ABSTRACT
One of the effects of prison privatisation, introduced in England and Wales in 1992, has been to bring about a kind of market-led ‘experiment’ in the organisation and practice of the work of prison officers. Our close studies of the relative quality of public vs. private sector prisons in England and Wales has exposed some important differences between the sectors (Crewe et al. 2011; Hulley et al. 2012; Liebling et al. 2011a). Each appears to have characteristic strengths and weaknesses. One unexpected, but plausible, finding has been the underestimated strength shown in public sector prison officers in the professional use of authority. This relative strength – a combined effect of skill and experience – is linked to one of the public sector’s weaknesses: a tendency to overuse power, or to treat its use with complacency. When ‘traditional-professional’ officers working in the public sector ‘get it right’, they infuse their relationships with prisoners with ‘right’ uses of authority: a non-intrusive professional confidence that prisoners describe with some approval. Officers in the private sector tend to show more weaknesses in this area, at least in the early stages of their operations. How further cost cutting will impact upon this ‘traditional strength’ remains to be seen.
