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Coercive Confinement in the Republic of Ireland: The Waning of a Culture of Control

NCJ Number
217132
Journal
Punishment & Society: The International Journal of Penology Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2007 Pages: 27-48
Author(s)
Eoin O'Sullivan; Ian O'Donnell
Date Published
January 2007
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This article presents a detailed case study of Ireland’s use of incarceration at two distinct points in recent history.
Abstract
Between 1951 and 2002, the rate of coercive confinement in Ireland was radically reduced. Four main observations were noteworthy regarding confinement rates in 1951 versus 2002: (1) the massive downsizing of the confined population from over 31,000 to under 5,000; (2) the narrowing in the range of institutional sites; (3) the changing gender balance of those held in coercive confinement from primarily female to primarily male; and (4) the increasingly dominant role of the State. The decline in the use of coercive confinement stands in sharp contrast to what has occurred in other nations and cannot be attributed to either a fiscal crisis or to a shift in regulatory tactics. The authors argue that the most likely reason for the decline in the coercively confined population in Ireland is the diminishing supply of potential deviants. A shift occurred between 1951 and 2002 in the extent to which institutional confinement was seen as an acceptable response to poverty or sexually transmitted diseases. The authors refer to this shift as “a waning in the culture of control.” In analyzing the shift away from punitive policies in Ireland, the authors specifically compared the state of coercive confinement in 1951 to that of 2002 for three main reasons: (1) these dates mark high and low points in the use of imprisonment; (2) they were census years, so reliable demographic information about the population was available; and (3) it was possible to obtain population counts for all of the sites of institutional confinement for these 2 years. “Coercive confinement” is defined not only as formal sites of incarceration associated with the criminal justice system, but also psychiatric hospitals, homes for unmarried mothers, and the various residential institutions for children placed by the courts. Figures, tables, references

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