ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses most problematic features of incarceration in the forms it often takes in prisons in the United States and the United Kingdom. It explicates a claim about the relation of mutual support between a liberal legal order on the one hand, and civil society on the other. The chapter also examines morally objectionable features of contemporary incarceration, especially in the US and the UK. Third, it considers ways in which certain features of incarceration damage civil society in general. The relationship between the liberal order and civil society is important in another respect. The sorts of damage done by incarceration to character and agential capacities we should indicate the chief reasons the issue is significant for a liberal polity. A liberal democracy needs to be on guard against people losing interest in it. Disenfranchisement and civil society can result in a situation in which laws apply to large numbers of people who are excluded from the political process.
