CRI-30044 - Module Specification
School of Social, Political and Global Studies
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2020/21

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2020/21

This module explores the central role which prisons play in society, both as institutions which dominate the contemporary punitive network, and as places which absorb our social and cultural imagination.
Lectures may include:
Revisiting the prison crisis
1. The current state of our prisons
2. Popular and political representations of prisons
Prison community
3. Doing prison work
4. Prisoner communities
5. Riots and resistance in prison
6. Radicalisation and political imprisonment
Prisons and inequality
7. The gendered pains of imprisonment
8. Race, ethnicity and imprisonment
9. Youth/Children in prison
Penal futures
10. The penal-industrial complex
11. Life after imprisonment

The aims of the module are to:
Provide an overview of the central debates and controversies relating to the purpose of imprisonment and the role of the modern prison;
Develop an understanding of the political, cultural and social importance of imprisonment as a centrepiece of contemporary punishment;
Understand the effects of imprisonment on key actors in the prison system, such as prisoners, staff and non-correctional personnel;
To understand the effects of custody on individuals, their families and communities, and society at large;
Explore the relationship between imprisonment and inequality;
Critically engage with the major criminological and social scientific contributions in the area of imprisonment.

Intended Learning Outcomes

1
1
1
1

Study hours

11 x 1 hour weekly sessions comprising lecture-style tutor-led learning,
11 x 1 hour per student per week of tutorial exercises comprising screenings, tutor led group debates and discussions in groups of 20-25.
11 x 2 hours of session specific preparation in advance of each session.
106 Hours of Personal study (including work for summative assessments).

School Rules

Students taking this module must have successfully completed one of the following modules:
CRI-10015 Punishment: beyond the public imagination
OR
CRI-10013 Criminal Justice: process, policy, practice.
OR
CRI-20016 Crime & Justice: a global context
OR
CRI-20020 Research methods in Criminology

Description of Module Assessment