ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the period from 1990 to 1993, a period which is often viewed as seeing a resurgence of humanitarian or reformist penal policy. In broad terms, it can be said that this period was first triggered on 1 April 1990, when the disturbances at Strangeways prison began, it developed in earnest towards the end of that year; and then came to an abrupt public halt on 6 October 1993, when the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, made his infamous ‘prison works’ speech to the Conservative Party conference. The aim of this chapter is to analyse how this apparent, albeit short-lived, renewal of interest in progressive penal policy affected strategies towards mental health, crime and punishment. Specifically, the analytical focus is on the impact on the ‘dividing practices’ aimed at offenders with mental health problems, with specific and particular reference to prisoners. 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 more ‘progressive’ turn possible. The main section analyses in detail how this affected the area of mental health in prisons. The third, concluding section draws out some of the key themes and issues presented by the analysis in this chapter.
