“…Both the orthodox versions of the ‘Rusche–Kirchheimer hypothesis’ (Rusche and Kirchheimer, [1939] 2003) and the neoliberal penality thesis (see, especially, Wacquant, 2009) fail to grasp this penal shift (Xenakis and Cheliotis, 2019; see also Martin, 2016). In fact, the consequences of the economic crisis in terms of unemployment, impoverishment, inequality and reinforced neoliberal rationales (Dardot and Laval, 2010/2014; see also Green, 2015) generally led not to higher but to lower incarceration rates (see, though, Rodríguez-Menes and López-Riba, 2020).…”