Disrupting prison managerialism: Managing prisons in an age of pandemic

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic swept across the world in 2020, having widespread and dramatic impacts on social life. Prisons in England and Wales implemented a lock down regime for public health purposes that suppressed the spread of coronavirus but continues to have an impact on the quality of life for prisoners. This article is based on a small-scale ethnographic study of prison managers in an English prison. This builds upon studies that have documented the experiences of prison managers in England during 21st century. These studies have illustrated that prior to the pandemic, prison management was dominated by the neoliberal practices of managerialism, including an architecture of surveillance through targets, audits and inspections and the nurturing of a more compliant professional culture. The pandemic disrupted managerialism and initially saw the total dismantling of the system of monitoring and an altered relationship between the central and local levels of the organisation. Managers had to operate with greater agency and developed a stronger sense of place, focussing on the internal and local community. As the threat from the pandemic receded, there was a process of ‘managerial clawback’ with the re-establishing of the managerial architecture and a general acceptance of managerialism as a ‘return to normality’ in prisons. Yet this process was incomplete as the pandemic left complex problems including the best way to operate prison regimes that balanced ongoing health risks, maintaining order and offering constructive activity. These complex problems could not be resolved through centralised managerialism and instead required localised initiative. The pandemic had disrupted managerialism and although the architecture had largely been re-established intact, space had been created for greater autonomy in responding to the legacy. The emerging ‘new normal’ is therefore a mixed managerial economy in prison that navigates a path between managerial control and local autonomy.