Concise presentation of article: Problematisations of detention by statutory regulators. Dr Tom Kemp

• In Event: The regulation of criminal justice detention by multisectoral actors

Abstract

While detention regulation is primarily conceptualised as an independent fact-finding and assessment exercise, we propose that it should instead be reconceptualised as an official site of problematisation—the institutional construction of problems and solutions. Although regulation is often seen as one, if not the primary means of combatting the harms of detention, regulatory regimes in practice embed themselves within detention settings, shaping how harm is seen and understood by prisoners and staff. This perspective offers a productive way to understand the obdurate challenges facing prison oversight, beyond critiques of technocracy and toothlessness. Our extensive empirical analysis of detention oversight in England and Wales reveals major limitations within the UK’s NPM, particularly concerning siloing, independence, scale, and scope. Regulators primarily produce fragmented, institution-specific assessments, framing detention issues at the level of individual facilities, which results in a lack of systemic regulation and an absence of outcome-focused analysis.

Author

• Tom Kemp, University of Nottingham School of Sociology and Social Policy