Kimmett Edgar

Tim Newell

This is the best leading edge information and ideas from two of the UK's most respected practitioners and authorties. It is for people who want to make a difference, suggests the tools for this and offering guidance - wholly up to speed with what is happening in UK prisons. Restorative Justice in Prisons is an entirely new and key work that explains how restorative justice can be delivered in the prison setting. This book translates well-rehearsed theories of restorative justice into practical outcomes and into a scenario that is primarily punishment-oriented. It offers a new perspective on the needs of victims in a context where offending may be quite serious. Restorative Justice in Prisons opens the way for largescale expansion in this field. 'This is a wonderfully useful tool for influencing policymakers towards a better system. Meticulously researched and rationally argued throughout, the authors speak direct to government, police and prison service on their own terms, neatly arguing that all those institutions will achieve their objectives, if they adopt the restorative approach .... This is a practical handbook, written by professionals ... [with] a wonderfully reflective Foreword by Erwin James, a lifer, that will capture the imagination .... There are wonderful insights in this book as we would expect from two professionals who have devoted so much of their lives to work in our prisons. The small gestures of human feeling that pass betwen officers and inmates; the detailed case studies of violence; the experience of Belgian prisons; the damaging side effects of imprisonment and most impressively the list of prisons that have moved towards the restorative model. But it is the authors' unerring grasp of current police, prison and government cultures and their confidence that these can be moved gently towards restorative justice, that makes this book so significant for prison reform': John Myhill JP, extracts from a review in The Magistrate, January 2007.

A Guide to Making it Happen

Restorative Justice in Prisons

Carol Martin

Ian O'Donnell

Prisons are dangerous places, and assaults, threats, theft and verbal abuse are pervasive - attributable both to the characteristics of the captive population and to an institutional sub culture which promotes violence as a means of resolving conflicts. Yet the crimes perpetrated by prisoners on other prisoners have attracted little interest, and criminological research has contributed little to an understanding of situations in which violence arises in penal institutions. This book seeks to remedy this, and to address and answer a number of key questions: how do features of the prison social setting shape conflicts?; what social norms guide the decision to use violence?; what are the personal and social consequences of spending months or years in places where distrust and anxiety are normal?; how do staff respond to the dangers that are part of daily life in many prisons?; is it possible to identify factors associated with risk and resilience?; and what methods of handling conflicts do prisoners use that could prevent violence? Prison Violence adopts a distinctive approach to answering these questions, and is based on extensive research, including interviews with both victims and perpetrators of prison violence; it pioneers a conflict-centred approach, seeking to understand the pathways into and out of situations where there is potential for violence, focusing on interpersonal and institutional dynamics rather than on individual psychological factors.

Kimmett Edgar

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