Holiday Camps, Prison Time and Confined Escapism: Understanding Leisure, Pleasure and Harm in Prisons

Social marketing, shock advertising and risky consumption behavior

“…Smokers usually start the “habit at a young age mainly under friends' influence, it contributes to building friendships and many other forms of relationships as it brings people from different backgrounds” (Albert-Lőrincz et al , 2019). Moreover, “smoking became a tool for escapism and a way to cope with stress and anxiety, as opposed to labelling smoking as a deviant habit (Gooch and Sheldon, 2019). Due to the alarming results of studies revealing the risks of cigarette smoking, many smokers in Jordan have shifted to waterpipe smoking.…”

‘Gaming the System?’ The Merits, Myths and Realities in Understanding Prison Architect: Security, Rehabilitation and Violence as Represented in the World's Bestselling Carceral Video Game

“…In England and Wales since 2010, HM Inspectorate of Prisons reports have continually charted a decline in meaningful activity and out of cell time, a result of an array of interconnected pressures that in many see prisoners turn to illegal drugs, feelings of being unsafe and significant deterioration in any measure of positive outcome. Only recently have criminologists attempted to turn their attention to how the conditions inside, often in and of themselves resulted in multifaceted forms of escapism, pleasure and leisure in prison space (Gooch & Sheldon, 2019). Of course, in the void created by falling staff numbers, high resources and austeritydriven budget cuts, violent crime, disorder and drug dealing have come to somewhat fill the void (Gooch & Treadwell, 2020;Treadwell, Gooch, & Barkam-Parry, 2019).…”

“…That insecurity, violence and crime have intensified against the framing of what official inspectors have suggested are ever deteriorating prison conditions (Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons, 2018) including increasingly impoverished regimes; austerity measures; and, the development of an increasingly lean staffing model within public sector prisons (House of Commons Justice Committee, 2015) resultant in staff shortages, low staff morale, declining staff confidence, recruited staff leaving rapidly, a recruitment crisis and, certainly in some prisons, a decline in the legitimacy of staff-prisoner relationships and staff authority, permitting the emergence of forms of 'extra-legal governance' (Skarbek, 2016) or simple 'illegitimate governance'where prisoners were increasingly occupying roles of power and authority, previously the preserve of prison officers (also see . In light of this, prisons are not simply spaces of leisure (Gooch & Sheldon, 2019) but rather may be locking in harms. Ever fewer prisoners were (and are) being unlocked and fewer still accessed meaningful activities.…”

“…This was of course not the first time that prisons have been accused of being too 'soft' and 'cushy'. As Gooch and Sheldon (2019) note, availability of televisions, subscription paid for channels, computer games, laptops; indeed any technology in prisons has long been controversial, frequently attracting negative media attention (see, for example, Barrett, 2015;Dixon, 2017;Drury, 2016;Gooch & Sheldon, 2019). Although generally held out as rewards for good behaviour and tied to a strict policing by officers and Governors (Crewe, 2009(Crewe, , 2011Liebling, 2008), the available items are often described as 'luxuries'.…”