Drawing on primary research in the USA, Canada, Australia, Ireland and the UK this volume provides a disturbing and provocative insight into the brutality of incarceration in 'civilised' states and its links to the revelations of torture and abuse in the 'war on terror'.

Phil Scraton is Professor of Criminology in the Institute of Criminology and criminal Justice, Queen's University, Belfast. His research and publications include deaths in custody, prison protests, state authoritarianism and criminalization and children's rights. His most recent books are Hillsborough: The Truth (Mainstream), Beyond September 11(Pluto) and Power, Conflict and Criminalisation (Routledge)

Jude McCulloch is Associate Professor in Criminology at Monash University, Australia. Her research interrogates institutionalised state violence. She has published extensively on deaths in custody, police violence, police shootings and paramilitary policing. Her recent work focuses on state crime in the 'war on terror'. She is the author of Blue Army: Paramilitary Policing in Australia (Melbourne University Press).

1. The Violence of Incarceration: An Introduction Jude McCulloch and Phil Scraton 2. An Afternoon in September 1983 Laurence McKeown 3. Entombing Resistance: Institutional Power and Polarisation in the Jika Jika High-Security Unit Bree Carlton 4. Protests and 'Riots' in the Violent Institution Phil Scraton 5. Child Incarceration: Institutional Abuse, the Violent State and the Politics of Impunity Barry Goldson 6. Naked Power: Strip-Searching in Women's Prisons Jude McCulloch and Amanda George 7. The Imprisonment of Women and Girls in the North of Ireland: A 'Continuum of Violence' Linda Moore and Phil Scraton 8. Neither Kind Nor Gentle: The Perils of 'Gender Responsive Justice' Cassandra Shaylor 9. The US Military Prison: The Normalcy of Exceptional Brutality Avery F. Gordon 10. A Reign of Penal Terror: US Global Statecraft and the Technology of Punishment and Capture Dylan Rodríguez 11. Indigenous Incarceration: The Violence of Colonial Law and Justice Chris Cunneen 12. The Violence of Refugee Incarceration Jude McCulloch and Sharon Pickering 13. Preventing Torture and Casual Cruelty in Prisons through Independent Monitoring Diana Medlicott