LW3PIC: Prisons in Crisis

Module code: LW3PIC

Module provider: School of Law

Credits: 20

Level: 6

When you’ll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Dr Abigail Rowe , email: a.e.rowe@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2025/6

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 3 April 2025

Overview

Module aims and purpose

risons are the dominant institution of criminal justice in jurisdictions around the world. Despite their ubiquity, however, evidence of crisis, policy failure and iatrogenic harms is common across prison systems: whether in relation to issues like prison violence and suicide, the highly racialised mass incarceration of US prison systems, overcrowding in England and Wales, the ‘warehousing’ of prisoners in Brazil.  

This module explores how sociologists, criminologists and penologists make sense of ‘the prison’ in its historical, economic and cultural contexts, the key debates and controversaries that surround it and the politics that shape penal policy and practice. 

This module aims to: 

• Provide a critical overview of the historical, social and theoretical foundations of imprisonment in contemporary criminal justice policy and practice 
• Examine experiences of incarceration from a wide range of perspectives, including specific groups of imprisoned people such as children and young adults, mothers, members of racialised minorities, prisoners’ families and communities, and prison workers
• Explore key debates and controversaries surrounding the use and impact of imprisonment in modern societies  
• Introduce the methods of research and analysis used by social scientists in the study of prisons and imprisonment

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of the links between practices of imprisonment and their economic, social and historical contexts
2. Make sophisticated links between contemporary and historical debates about imprisonment and their theoretical underpinnings
3. Understand the impact of imprisonment on prisoners, communities and societies
4. Critically assess the legitimacy and effectiveness of imprisonment and evaluate alternative, penal reductionist and penal abolitionist strategies

Module content

This module will explore a wide range of contemporary, historic and comparative issues relating to imprisonment, such as:

• Prisons, crime and social control: theorising penality and imprisonment
• Global imprisonment – comparative analyses of incarceration
• Representations of prisons and imprisonment (academic, political and popular)
• Order in prisons: legitimacy, riot and reform 
• Imprisoning children
• Women in prison
• Race, racism and imprisonment
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• The collateral effects of imprisonment 
• Experiences of imprisonment (including vulnerabl and ageing prisoners)
• Private prisons and the prison-industrial complex
• Penal politics: penal reductionism and penal abolitionism

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

The module will be taught by a combination of weekly two-hour seminar and weekly one hour lecture. Lectures will provide students with the relevant theoretical or methodological input to help them approach their independent reading and prepare for seminars. Students will be expected to work in small groups or individually to produce short presentations and participate in discussion and debate based on their own and others’ work.  Online and blended learning will provide support for students' learning and assessment.

Study hours

At least 32 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: /cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Essay plan

Reassessment

Additional costs