ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the period from 1993 to 1997, a period which is often viewed as witnessing a resurgence of a punitive pre-modern penal policy. The aim of this chapter is to analyse how this apparent revival of pre-modern penal policy affected strategies in the field of mental health, crime and punishment. Specifically, the analytical focus is on the impact on the ‘dividing practices’ applied to mentally disordered offenders, with a particular emphasis on the prison situation. In investigating this, the first section of this chapter briefly sets out some of the wider social, political and penal context at this time which made this punitive turn possible. The second and main section analyses in detail the contours of penal strategies in this area. The final section pulls out some of the central themes raised by the analysis.
