ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the book’s main thesis: the paradoxical characteristic of austerity has increased national debt, weakened prison health and prison institutions’ governance, and worsened prisoners’ health. It reinforces how austerity is a politically unsound choice, how imprisonment during austere times becomes a double punishment for prisoners, and how prison oversight mechanisms have been ineffective in challenging austerity implementation.
This book seeks to contribute to contemporary prison health research and policymaking. It provides insights into how austerity has shaped and constrained prison health in England since 2010, including the spread of privatisation that does not reduce inefficiency nor improve cost-saving. Through agnotology, this chapter illustrates the rejection of the link between austerity and prison instability by a minority of participants while calling for further research to determine how austerity’s adverse impact on prisoners could amount to state crimes.
For the policymaking domain, the chapter suggests ensuring the availability of financial spending data, monitoring the implementation of recommendations made by the prison oversight bodies, and connecting ministers to their reform agenda to strengthen political accountability. This chapter concludes with a transparent appraisal of this study’s strengths and limitations and proposes the transferability of study insights beyond England and beyond the prison setting.
