Abstract
Her Majesty’s Prison Service is an integral part of the wider criminal justice system, striving to “serve the public by keeping in custody those committed to the courts” (Home Office, 1993). Whilst the relationship to this wider system must always be kept in mind, it should be acknowledged that the Prison Service functions as a system in its own right, consisting of more than 130 establishments. In turn, these individual prisons function systemically both internally and in relation to the wider Prison Service. It is becoming more and more important to ensure that the Prison Service as a whole is structured in terms of systems, one reason being that communication is the key to the realisation of major objectives. Communication links have to be extended not only at establishment level but throughout the whole of society in England and Wales; this is partly due to the degree of accountability which the Service has to ensure to the government and the public. The organisational values of many prisons today stress the importance of systems thinking in assisting communication and ultimately ensuring that Prison Service objectives are met. In practice of course, it is often difficult for the Service and its establishments to operate in a truly systemic way. This is thought to be due to the nature of its business and ‘clientele’, problems of security and the general sense of secrecy which surrounds the concept of ‘the prison’.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Baudrillard, J., 1988, “Selected Writings”, Polity Press, Oxford.
Cooper, R., and Burrell, G., 1988, Modernism, postmodernism and organisational analysis: an introduction, Organisation Studies. Vol.9(1), p 91–112.
Home Office., 1993, “Doing Time or Using Time: Report of a Review”, HMSO, Cm2128, London.
Jameson, F., 1991, “Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism”, Verso, London.
Lacan, J., 1977, (translated by Sheridan, A.), “Ecrits: A Selection”, Tavistock, London.
Lyotard, J-F., 1984, “The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge”, Manchester University Press, Manchester.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gaskell, C. (1995). The Management of Change in Prisons. In: Ellis, K., Gregory, A., Mears-Young, B.R., Ragsdell, G. (eds) Critical Issues in Systems Theory and Practice. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9883-8_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9883-8_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9885-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9883-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive