Seven ways to make prisons work

Abstract

Prisons are often portrayed as inherently inhumane and criminogenic and the explanation proceeds along these lines: prisons’ inhumanity stems from the very nature of total institutions (Goff man 1961); it is not natural for humans to be caged, and enforcing conformity will inevitably lead to coercion (Zimbardo 2007) and use of the “hole," if not physical brutality (Rothman 1980) and psychic manipulation (Foucault 1977).