent phenomena, containing a range of competing pressures with differential rather than uniform effects; and that small-scale penal systems have particular features which make them better able to ride out such turbulence without fundamental damage to their central principles and purposes.

The cultural context of women prisoners’ mental health

“…As Young and Brown note, punishments can be justified and explained by policymakers and others, but it is 'their actual form and severity' (1993: 40-1) that are particularly reflective of a nation's cultural and penal values (see also McAra, 2005). As we have seen, substantial variations exist in conditions of confinement, which ultimately bodes well or ill for prisoners' welfare.…”

Global meets local: International participation in prison reform and restructuring in Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…Regardless of this, continued fragmentation and duplication blocks a rationalization of penal structures that could free up resources to concentrate on policy development. The Council of Europe has the potential to influence the development of penal policy in BiH in line with the 'rights talk' identified by McAra (2005) and evident in work by Coyle and van Zyl Smit (2000) and Morgan (1998;2000); but that potential influence can only be realized when the political and institutional context in BiH provides the will and capacity to absorb and act upon it. The division of powers in BiH and the lack of hierarchic relationships between state-and entity-level ministries thus stand as major impediments to the enforcement of state-level obligations arising from Council membership and European Convention on Human Rights.…”

“…In a case study of Scotland, McAra argues that an explanation for such resistance is found in the interaction of the broader shifts already observed in large jurisdictions with local political and cultural factors, brought together in a penal system defined by a coherent, if somewhat permeable, boundary, internal linkages, and dynamic modes of reproduction, or autopoiesis (McAra, 2005: 279 ff). These smaller systems, often marginal to inquiry, are seen as fruitful arenas for further investigation, and it is in this spirit that the case of BiH is considered.…”

Impact and the Reflexive Imperative in Criminal Justice Policy, Practice and Research

“…What has been rather less developed is research more explicitly focused on criminal justice policy itself: the actors involved, the roles of expert knowledge within it, and the processes through which it takes shape (Newburn and Sparks 2004). There are some notable exceptions (inter alia, the work of Paul Rock; Armstrong, 2010;Annison 2015;Blaustein 2015;Morrison and Sparks 2015;Souhami 2007;McAra 2005McAra , 2016Jones and Newburn 2002); however, the lack of attention to policy is becoming, particularly in the context of a research agenda premised on some notion of 'impact', an increasingly glaring lapse in criminological scholarship, a gap this volumes aims partly to fill.…”