The Sociospatial Mechanics of Domination: Transcending the ‘Exclusion/Inclusion’ Dualism

This article takes issue with Zygmunt Bauman’s thesis that physical exclusion depends on the hindrance of cognitive associations, emotional quandaries, and moral inhibitions, hence victims and their lot remain out of sight. It is counterargued that conscious engagement in directly physical forms of exclusionary behaviour is possible insofar as victims are known in ways that provoke emotional disdain and moralise violence. Such knowledge consists in the relegation of others to the status of morally lesser human beings, and is produced via prior symbolic mediations. To the extent that mediations operate according to the power differentials they both reflect and help to sustain, there is a need to shift analytical attention from exclusion to the ‘meta-category’ of domination.     

Before the next storm: some evidence-based reminders about temporary release

This article offers a long overdue comprehensive review of the literature on the effectiveness of temporary release programs for prisoners. Following an account of how the public and criminal justice workers view temporary release, and against the "nothing works" proposition, it is shown that while in the community, prisoners tend to spend their time constructively and comply with the rules and regulations of temporary release; both home leave and work release schemes can be effective in reducing recidivism rates, and work release in particular may also enhance postrelease employment prospects.     

Penal managerialism from within: implications for theory and research

Unlike the bulk of penological scholarship dealing with managerialist reforms, this article calls for greater theoretical and research attention to the often pernicious impact of managerialism on criminal justice professionals. Much in an ideal-typical fashion, light is shed on: the reasons why contemporary penal bureaucracies endeavor systematically to strip criminal justice work of its inherently affective nature; the structural forces that ensure control over officials; the processes by which those forces come into effect; and the human consequences of submission to totalitarian bureaucratic milieus. It is suggested that the heavy preoccupation of present-day penality with the predictability and calculability of outcomes entails the atomization of professionals and the dehumanization of their work. This is achieved through a kaleidoscope of direct and indirect mechanisms that naturalize and/or legitimate acquiescence.