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Carceral Utopia

A Global History of Model Prisons
By Gregory Salle
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Brief Description
What underpins the legitimacy of the prison system in the twenty-first century? Despite numerous challenges and setbacks, there is still a widespread belief that prisons can be improved in a socially progressive way. Even today, model prisons are being built that seek to fix the shortcomings... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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What underpins the legitimacy of the prison system in the twenty-first century? Despite numerous challenges and setbacks, there is still a widespread belief that prisons can be improved in a socially progressive way. Even today, model prisons are being built that seek to fix the shortcomings and failures of their predecessors, as if past failures were due to a lack of imagination, determination, or resources.

The aim of creating model prisons is not new: it dates back to the early nineteenth century. Ranging from England to Switzerland and Spain, from Russia to China and India, Carceral Utopia documents a rich, global history of ambitious efforts to create model prisons – places of confinement initially lauded for their progressive ideals but later revealed as fiascos.

At the end of this journey through time and space, it will not suffice merely to highlight the gap between plans and realities, or even to dispel the illusion that model prisons could not live up to their claims. We need to ask why, despite so many failures, these institutions are still being built today. Might their many obvious shortcomings conceal a covert success?

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781509571475

Publisher: Polity Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 18 September 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Polity Press

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 20.0mm

Height: 212.0mm

Weight: 340g

Pages: 276

Collections

Education & Reference Gregory Salle Non-Fiction Politics & Current Affairs

About the Author

Grégory Salle is a senior researcher in social and political sciences at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

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