Abstract
In post-war Scotland the institutional response to persistently violent and disruptive prisoners was the establishment of a unique network of specialist units providing a number of alternative custody arrangements outside the prison mainstream. This chapter considers the case of the Barlinnie Special Unit (BSU) (1973–1994), arguably the most innovate, anomalous and controversial of these units. It also proved to be the most effective at enabling desistance from prison-based offending. Drawing on prisoners’ autobiographical accounts, the argument presented here reasserts the centrality of individual autonomy in processes of personal change. More specifically, this chapter considers the desistance-promoting effects of granting prisoners ‘spatial autonomy’ over the design, function and aesthetics of their carceral environments. In essence, what the BSU demonstrated is that it was more not less autonomy afforded to prisoners who were considered the most problematic which produced the most profound and authentic behavioural shifts and, moreover, it was less not more institutional control that facilitated this.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In addition to exhibiting his work in a number of European galleries, Jimmy Boyle’s play The Hard Man (co-authored with Tom McGrath) was staged in 1971. Further consolidating his public profile, Channel Four made a film based on his autobiography, A Sense of Freedom, which aired in 1981.
- 2.
Jimmy Boyle published two separate narratives of his prison experiences.
- 3.
Initially, large sections of the media were supportive of these liberal visiting arrangements (unsurprisingly since they were among the beneficiaries of it). In the late 1970s, however, reports that sex workers were being brought into the unit began to surface in local newspapers. The reasonable anxieties (as well as the more salacious gossip) about ‘conjugalities’ reached a crisis point following the publication of the external evaluation. The media seized on one particular paragraph that appeared to confirm officially, or at least authoritatively, the allegations that one suspects newspaper editors were desperate to be true: ‘Naturally it is an open secret that one aspect of privacy is sex’ (Bottomley et al. 1994, 27).
References
Baer, L. 2005. ‘Visual Imprints on the Prison Landscape: A Study on the Decorations in Prison Cells.’ Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie 96(2): 209–217.
Benton, W., and R. Obenland. 1973. Prison and Jail Security: An Empirical Analysis of the Impacts of Closed Circuit Television Surveillance in the Correctional Environment, Guidelines for Application, and a Presentation of Alternative Strategies for Safe and Secure Detention. Urbana, IL: National Clearinghouse for Criminal Justice Planning and Architecture.
Bottomley, K., A. Liebling, and R. Sparks. 1994. ‘The Barlinnie Special Unit and Shotts Unit: An Assessment.’ Scottish Prison Service Occasional Paper, No.7. Edinburgh: Scottish Prison Service.
Boyle, J. 1977. A Sense of Freedom. London: Pan.
Boyle, J. 1984. The Pain of Confinement: Prison Diaries. London: Pan.
Campbell, T.C., and R. McKay. 2002. The Wilderness Years. Edinburgh: Cannongate.
Canter, D. 1987. ‘Implications For “New Generation” Prisons Of Existing Psychological Research Into Prison Design And Use.’ In Problems of Long-Term Imprisonment, edited by A. Bottoms and R. Light, 214–227. Aldershot: Gower.
Carmichael, K. 1982. ‘Daily Living.’ In The Special Unit: Its Evolution through Art, edited by C. Carrell and J. Laing, 22–35. Glasgow: Third Eye Centre.
Carrell, C., and J. Laing, eds. 1982. The Special Unit: Its Evolution through Art. Glasgow: Third Eye Centre.
Cheliotis, L., and A. Jordanoska. 2015. ‘The Arts of Desistance: Assessing the Role of Arts-Based Programmes in Reducing Reoffending.’ The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice 55(1–2): 25–41.
Collins, H. 1997. Autobiography of a Murderer. London: Macmillan.
Cooke, D. 1989a. ‘Containing Violent Prisoners: An Analysis of Barlinnie Special Unit.’ British Journal of Criminology 29(2): 129–143.
Cooke, D. 1989b. ‘The Barlinnie Special Unit.’ In Current Issues in Scottish Prisons: Systems of Accountability and Regimes for Difficult Prisoners. Scottish Prison Service Occasional Papers, No.2, edited by E. Wozniak, 116–130. Edinburgh: Scottish Office.
Coyle, A. 1987. ‘The Scottish Experience with Small Units.’ In Problems of Long-term Imprisonment, edited by A.E. Bottoms and R. Light, 228–248. Aldershot: Gower.
Dworkin, G. 1981. ‘The Concept of Autonomy.’ Grazer Philosphische Studien 12/13: 203–213.
Emirbayer, M., and A. Mische. 1998. ‘What is Agency?’ American Journal of Sociology 103(4): 962–1023.
Fairweather, L. 2000. ‘Psychological Effects of the Prison Environment.’ In Prison Architecture: Policy, Design, Experience, edited by L. Fairweather and S. McConville, 31–48. London & New York: Routledge.
Giordano, P., S. Cernkovich, and J. Rudolph. 2002. ‘Gender, Crime and Desistance: Toward a Theory of Cognitive Transformation.’ American Journal of Sociology 107: 990–1064.
Goffman, E. 1968. Asylums. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Goodstein, L. 1979. ‘Inmate Adjustment to Prison and the Transition to Community Life.’ Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency 16(2): 246–272.
Haigh, R. 1999. ‘The Quintessence of a Therapeutic Environment: Five Universal Qualities.’ In Therapeutic Communities: Past, Present, and Future, edited by P. Campling and R. Haigh, 254–257. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Haigh, R. 2013. ‘The Quintessence of a Therapeutic Environment.’ Therapeutic Communities 34(1): 6–15.
Hancock, P., and Y. Jewkes. 2011. ‘Architectures of Incarceration: The Spatial Pains of Imprisonment.’ Punishment and Society 13: 611–629.
Hegel, G.W.F. 2008. Outlines of the Philosophy of Right, trans. T.M. Knox, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland. 1982. Report on HM Special Unit Barlinnie. Edinburgh: The Scottish Office.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland. 1986. Report on HM Special Unit Barlinnie. Edinburgh: The Scottish Office.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland. 1993. Report on HM Special Unit Barlinnie. Edinburgh: The Scottish Office.
Jeffreys, D. 2013. Spirituality in Dark Places; The Ethics of Solitary Confinement. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Johnston, N. 1973. The Human Cage: A Brief History of Prison Architecture. New York: The American Foundation, Incorporated.
Katz, J. 1998. Seductions of Crime: The Moral and Sensual Attractions of Doing Evil. New York: Basic Books.
Laub, J., and R. Sampson. 2003. Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
LeBel, T., R. Burnett, S. Maruna, and S. Bushway. 2008. ‘The “Chicken and Egg” of Subjective and Social Factors in Desistance from Crime.’ European Journal of Criminology 5: 131–159.
Maruna, S. 2001. Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Books.
Morris, N. 1974. The Future of Imprisonment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nellis, M. 2010. ‘Creative Arts and the Cultural Politics of Penal Reform: The Early Years of the Barlinnie Special Unit, 1973–1981.’ Journal of Scottish Criminal Justice Studies 16: 47–73.
Nugent, B., and M. Schinkel. 2016. ‘The Pains of Desistance.’ Criminology and Criminal Justice (Advance Online Publication) 16(5). doi:1748895816634812.
Paternoster, R., and S. Bushway. 2009. ‘Desistance and the “Feared Self:” Toward an Identity Theory of Criminal Desistance.’ Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 99: 1103–1156.
Paternoster, R., and G. Pogarsky. 2009. ‘Rational Choice, Agency and Thoughtfully Reflective Decision Making: The Short and Long-Term Consequences of Making Good Choices.’ Journal of Quantitative Criminology 25: 103–127.
Paternoster, R., R. Bachman, S. Bushway, E. Kerrison, and D. O’Connell. 2015. ‘Human Agency and Explanations of Criminal Desistance: Arguments for Rational Choice Theory.’ Journal of Developmental Life Course Criminology 1: 209–235.
Paterson, M.H. 1982. ‘The Special Unit: An Experience of Learning.’ In The Special Unit: Its Evolution through Art, edited by C. Carrell and J. Laing, 50–56. Glasgow: Third Eye Centre.
Rapoport, R.N. 1960. Community as Doctor. London: Tavistock.
Rapoport, A., ed. 1976. The Mutual Interaction of People and Their Built Environment: A Cross Cultural Perspective. The Hague: Mouton Publishers.
Sampson, R., and J. Laub. 1993. Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points through Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Scottish Home and Health Department. 1971. Treatment of Certain Male Long Term Prisoners and Potentially Violent Prisoners. Report of the Working Party on Alternative Regimes. London: HMSO.
Scottish Prison Service. 1985. Internal Paper of the Working Party on Alternative Regimes, unpublished paper (July).
Shammas, V.L. 2014. ‘The Pains of Freedom: Assessing the Ambiguity of Scandinavian Penal Exceptionalism on Norway’s Prison Island.’ Punishment and Society 16(1): 104–123.
Sibley, D., and B. van Hoven. 2009. ‘The Contamination of Personal Space: Boundary Construction in a Prison Environment.’ Area 41(2): 198–206.
Sparks, R. 2002. ‘Out of the Digger: The Warrior’s Honour and the Guilty Observer.’ Ethnography 3(4): 556–581.
Sparks, R., A. Bottoms, and W. Hay. 1996. Prisons and the Problem of Order. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Steele, J. 1992. The Bird That Never Flew. London: Sinclair-Stevenson.
Stephen, I. 1982. ‘The Role of Education in the Special Unit.’ In The Special Unit: Its Evolution through Art, edited by C. Carrell and J. Laing, 36–43. Glasgow: Third Eye Centre.
Stevens, A. 2012. ‘“I Am the Person Now I Was Always Meant to Be”: Identity Reconstruction and Narrative Reframing in Therapeutic Prisons.’ Criminology and Criminal Justice 12(5): 527–547.
Sutherland, E., and D. Cressey. 1978. Criminology (10th ed.). New York, NY: Lippincott.
Sykes, G. 1958. The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Toch, H. 1992. Living in Prisons: The Ecology of Survival (Revised ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Whatmore, P. 1987. ‘Barlinnie Special Unit: An Insider’s View.’ In Problems of Long-Term Imprisonment, edited by A. Bottoms and R. Light, 249–260. Aldershot: Gower.
Winters, L. 1979. The Silent Scream. Edinburgh: EUSPB.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bird, J. (2017). Spatial Autonomy and Desistance in Penal Settings. Case Study: The Barlinnie Special Unit (1973–1994). In: Hart, E., van Ginneken, E. (eds) New Perspectives on Desistance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95185-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95185-7_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95184-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95185-7
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)