Abstract
Prison visits by academics are controversial. While they can provide an insight into penal practice, prisoner researchers warn against such visits as spectacles of degradation. In this article I examine the value of a series of prison visits for comparative research. Drawing on my own experiences and those of, among others, John Howard and John Pratt, I argue that prison visits, if ethically conducted and reflectively considered, offer benefits for investigating comparative penal practice. They can consider the self-presentation of the prison, material conditions (including the sounds, smells and the sights), and possibly, where the script allows it, a glimpse beyond the façade of official prison discourse. As such, they have merit, in particular in the early stages of a comparative project.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 0 |
| Pages (from-to) | 265-276 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 19 Mar 2015 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 5 Jun 2015 |
Keywords
- prison visits
- carceral tours
- John Howard
- comparative criminal justice
- comparative method
Access to Document
- Howard_Pratt_and_beyond_AAM
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Pakes, F. (2015), Howard, Pratt and Beyond: Assessing the Value of Carceral Tours as a Comparative Method. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 54: 265-276, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12127. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.