Pervasive Punishment: Making Sense of Mass Supervision
Despite its dramatic proliferation and diversification in recent decades, supervisory forms of punishment in the community (like probation, parole and unpaid work) have been largely invisible in scholarly and public discussion of criminal justice and its development in late-modern societies. The long-standing pre-occupation with the prison, and more recent concerns about ‘mass incarceration’ have allowed the emergence of ‘mass supervision’ to remain in the shadows.
Pervasive Punishment insists that we remedy this neglect and exemplifies how we can do so. Drawing on thirty years of personal, practice and research experiences, it offers a compelling and rich account of the scale and social distribution of mass supervision, of the processes by which it has been legitimated, and of how it is experienced by those subject to it. Its innovative approach invites readers to look at, listen to and imagine punishment beyond the prison, through the use of innovative and creative methods including photography, song-writing and story-telling to explore and to represent ‘mass supervision’. By so doing, this book offers new insights into how and why combining social science and creative practice can help develop a different kind of democratic dialogue about contentious social issues like crime and punishment.
Though focused on the UK and the USA, the methods used in and analysis developed in this book will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners elsewhere.
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Appendix. The Invisible Collar (A story about supervision)
Supervision Unleashed: Administering Shocks and Sickness
[12 months later]
Joe heard two sounds as he woke: his own low moan and the insistent, monotonous electronic bell tolling from his ankle bracelet. He fumbled for the clock—it read 08.01—he had 59 minutes to get to the probation office for his check-in. He knew that somewhere, somehow, some algorithm had determined that this was the moment to test his commitment, to strengthen his resolve, to keep him from temptation. At least that was how Norm had explained it, but Joe saw that the bracelet-bell was a call to worship, an invitation to obey. He pressed the button to acknowledge the signal and the bell stopped.
Joe washed and dressed cautiously, taking care not to let his sock break the contact between bracelet and skin. He knew that any interruption in the signal that allowed remote biometric analysis of his pulse and sweat could constitute an infraction. He had no wish to repeat his recent experience of a weekend in the compliance cells as part of the new SaCS (Swift and Certain Sanction) approach. That had been a high price to pay for trying to use ice cubes and hypoallergenic wipes to relieve the skin irritation that the bracelet caused.
Forty minutes later, Joe was glad to find a reporting booth empty at the probation office. It looked like a cross between an arcade game, a confessional and an upright coffin. He took a deep breath and sat inside, pulling the black curtain across. The touchscreen invited him to provide his hand-print while the retinal scan double checked and confirmed his identity. When prompted, Joe put on the virtual reality headset and was met by the smiling face of ‘Virpro’, the virtual probation officer. She spoke in slow, soft and maternal tones:
‘Good morning, Joe. Well done. You have arrived on time and drug and alcohol-free. We have no record of adverse contact with the authorities since your last appointment. There are 4 months and 2 weeks of your revised order remaining co be served. The conclusions remain the same. Would you like me to remind you of them?’
‘No, thank you’, Joe replied.
‘That is your choice. Do you require any support or counselling at this time?’
‘No, thank you’, Joe replied. He guessed he should probably show willing but couldn’t get out of the booth quickly enough. He already felt suffocated. ‘That is your choice. Please wait for a message from future Joe, after which you are free to go’.
This part always freaked Joe out. Virpro smiled her farewell and faded from view; in her place came an avatar of Joe, looking a few years older but well-groomed, confident, contented, suited and booted. His ‘brief motivational intervention’ was becoming as predictable as it was sinister:
‘Hi Joe. I’m proud of you. You’ve done so well since that last infraction. The Swift and Certain Sanction really seems to have worked for you. You’re back on track, pal. And there are only a few months to go until you are a free man. Just keep at it. Keep your head down. Keep away from troublemakers’.
Future Joe paused for effect, losing his saccharine smile and replacing it with the furrowed brow of his most earnest expression. Though his intense stare met Joe’s eyes, it also seemed to look right through him, somewhere into the middle distance.
‘Joe: remember, you can become me, if you want it enough, if you really commit. I can be your future. Meantime, take care and look after us both’.
Outside, Joe steadied himself on the railing, taking in as much air as he could. As he walked away, he wondered what Pauline was doing now. He hadn’t expected to miss her this much.
