The Impact Of Managerialism On Prison Policy From The 1980's

INTRO: This research report will look at managerialism and its impact on prison policy from the 1980’s. By doing this, it will explore prison development and the cause of prison riots in 1990’s and the government’s response, leading to our prisons today. Then it will proceed in looking at NOMS role in Prison and Probation services in England and Wales.

Managerialism is a set of beliefs and practices, according to Pollitt (1993), better management can solve various problems that exist in public sectors. Managerialism according to McLaughlin (2001), aims to fracture and realign relations of power within the criminal justice system, therefore focusing on the operation of the system rather than treatment of victims and suspects.
The main change in penal policy has not been towards more emotive or expressive punishments but the 'development of more administrative and impersonal styles of regulation', new styles of managerialism have been introduced, which appear to develop alongside punitiveness, and the role they have played in shaping the criminal justice system has been widely
As a result, the 1966 Mountbatten Report (Home Office 1966) proposed a significant upgrading of physical security in the prison estate. Mountbatten proposed that all male prisoners should be classified into four categories: A, B, C or D. Category A meant the most serious Prisoners. In the 1970’s the penal crisis entered a new phase made of violent and peaceful prisoner protests because of the physical and psychological deprivations of confinement causing prison officers to be physically violent against those prisoners involved in protests (Fitzgerald 1977). The concept of rehabilitation at this point was seen to be designated to be a failure. (Fitzgerald & Sim