ABSTRACT
High security prisons embody and express the coercive power of the state in its most extreme form. In England and Wales, high security prisons were, unusually, designed and administered with much official concern for combining security with the concept of 'humanity', despite the difficulties this aspiration brings about in practice, and this concern has lasted for half a century. Dispersal prisons aimed to provide some highly valued freedoms, a high level of security, and some control, or order, via a delicate combination of relationships, incentives and activities. Frankland was the first purpose-built dispersal prison, and opened in 1983. In 2011 all 'specialist units' within the high security estate were brought under a single instruction and management strategy. The form, size and operation of high security prisons tell us much that matters about the nature of our society as well as the state of our prisons.
