Dilemmas of institutionalization in the penal voluntary sector

Abstract

The award in 2009 of contracts to operate private prisons to consortia which included charities has reignited debates in the UK about the costs of state patronage among the voluntary sector. This article argues that the controversy has highlighted current dilemmas of institutionalization arising from the interpenetration of civil and penal spheres, as public policy nurtures an emergent ‘penal voluntary sector’. Moreover, the article identifies the key drivers of institutionalization: (i) the mainstreaming of the voluntary sector as a plank of penal reform; (ii) the growth of penal service markets; (iii) the discursive construction of a unitary ‘sector’ of market-oriented service providers amenable to regulatory and audit disciplines; (iv) the discursive sidelining of critical analysis of the aforementioned trends. These developments, although contested, underpin a dominant ‘realism’ which combines penal common sense with adaptive pragmatism within the sector in a turbulent economic and political climate.