Getting them on while keeping them in : education and the politics of incarceration : a Maltese case study

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the curious marriage of the punitive and educative elements in prisons and particularly at the Corradino Correctional Facility (Malta) . The theme that permeates this work is, that the punitive element tends to marginalize and even co-opt those initiatives such as the educational, psychological and others related with the welfare of inmates , making them participant in the exercise of control and power . Its aims are to expose the conflicts that invariably exist between punishment and education and to attempt to resolve this conflict . The word resolve is not however meant to imply the bringing together of these two elements - it is not an armistice between these two competing powers because in the prison situation the educational element will tend to lose , but rather the arming of the educational project with means to combat and keep the punitive element , which will always be present , at bay. Chapter One deals with the first element and through the works of Durkheim , Marxist/neo-Marxist theorists and Foucault , some light is first shed on the sociology of punishment . Chapter Two brings in the educative element in prisons , with particular reference to educational provisions in the Maltese Prison throughout this century . The next chapter leads us more directly into the Maltese context and contains the empirical data collected at Corradino in the summer of '96 . Here the three major themes to emerge - 'Voice and Dialogue' , 'Trust' , and 'Hope' - are critically discussed . The last , attempts to bring the preceding three together