Manifesto for a new penal culture

Abstract

After over two centuries of penitentiaries as the principal instrument of criminal sentencing, and countless penal reform efforts, the same basic problems remain: the abuses; recidivism; the high social and financial costs. Alternative sentences have shown the potential to minimize all of these problems. However, the use of alternatives has not altered an increasing reliance on incarceration (10 million prisoners worldwide, of which one and a half million are in Europe), a practice which, in principle, should be ultima ratio, last resort. European Prison Observatory stands for a new culture turn.