Understanding Prison Staff

The past decade has seen dramatic growth in every area of the prison enterprise. Yet knowledge of the inner life of the prison remains limited. This book redresses this research gap by providing insight into various aspects of the daily life of prison staff. The book provides a serious exploration of their work and, in doing so, draws attention to the variety, value, and complexity of work within prisons. Understanding Prison Staff provides information on relevant research studies, key debates, and on operational and procedural matters. It includes reflective material which academic staff can adopt for core or specialist modules which focus on prison management, prison officer training, and the occupational cultures of prison staff.

The past decade has seen dramatic growth in every area of the prison enterprise. Yet our knowledge of the inner life of the prison remains limited. This book aims to redress this research gap by providing insight into various aspects of the daily life of prison staff. It provides a serious exploration of their work and, in doing so, will seek to draw attention to the variety, value and complexity of work within prisons. This book will provide practitioners, students and the general reader with a comprehensive and accessible guide to the contemporary issues and concerns facing prison staff.

1. Introduction, Ben Crewe, Jamie Bennett and Azrini Wahidin Part 1: Prisons and Staff Issues 2. Personal reflections on prison staff, Jason Warr 3. Prison staff: an international perspective, Roy D. King 4. The experiences of black and minority ethnic prison staff, Hindpal Singh Bhui and Julia Fossi 5. Prison officers and gender, Sarah Tait 6. Prison staff in the public and private sector, Clare McClean and Alison Liebling Part 2: Prison Officers 7. Industrial relations in prisons, Jamie Bennett and Azrini Wahidin 8. Understanding prison officers: culture, cohesion and conflict, Elaine Crawley and Peter Crawley 9. Staff and order in prisons, Deborah Drake 10. Creating ghosts in the penal machine: prison officer occupational morality and the techniques of denial, David Scott 11. 'An inconvenient criminological truth': pain, punishment and prison officers, Joe Sim Part 3: Prison Managers 12. Prison governors: new public managers? Shane Bryans 13. Change management in prisons, Andrew Coyle 14. 'Resisting the scourge of managerialism': on the uses of discretion in late-modern prisons, Leo K. Cheliotis 15. The role of middle and first-line managers, Sue Brookes, Karen Smith and Jamie Bennett Part 4: Prison Staff 16. The changing face of probation in prisons, Brian Williams 17. Teachers and instructors in prisons, Phil Bayliss and Shirley Hughes 18. Psychologists in prisons, Graham Towl and David Crighton 19. The prison drug worker, Mike Wheatley 20. Health professionals in prisons, Morag MacDonald and Paul Fallon Part 5: Developing the Human Resources of Prisons 21. Recruitment and assessment of prison staff, Martin McHugh, Jim Heavens and Keith Baxter 22. Training and developing prison staff, Maggie Bolger and Jamie Bennett 23. The experience of prison officer training, Helen Arnold Part 6: Conclusion 24. Concluding comments on the social world of prison staff, Ben Crewe

Jamie Bennett is DeputyGovernor, HMP Whitemoor, and editor of the Prison Journal. Ben Crewe is Lecturer in Criminology at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge. Azrini Wahidin is Reader in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Queen's University Belfast.