From prison to detention: The carceral trajectories of foreign-national prisoners in the United Kingdom. (April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Turnbull, Sarah; Hasselberg, Ines
• Is Part Of: Punishment & society. Volume 19:Number 2(2017)
• Page Start: 135
• Page End: 154
• Publication Date: 2017-04
• Subjects: citizenship -- foreign-national prisoners -- immigration detention -- prison -- punishment -- rehabilitation -- reintegration -- United Kingdom; Punishment -- Periodicals; Punishment -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Crime -- Sociological aspects -- Periodicals; 364.605
• DOI: 10.1177/1462474516660695
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1462-4745

Abstract

The United Kingdom has taken an increasingly punitive stance towards 'foreign criminals' using law and policy to pave the way for their expulsion from the country. Imprisonment, then, becomes the first stage in a complex process intertwining identity, belonging and punishment. We draw here on research data from two projects to understand the carceral trajectories of foreign-national offenders in the UK. We consider the lived experiences of male foreign-nationals in two sites: prison and immigration detention. The narratives presented show how imprisonment and detention coalesce within the deportation regime as a 'double punishment', one that is highly racialised and gendered. We argue that the UK's increasingly punitive response to foreign-national offenders challenges the traditional purposes of punishment by sidestepping prisoners' rehabilitative efforts and denying 'second chances' while enacting permanent exclusion through bans on re-entry.