Conversion and the rehabilitation of the penal system : a theological rereading of criminal justice / Andrew Skotnicki.

9780190880866 (electronic book)

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2019.

English

1 online resource.

BR115.J8 S59 2019

261.8336

The contemporary practice of criminal detention is a protracted exercise in needless violence predicated upon two foundational errors. The first is the inability to view those enmeshed in its rubrics and institutions as human beings fully capable of responding to an affirmative accompaniment rather than maltreatment and invasive forms of therapy. The second is a pervasive dualism that erects an illusory barrier between criminal detainees and those empowered to supervise, punish, and/or rehabilitate them. This text maintains that the criminal justice system can only be 'rehabilitated' by eliminating punishment and policies based upon deterrence, rehabilitation, and the hyper-incapacitation of the urban poor in favor of the original justification for the practice of confinement: conversion.

The contemporary practice of criminal detention is a protracted exercise in needless violence predicated upon two foundational errors. The first is the inability to view those enmeshed in its rubrics and institutions as human beings fully capable of responding to an affirmative accompaniment rather than maltreatment and invasive forms of therapy. The second is a pervasive dualism that erects an illusory barrier between criminal detainees and those empowered to supervise, punish, and/or rehabilitate them. This text maintains that the criminal justice system can only be 'rehabilitated' by eliminating punishment and policies based upon deterrence, rehabilitation, and the hyper-incapacitation of the urban poor in favor of the original justification for the practice of confinement: conversion.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on February 8, 2019).

Oxford scholarship online.

Print version: 9780190880835