COERCING CHANGE: HOW INSTITUTIONS INDUCE CORRECTION IN THE CULTURE OF SELF-CHANGE

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1521-6136(04)06006-3
• Pages: 105-119
• Published date: 28 April 2005
• Date: 28 April 2005
• Author: Kathryn J. Fox

COERCING CHANGE: HOW

INSTITUTIONS INDUCE CORRECTION

IN THE CULTURE OF SELF-CHANGE

Kathryn J. Fox

ABSTRACT

As Garland (2001, p. 176) argues, the new “culture of control” is

characterized by, among other things, a focus on the offense rather than the

offender. This more managerial, risk-based approach is difficult to reconcile

entirely with the newer forms of rehabilitation that have appeared in prisons

recently.

The concepts of “offender accountability” and “risk” have captivated

correctional cognitive rehabilitation in the U.S. and Canada. Based upon

observational and interview data from a cognitive treatment program for

violent offenders in Vermont prisons, this chapter explores how fundamental

aspects of the program fit and diverge from the newer penology of risk

management.

INTRODUCTION

Many writers have considered the late modernist corrections (or “new penology”)

as evolving toward a distinctly more offense-oriented, retributive, managerial

approach. The modernist project, characterized by several features – namely a

belief in social science’s ability to solve problems, including those that cause

Ethnographies of Law and Social Control

Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Volume6, 105–119

Copyright © 2005 Elsevier Ltd.

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 1521-6136/doi:10.1016/S1521-6136(04)06006-3

105