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'A Perfect Storm'
An Ethnography of a Prison Crisis
Brief Description
This ethnography of an English adult male prison explores a polycrisis of violence, self-harm, overcrowding, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Bourdieu's field theory, it uniquely highlights the complex interplay of policy, people, and practices to reveal how prisons exacerbate social inequality. A Perfect Storm uncovers paradoxes...
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Format: Hardback
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'A Perfect Storm'
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Description
This ethnography of an English adult male prison explores a polycrisis of violence, self-harm, overcrowding, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Bourdieu's field theory, it uniquely highlights the complex interplay of policy, people, and practices to reveal how prisons exacerbate social inequality.
A Perfect Storm uncovers paradoxes between prison's stated aims of safety, security, and (re)habilitation and their adverse realities, including the harms to prisoners' reintegration upon release. The prison operates as a "perfect storm" of mutually reinforcing conditions that reproduce harmful outcomes. The book contends that the real crisis isn't that prisons fail, it's that we continue to believe they're meant to succeed.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781529253146
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 30 July 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Bristol University Press
Illustration: 1 Tables, black and white
Audience: General / adult, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 156.0mm
Height: 234.0mm
Weight: 0g
Pages: 218
About the Author
Oscar O’Mara is Research Leader at RAND Europe and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Essex.
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