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, School of Law, Queen¿EUR¿s University, Belfast. His latest books are Power, Conflict and Criminalisation, Hillsborough: The Truth (3rd edition) and The Incarceration of Women

Jude McCulloch is Professor of Criminology in the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Her latest book is Counter-terrorism: Community, Cohesion and Security.

1. The Violence of Incarceration: An Introduction 2. An Afternoon in September 1983 3. Entombing Resistance: Institutional Power and Polarisation in the Jika Jika High-Security Unit 4. Protests and ¿EUR¿Riots¿EUR¿ in the Violent Institution 5. Child Incarceration: Institutional Abuse, the Violent State and the Politics of Impunity 6. Naked Power: Strip-Searching in Women¿EUR¿s Prisons 7. The Imprisonment of Women and Girls in the North of Ireland: A ¿EUR¿Continuum of Violence¿EUR¿ 8. Neither Kind Nor Gentle: The Perils of ¿EUR¿Gender Responsive Justice' 9. The US Military Prison: The Normalcy of Exceptional Brutality 10. A Reign of Penal Terror: US Global Statecraft and the Technology of Punishment and Capture 11. Indigenous Incarceration: The Violence of Colonial Law and Justice 12. The Violence of Refugee Incarceration 13. Preventing Torture and Casual Cruelty in Prisons through Independent Monitoring