Criminological Imagination In Prisons

The criminological imagination can be applied to how imprisonment helps capitalism today by looking at how the government only looks to reduce costs when it comes to prisons. The criminological imagination has shifted over the years from looking at how to rehabilitate and aid those in prisons to how can we put prisoners to work and how can this benefit rising costs. The government has lessened its motives to help those incarcerated as with hyper incarceration occurring there isn’t enough space to hold those being incarcerated. The criminological imagination is important when looking into why African Americans were taken from the ghetto and placed into prisons. As the use of the criminological imagination can give an idea to why those from …show more content…
In this view the government could be said to have ‘tunnel vision’ as they only focused upon the idea of looking into how to make prisons cost less and not look at the negative affects it was having upon those incarcerated. The government look over the ‘bigger’ issues such as not having enough beds and not having enough police officers in prisons. With this in mind, Jock Young argues for the lack of the criminological imagination. He argues that criminology has become ‘Americanized.’ The idea that criminology has been Americanized means that those in other countries are following through American ideas one of which relates to privatization of prisons. Privatization of prisons has been adopted over many countries including the U.K this suggests Americas idea upon capitalism and gaining profit is being used. This means the reasons to why there has been an increase in prison rates goes unnoticed. There is a bigger influence upon how can imprisonment help capitalism. Jock Young develops Mills theory on abstract empiricism by arguing that research is becoming detached from its context. His use of abstract empiricism can be seen clearly in the notion of how imprisonment is benefitting …show more content…
The answer is yes, the governments put in place are used to help the capitalist class. Those within the capitalist class find any means necessary to keep themselves profitable. In addition to this their idea of using prisons to give back the money that is taken enhances their profits, the use of having prisoners work for a cheap labour means that governments are putting to use those who are unemployed and in prison. The schemes used to train those in prisons has been beneficial as major companies can exploit their labour for less. This emphasizes the need for those in prisons. Even though hyper-incarceration has now become an issue the use of private prisons answers this. Private prisons have benefitted the government by far as they have reduced the need for governments to spend more in building prisons. The privatization of prisons has enabled large companies to gain from renting out beds to the prisons as with every bed they rent they are making a bigger turnover. With more profit being made these companies are able to build up more penitentiaries in which the government can house more prisoners. In contrast to this as capitalism thrives those in prisons are not being looked after properly. High prison rates have caused overcrowding within jails and less staff to look after those in the prisons cuts to commissary means less cleanliness within the cells. Capitalism has made it impossible for those who come out of