Although literature examines the disproportionate regulation of marginalised groups through criminal justice, we know remarkably little about the regulation of criminal justice itself. As such, we do not know how burgeoning detention regulation does or could improve health and safety in detention. Addressing this fundamental failing, the RECEDE team have undertaken novel empirical research examining the regulation of criminal justice across police, court and prison institutions. Adopting this ambitious, cross-institutional lens is itself beyond the state of the art, which looks within these component institutions. We have gathered original empirical data from an unprecedented range of documents and interviews, including a range and number of (quasi)statutory and voluntary sector regulators not previously attempted.
We are theorising cross-sectoral regulation of detention as a system of interdependent institutions across glocal geographical scales, exploring how institutional practices of problem articulation might be reshaped. We have published original conceptualisations of detention regulation. In order to carry out this research we secured University ethical approval for all three strands of research and external permissions to undertake the police and prison research, which were completed in 2024. We are also attempting the first known academic study of court regulation using document analysis.
This truly groundbreaking research has potential to improve conditions for the 11.5 million prisoners globally and to address the costs and harms of reoffending, the burden of disease in detention, and preventable detainee deaths.
