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Cited by 18Criminal Justice and PenologyCriminal Justice and Corrections AnalysisCriminal Law and Policy

Punishments, Politics, and Prisons in Western Countries

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Tonry, Michael·2022·Crime and Justice
DOI 10.1086/721278
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Abstract

Imprisonment rates and patterns and the professionalism and decency of prison operations vary widely between countries and, within the United States, between states. The explanations for differences are deeply embedded in national or local histories and political cultures; substantial changes are hard to achieve. Day-to-day life even in the “best” prisons is usually drab, monotonous, and unpleasant; in the worst it is squalid, unhealthy, and sometimes terrifying. Conditions for guards and other staff are often little better. The big difference is that they can go home at shift’s end. They are often poorly paid and little respected; work in claustrophobic, stultifying environments; and deal daily with angry, depressed, mentally ill, and otherwise troubled people. The best run, most humane prisons address those challenges as best they can—in some countries, sometimes, reasonably well. Many prisons—in some countries, most—are terrible places. Sometimes that is because policy makers cannot or will not spend the money needed to run them decently, sometimes because they do not much care what goes on inside, and sometimes because they affirmatively want prisoners to suffer. Staff miseries are collateral damage.

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  • Early works called attention to the staggeringly disparate rates of crime and incarceration.

    “Early works called attention to the staggeringly disparate rates of crime and incarceration (Hagan and Peterson 1995;Tonry 2022), and increasingly sophisticated demographic estimates documented these disparities and their consequences for economic activity and labor markets (Apel and Sweeten 2010;Holzer et al. 2005;Pager 2003;Pettit 2012;Pettit and Western 2004;Western 2006;Western and Beckett 199”

    From The Rise of the Carceral State: Foundations and Contours of a Rapidly Changing Criminal Legal System (2025) · cites this paper as Tonry 2022

    Section I, “Patterns of Imprisonment Use,” documents striking differences in incarceration rates across countries, including a US rate more than 12 times Finland’s. The passages discuss rising crime rates but do not establish comparably disparate crime rates. The paper was published in 2022, so it also does not fit the sentence’s description of an early work. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Many countries have racial and ethnic disparities in exposure to incarceration, reflecting the history of historically marginalized groups in each country.

    “Many countries have racial and ethnic disparities in exposure to incarceration (Lacey et al. 2018;Tonry 2007Tonry , 2022)), reflecting the history of historically marginalized groups in each country.”

    From The Rise of the Carceral State: Foundations and Contours of a Rapidly Changing Criminal Legal System (2025) · cites this paper as Tonry 2022

    The Abstract links racial bias and disparities in the United States to its history of race relations, and “C. Juxtaposing Punishment Philosophies and Expediency” reports racial disparities in US imprisonment. The paper also says national histories shape imprisonment practices, but the passages do not establish racial or ethnic disparities tied to historically marginalized groups across many countries. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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  119. Arif Akgul, Correctional intelligence: Defining the domain and the privatisation conundrum, Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, 21, 3, (366-376), (2026).
  120. Eric Yu, Michael Wang, Jayden Berdugo, Shahnawaz Towheed, Jaehyeong Yang, Insiya Moosavi, Sarah Lalji-Mawji, Christopher Scott Czapla, Britta Klara Ostermeyer, Andrew Toyin Olagunju, Mental health issues and associated factors amongst healthcare workers in US forensic-correctional settings: a systematic review of literature since the COVID-19 pandemic, BMC Health Services Research, (2026).
  121. Hina Usman, Jillian J. Turanovic, Chaos Before Peace: The Impact of Exposure to a Prison Riot on Incarcerated Persons, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 41, 3, (387-428), (2025).
  122. Evan C. McCuish, Shawn Bushway, Patrick Lussier, Kelsey Gushue, The impact of incarceration on reoffending: A period-to-period analysis of Canadian youth followed into adulthood, Journal of Criminal Justice, 96, (102335), (2025).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Tonry, M.
Corresponding author
Tonry, Michael
Venue
Crime and Justice
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Published
2022-01-01
Volume
51
Pages
7-57
ISSN
  • 0192-3234 (ISSN-L)
  • 2153-0416
DOI
10.1086/721278
OpenAlex
W4297338266
Cited by
18
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4
FWCI
21.60
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc
Locations
Crime and Justice (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Law and Policy
Keywords
incarceration, prison conditions, prison policy, political culture, prison staff, prison overcrowding, comparative prison systems, punishment, prison reform

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