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Prison Bureaucracies in the United States, Mexico, India, and Honduras

Brian Norris

Modern criminal justice institutions globally include police, criminal courts, and prisons. Prisons, unlike courts which developed out of an old aristocratic function and unlike police which developed out of an ancient posse or standing army function, are only about 200 years old and are humanitarian inventions. Prisons, defined as modern institutions that deprive the freedom of individuals who violate societies’ most basic norms in lieu of corporal or capital punishment, were near universal at the dawn of the 21^st century and their use was expanding globally. The US alone spent $60 billion on prisons in 2014. Prison Bureaucracies addresses two fundamental questions. Do prisons in Christian, Hindu, and Muslim societies separated by space and level of socioeconomic development follow a common evolutionary path? Given that differences in prison structure and performance exist, what factors—resources, laws, leadership, historical accident, institutions, culture—account for differences? Based on more than 150 interviews conducted in ten international trips with prison administrators in 15 male state prisons in the US, Mexico, India, and Honduras, Norris provides ethnographic descriptions of prisons bureaucracies that are immediately recognizable as similar institutions, but that nonetheless possessed distinctive forms and developmental trajectories. Economists and political scientists have argued that incentives provided by institutions matter for good or bad public administration, and this is undeniable in the prisons of this study. But institutional incentives were one factor among many affecting the form and function of the prisons and prison systems of this study.

Lexington Books

Pages: 294 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-3234-1 • Hardback • February 2018 • $122.00 • (£94.00)

978-1-4985-3235-8 • eBook • February 2018 • $110.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Political Science / Comparative Politics, Political Science / General, Social Science / Criminology

Prison Bureaucracies in the United States, Mexico, India, and Honduras

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Modern criminal justice institutions globally include police, criminal courts, and prisons. Prisons, unlike courts which developed out of an old aristocratic function and unlike police which developed out of an ancient posse or standing army function, are only about 200 years old and are humanitarian inventions. Prisons, defined as modern institutions that deprive the freedom of individuals who violate societies’ most basic norms in lieu of corporal or capital punishment, were near universal at the dawn of the 21^st century and their use was expanding globally. The US alone spent $60 billion on prisons in 2014. Prison Bureaucracies addresses two fundamental questions. Do prisons in Christian, Hindu, and Muslim societies separated by space and level of socioeconomic development follow a common evolutionary path? Given that differences in prison structure and performance exist, what factors—resources, laws, leadership, historical accident, institutions, culture—account for differences? Based on more than 150 interviews conducted in ten international trips with prison administrators in 15 male state prisons in the US, Mexico, India, and Honduras, Norris provides ethnographic descriptions of prisons bureaucracies that are immediately recognizable as similar institutions, but that nonetheless possessed distinctive forms and developmental trajectories. Economists and political scientists have argued that incentives provided by institutions matter for good or bad public administration, and this is undeniable in the prisons of this study. But institutional incentives were one factor among many affecting the form and function of the prisons and prison systems of this study.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 294 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-3234-1 • Hardback • February 2018 • $122.00 • (£94.00)

978-1-4985-3235-8 • eBook • February 2018 • $110.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Political Science / Comparative Politics, Political Science / General, Social Science / Criminology

Author

Brian Norris is assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the Citadel.

Table of Contents

Illustrations
Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Modern Prison Bureaucracies: Monuments of a Charitable Disposition?
Chapter 2: Poverty among Plenty: The Need for More Knowledge of Modern Prisons and Global Public Administration
Chapter 3: The Origins and Structure of Prison Systems in Mexico and the US
Chapter 4: The Origins and Structure of Prison Systems in India and Honduras
Chapter 5: The Mis-Measure of Prison Performance
Chapter 6: A Tyranny of the Educated versus Tudors Resurgent: Prisons in Mexico City and South Carolina
Chapter 7: Differences in Bureaucratic Performance in Two Mexican Prisons
Chapter 8: Indian Prisons in Delhi and Telangana compared to La Tamara Prison in Honduras
Chapter 9: On the Meaning of Prisons
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
Glossary
Bibliography
About the Author

Reviews

A culture-sensitive description of select prison administrations in three continents, narrated skillfully.
— Ujjwal Kumar Singh, University of Delhi

Norris’ research on prisons provides an excellent account on how prisons work. It states rich arguments that appropriately speak to many disciplines and invites to multiple thoughts on the issue of what is, and ought to be, the appropriate role of the state when imprisoning its citizens. The case studies in the book—the United States, Mexico, India, and Honduras—are thoroughly analyzed and documented. Norris succeeded in constructing coherent and solid arguments from the vast information that he recollected. This book is a must read for those interested on bureaucracies.
— Vidal Romero, ITAM

Prison Bureaucracies in the United States, Mexico, India, and Honduras

Brian Norris

Prison Bureaucracies in the United States, Mexico, India, and Honduras

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