The Politics of Prison Crowding investigates recent transformations in Italy's penal system to make the key analytical observation that conditions of overcrowding have become the 'new normal' under which the modern prison system continues to operate and deliver punishment.
- Presents qualitative data, giving an insight into the everyday experience of overcrowded prisons.
- Links a smaller ethnographic study with wider trends on European politics and penal policy.
- Places the Italian case in the wider international context.
Simone Santorso is a lecturer at the University of Sussex. Simone's principal research interests are punishment, prison, and detention. Additionally, he has been a principal or co-investigator on research projects on prison and punishment, gang and organised crime, and police and technology. Simone's research brings together theoretical concepts, findings and insights from a variety of disciplinary fields, especially sociology, anthropology, law, and history. He is the author of several journal articles, reports, chapters, and books and is a founding member of the European Prison Observatory.
Introduction
Part I - Conceptual challenges on punishment and imprisonment
Chapter 1 - Literature review: carceral state and managerial turn
Chapter 2 - The roots of the transformation of the Italian prison system
Chapter 3 - Fracturing the Italian carceral system
Chapter 4 - Prison crowding: From harm denial to the managerial turn
Part II - Researching the Italian carceral landscape: Methodology
Chapter 5 -Space and time in overcrowded prisons: '4 sqm means nothing'
Chapter 6 - The Economy of Prison Life
Chapter 7 - Redrawing the Colour Line behind bars
Chapter 8 - Rehabilitation and dynamic security in the Italian prison: challenges in transforming prison officers' roles
Conclusion: Some final remarks