‘Cavemen in an era of speed-of-light technology’ : historical and contemporary perspectives on communication within prisons

Many prisoners believe that the restricted access they have to computer-mediated communcation (CMC) technologies and, in particular, the almost total absence of computers and Internet access in prisons is a form of censure that renders them second-class citizens in the Information Age. This article examines contemporary rationales and historial precedents for denying prisoners the means to communicate (both with each other and with those outside the prison) and argues that the prevention of communication, a pivotal feature of the Victorian and Edwardian prison regime, represents a significant continuity in the experience of prison life in the 21st Century

Finally Fit for Purpose: The Evolution of Australian Prison Architecture

This article argues that Australian prisons have uncritically emulated American penitentiaries in their architecture and structure. We suggest that simply transporting physical design models from one geographic and politicocultural setting to another, with little commitment to understanding the context-bound philosophies and conditions that underpin such models, has been highly problematic. The result has been an Australian penal estate that for decades was incompatible with its aims and purpose. Finally, we discuss the eventual introduction of unique, innovative styles of penal architecture in Australia, which are not only appropriate to their culture and context, but represent world-class developments in penal design.Elizabeth Grant, and Yvonne Jewke

Tanto pânico para nada? Representações e realidades da solicitação online de menores

This paper is concerned with where the public’s ideas come from about online risks to children and young people. Combining perspectives from criminology, sociology and media studies, it will be argued that as a culture we are confused about childhood and hold on to highly ambiguous ideas about children and sexuality. Further, despite the media’s inclination to present adult attraction to children as a uniquely "modern" phenomenon, conflicting notions of childhood have always underpinned social and legal norms and were particularly salient in Victorian society. More recently, at precisely the same time as individuals have retreated from public spheres to the "security" of domestic and privatized spaces, we have seen the emergence of one of the most feared phenomena of the age: the online sexual abuse of children.Este artigo visa compreender de onde provêm as ideias da sociedade sobre os riscos existentes online para as crianças e jovens. Articulando perspetivas das áreas da criminologia, da sociologia e dos estudos dos media, argumentaremos que, do ponto de vista cultural, a sociedade não possui uma visão clara sobre a infância e atém-se a ideias extremamente ambíguas sobre a mesma e sobre a sexualidade. Adicionalmente, apesar da tendência dos media para apresentarem a atração dos adultos por menores como um fenómeno exclusivamente «moderno», sempre estiveram subjacentes às normas sociais e legais ideias contraditórias sobre o tema, que foram particularmente salientes na sociedade vitoriana. Atualmente, numa altura em que os indivíduos têm preterido os espaços públicos em favor da «segurança» dos ambientes domésticos e privados, tem-se assistido à emergência de um dos fenómenos mais preocupantes da nossa época: o abuso sexual online de menores

Designing for Imprisonment: Architectural Ethics and Prison Design

Architectural ethics has only begun to consider in earnest what it means, in a moral sense, to be an architect.1 The academy, however, has yet to adequately to explore the ethical problems raised,2 to evaluate the types of moral issues that arise, and to develop moral principles or moral reasons that should guide decisions when encountering these moral issues inherent in certain project types. This is the case despite the practice of architecture entailing “behaviours, our choices of which may be illuminated by ethical analysis.”3 Although distinguishing practice from product allows ethical critique of the practice involved in designing buildings, and recognises the significance of the architect’s moral agency, there remains very little empirically-based understanding of how the architect, once identified as a moral agent, operates as such, and still less about the circumstances in which ‘professional’ conduct may be at odds with ‘ethical’ behaviour

Just add water:prisons, therapeutic landscapes and healthy blue space

‘Healthy prisons’ is a well-established concept in criminology and prison studies. As a guiding principle to prisoners’ quality of life, it goes back to the 18th century when prison reformer John Howard regarded the improvement of ventilation and hygiene as being essential in the quest for religious penitence and moral reform. In more recent, times, the notion of the ‘healthy prison’ has been more commonly associated with that which is ‘just’ and ‘decent’, rather than what is healthy in a medical or therapeutic sense. This article interrogates the ‘healthy prison’ more literally. Drawing on data gathered from a UK prison located on a seashore, our aim is to explore prisoners’ rational and visceral responses to water in a setting where the very nature of enforced residence can have negative effects on mental health. In expanding the possibilities for the theorization of the health benefits that waterscapes may generate, and moving the discussion from healthy ‘green space’ to healthy ‘blue space’, the article reveals some of the less well-known and under-researched interconnections between therapeutic and carceral geographies, and criminological studies of imprisonment

A Brave New World: the problems and opportunities presented by new media technologies in prisons

This article discusses the digital inequalities experienced by prisoners and the potential opportunities that providing ‘new’ media in prisons offers for offender rehabilitation and resettlement. Currently denied access to online and social media that most of us take for granted, and unable to communicate in ways that have become ‘ordinary’ in the wider community, it is argued that prisoners experience profound social isolation and constitute one of the most impoverished groups in the digital age. In prisons which provide selected prisoners some access to information and communication technologies, their high socio-cultural status and consequent construction as a ‘privilege’ frequently results in them being used in the exercise of ‘soft’ power by prison officer gatekeepers. Moreover, when prisoners come to the end of their sentences, they not only are faced with prejudice and poor job prospects due to their criminal record, but their digital exclusion during a period of incarceration may have compound effects and lead to long-term and deep social exclusion

(B)Locked Sites: Cases of Internet Use in 3 British Prisons

Based on a qualitative scoping exercise in three British prisons, this article discusses digital inequalities experienced by prisoners and the potential opportunities that digital media in prisons offers for offender rehabilitation and resettlement. As they are currently denied access to online and social media that most of us take for granted, physically cut off from their communities, and unable to communicate with family and friends in ways that have become normal in society, we argue that prisoners experience profound social isolation and constitute one of the most impoverished groups in the digital age. Our results show that prisoners display high levels of both curiosity and enthusiasms as well as fear and reservation toward Internet-enabled technologies, depending on age and gender as well as the length of their sentence. On release from prison, they are not only faced with prejudice and poorer job prospects than the average citizen due to their criminal record, but their digital exclusion during incarceration may have compound effects and lead to supercharged digital and social exclusion. We argue that secure access would be highly beneficial to prisoners who pose a low risk to society, especially during the rehabilitation and release phases