Prisons and Crime in Latin America

Rather than reducing criminality, prisons in Latin America drive crime by creating the conditions for its growth.

Marcelo Bergman (Author), Gustavo Fondevila (Author)

9781108487887, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 March 2021

250 pages
23 x 15 x 2 cm, 0.57 kg

'The prison crisis is a problem present throughout Latin America. Often made invisible by policies that emphasize punishment and a citizenry that seeks protection from crime; in most countries prisons are places of violence. In this excellent work, Bergman and Fondevila describe the multiple dimensions of the crisis and confirm that waves of incarceration have been key factors in increasing crime and violence. An urgent and necessary book, based on unique and comparative evidence, that allows us to further discuss a key issue to reduce violence and crime in the region.' Lucía Dammert, Universidad de Santiago de Chile

This groundbreaking work examines Latin America's prison crisis and the failure of mass incarceration policies. As crime rates rose over the past few decades, policy makers adopted incarceration as the primary response to public outcry. Yet, as the number of inmates increased, crime rates only continued to grow. Presenting new cross-national data based on extensive surveys of inmates throughout the region, this book explains the transformation of prisons from instruments of incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation to drivers of violence and criminality. Bergman and Fondevila highlight the impacts of internal drug markets and the dramatic increase in the number of imprisoned women. Furthermore, they show how prisons are not isolated from society - they are sites of active criminal networks, with many inmates maintaining fluid criminal connections with the outside world. Rather than reducing crime, prisons have become an integral part of the crime problem in Latin America.

1: Introduction
2, The Prison Explosion in Latin America
3. Explaining the Prison Growth
4. Drugs and Prisons
5. Women Imprisonment and Violence in Latin America
6. Justice Institutions in Latin America
7. Life in Prison
8. Hobbes in Prison
9. Prison and the Outside World: The Fallacy of Separation
10. Conclusions
Corrections and Criminal Policy.

Subject Areas: Criminology: legal aspects [LAR], Comparative politics [JPB], Prisons [JKVP1], Crime & criminology [JKV], Sociology [JHB], Hispanic & Latino studies [JFSL4]