Comparing prison systems
Subtitle: toward a comparative and international penology
By: edited by Robert P. Weiss and Nigel South.
Contributors: Weiss, Robert P.; South, Nigel.
Series: International studies in global change ;; v. 8
Publisher: Gordon and Breach
Published: 1998
Language: eng
Number of pages: 488
Subjects: Prisons -- Cross-cultural studies.; Imprisonment -- Cross-cultural studies.; Criminal justice, Administration of -- Cross-cultural studies.
Genres: Cross-cultural studies.
Description: "This edited volume compares and contrasts the prison systems of sixteen nations throughout the world, approaching them along a variety of dimensions and focusing on patterns of crisis and change over the last two decades." "Filling a lacuna in comparative studies of penal practice, this book identifies the common and unique problems that penal systems around the world face and, in sociological analyses, the authors compare the variety of penal responses. This volume brings together for the first time analyses of non-industrial and industrial nations and compares relatively "stable" nations such as Japan with nations experiencing profound political and economic change such as South Africa and Poland. The book concludes with a discussion of the prospects for social and penal change in these various nations."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: crime and punishment and the "state of prisons" in a changing world / Nigel South and Robert P. Weiss. Punishment in the American democracy: the paradoxes of good intentions / Dario Melossi and Mark G. Lettiere; title: Canadian prisons / Bob Gaucher and John Lowman; title: The crisis in Mexican prisons: the impact of the United States / J. Michael Olivero; title: The state of prisons and prisoners in four countries of the Andean Region / Rosa del Olmo; title: The buckling of the shields: Dutch penal policy 1985-1995 / David Downes; title: Power, punishment and prisons in England and Wales 1975-1996 / Mick Ryan and Joe Sim; title: The country of Cesare Beccaria: the myth of rehabilitation in Italy / Vincenzo Ruggiero; title: Germany: ups and downs in the resort to imprisonment; title: strategic or unplanned outcomes? / Hartmut Weber and Johannes Feest; title: Penal practice and social theory in Poland before and after the events of 1989 / Monika Platek; title: Facing difference: relations, change and the prison sector in contemporary China / Michael Dutton and Xu Zhangrun; title: The Japanese experience: effects of decreasing resort to imprisonment / Elmer H. Johnson; title: Penality and imprisonment in Australia / David Brown; title: Change and continuity in South African prisons / Dirk van Zyl Smit; title: Conclusion: imprisonment at the millennium 2000; title: its variety and patterns throughout the world / Robert P. Weiss.