Reconceptualising Custody: Rights, Responsibilities and 'Imagined Communities'

Citation

Malloch M (2018) Reconceptualising Custody: Rights, Responsibilities and 'Imagined Communities'. In: Stanley E (ed.) Human Rights and Incarceration: Critical Explorations. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 233-255. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95399-1_10

Abstract
Reconceptualising Custody draws on developments for women in prison in Scotland to consider the influence of 'rights discourse' in reorganising the penal estate. Locating these developments within an international context, the chapter explores the flexibility of concepts of 'community' in the repositioning of custody and in attempts to create 'benevolent' spaces within the prison system. The chapter argues that an individual model of rights within institutional spaces cannot address the factors that contribute to imprisonment, sustain processes of criminalisation and that continue to exert impact post-release. The tension between the potential for achieving radical change and the legitimation of the existing system is evident in the creation of apparently benevolent spaces within which women are incompatibly both punished and rehabilitated.

Keywords
Community custody; Punishment; Women’s rights;

People

Professor Margaret Malloch

Professor, Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology