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Media, Politics and Penal Reform pp 33–53Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Penal Policy, Politics and Public Opinion

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology ((PSIPP))

Abstract

This chapter considers the development of post-war penal policy in England and Wales through the lens of Rutherford’s penal paradigms. Drawing on Loader’s notion of the platonic guardians, it documents the changing nature of penal policymaking, from a private process involving elite experts to what we now recognise as ‘the culture of impatience’ (Loader, 2006). Demonstrating how the competing penal philosophies have enjoyed political favour at different junctures (from the post-war philosophy of rehabilitation to the punitive shift of the 1980s), it highlights the confused nature of the current penal position, framed – once again – in the language of reform. This refocus (manifested through the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda and the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014) provides an example of the ‘new rehabilitation’ (Garland, 2001) and sits alongside the dominant punitive rhetoric espoused by

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘Major on Crime: ‘Condemn more, understand less’ The Independent 21 February 1993.

  2. 2.

    Evidence to the House of Commons Justice Select Committee inquiry ‘Cutting Crime: The Case for Justice Reinvestment’ First Report of Session 2009–10 (p. 92: para 194).

  3. 3.

    ‘Crime and Old Labour’s punishment. Jack Straw says he listens to the people, not pressure groups’ The Times 8 April 1998.

  4. 4.

    Hansard, col. 1303, 16 July 1987.

  5. 5.

    Commissioned by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and consisting of 2,053 face-to-face interviews; Commissioned by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and consisting of 2,154 face-to-face interviews; Commissioned by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and consisting of 1,977 face-to-face interviews.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, City, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Gemma Birkett

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Birkett, G. (2017). Penal Policy, Politics and Public Opinion. In: Media, Politics and Penal Reform. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58509-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58509-7_3

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