Many people think prisons are all the same—rows of cells filled with violent men who officials rule with an iron fist. Yet, life behind bars varies in incredible ways. In The Puzzle of Prison Order, David Skarbek develops a theory of why life in prison varies so much. He investigates life in a wide array of prisons—in Brazil, Bolivia, Norway, a prisoner of war camp, England and Wales, women’s prisons in California, and a gay and transgender housing unit in the Los Angeles County Jail—to understand the hierarchy of life on the inside. Drawing on economics and a vast empirical literature on legal systems, Skarbek offers a framework to understand why life on the inside varies in such fascinating and novel ways, and also how social order evolves and takes root behind bars.
Reviews
This is a subversive text...This book is to prisons what Anthony Downs’ An Economic Theory of Democracy, and Gordon Tulluck’s, The Politics of Bureaucracy were to their respective topics. Just as theirs did, Skarbek’s book should shape research agendas on the internal structure and organization of prisons for decades to come. This is an accomplishment of the first order.
--- Malcolm M. Feeley, UC Berkeley
Methodologically speaking, Skarbek is clearly breaking new ground...This book will likely have a wide appeal and be a useful resource to criminologists, sociologists, political scientists, and anthropologists alike...Penologists who work with qualitative data on prisons in particular can use the book as a fountain of inspiration when they plan new research projects. Skarbek presents interesting dilemmas for such
researchers.
--- Rose Elisabeth Boyle, Pernille Nyvoll, and Thomas Ugelvik, University of Oslo
Skarbek continues to produce important and original work that raises questions no other scholar is asking, even as carceral studies receive unprecedented levels of interest across disciplines.
--- Christopher Calton, University of Florida
Prison regimes around the world and across history differ dramatically. Skarbek’s new book offers a groundbreaking argument of why this is so. He holds our hand in a fascinating, and at times, disturbing journey inside the world of prisons. I cannot think of a better guide.
--- Federico Varese, University of Oxford, and author of Mafia Life
Were it only for its extraordinary comparative scope, The Puzzle of Prison Order would already be a major contribution to the fields of prison studies and human rights, but Skarbek’s rigorous analysis of governance structures across varying prison regimes makes this a major theoretical breakthrough in law and society research generally, one that should be read by all who care about the nature of public order in institutions of control.
--- Jonathan Simon, University of California Berkeley
David Skarbek is one of the most interesting writers about prisons today. Using case studies from across continents and centuries, he develops a persuasive theory of extralegal governance which will help academics and prison professionals alike unravel the puzzle that is prison governance.
--- Nicholas Hardwick, Royal Holloway University of London, former HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
David Skarbek’s book The Puzzle of Prison Order is a path-breaking effort .... a critical and highly engaging book, offering a new perspective on creating prison order. It breaks new territory, both because of its analytic contributions and because of its comparative focus...The book contributes to academic debates in political science over creating order and provides a model for the constructing of social theory using
qualitative, historical data.
--- Bert Useem, Purdue University, author of Prison State
...provides compelling evidence for the theory that comparative analysis of qualitative research can generate powerful explanatory governance theories ... Skarbek’s narratives about day-to-day prison conditions are engaging, and his theories are insightful. Moreover, Skarbek’s theories of prison governance recognize the humanity and autonomy of incarcerated people.
--- Christopher Rudolph, University of Wisconsin Law School
Finally—and this is the grand merit of the book— Skarbek’s analysis succeeds in bringing different academic fields together that are often mainly concerned with themselves and usually work with much more limited country samples...one can learn much from such an audacious
study.
--- Georg Wenzelburger, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern