TY - JOUR
T1 - COVID-19 and European carcerality: Do national prison policies converge when faced with a pandemic?
AU - Zeveleva, Olga
AU - Nazif-Munoz, José Ignacio
PY - 2021/10
Y1 - 2021/10
N2 - The article analyses an original dataset on policies adopted in 47 European countries between December 2019 and June 2020 to prevent coronavirus from spreading to prisons, applying event-history analysis. We answer two questions: 1) Do European countries adopt similar policies when tackling the COVID-19 pandemic in prisons? 2) What factors are associated with prison policy convergence or divergence? We analyze two policies we identified as common responses across prisons around the world: limitations on visitation rights for prisoners, and early releases of prisoners. We found that all states in our sample implemented bans on visits, showing policy convergence. Fewer countries (16) opted for early releases. Compared to the banning of visitation, early releases took longer to enact. We found that countries with prison overcrowding problems were quicker to release or pardon prisoners. When prisons were not overcrowded, countries with higher proportions of local nationals in their prisons were much faster to limit visits relative to prisons in which the foreign population was high. This research broadens our comparative understanding of European carcerality by moving the comparative line further East, taking into account multi-level governance of penality, and analyzing variables that emphasize the ‘society’ element of the ‘punishment and society’ nexus.
AB - The article analyses an original dataset on policies adopted in 47 European countries between December 2019 and June 2020 to prevent coronavirus from spreading to prisons, applying event-history analysis. We answer two questions: 1) Do European countries adopt similar policies when tackling the COVID-19 pandemic in prisons? 2) What factors are associated with prison policy convergence or divergence? We analyze two policies we identified as common responses across prisons around the world: limitations on visitation rights for prisoners, and early releases of prisoners. We found that all states in our sample implemented bans on visits, showing policy convergence. Fewer countries (16) opted for early releases. Compared to the banning of visitation, early releases took longer to enact. We found that countries with prison overcrowding problems were quicker to release or pardon prisoners. When prisons were not overcrowded, countries with higher proportions of local nationals in their prisons were much faster to limit visits relative to prisons in which the foreign population was high. This research broadens our comparative understanding of European carcerality by moving the comparative line further East, taking into account multi-level governance of penality, and analyzing variables that emphasize the ‘society’ element of the ‘punishment and society’ nexus.
U2 - 10.1177/14624745211002011
DO - 10.1177/14624745211002011
M3 - Article
SN - 1462-4745
VL - 24
JO - Punishment & Society
JF - Punishment & Society
IS - 4
ER -