The book discusses such matters as the pains of imprisonment, penal order, staff-prisoner relationships and the everyday world of the prison, drawing on and critiquing Sykes's theories and insights, and placing them in their historic and contemporary context.

A letter from Gresham Sykes IntroductionBen Crewe, Andrew Goldsmith, and Mark Halsey: Situating Sykes 1: Craig Haney: Sykes's prison in context: Change and continuity in the life span of a penitentiary 2: Mark Halsey: Sykes' method in context: The place and practice of 'slow science' 3: Richard Sparks: Sykes's problem of order in and out of context: Returning to the source in The Society of Captives 4: Thomas Ugelvik: Lost in translation: The Norwegian reading of The Society of Captives The pains of imprisonment 5: Ben Crewe: Beyond deprivations: The pains of imprisonment and the prisoner social system 6: Yvonne Jewkes: 'An iron fist in a silk glove': The pains of Halden prison 7: John Pratt and Yoko Hosoi: 'No country for old men': Changing prison demographics and the pains of imprisonment 8: Sandra Bucerius, Luca Berardi, and Kevin Haggerty: "I'm in a federal prison, and I've never felt more free": The multi-faceted pains experienced by incarcerated Indigenous women in Canada Prisoner culture and society 9: Alice Ievins: The Society of 'Sex Offenders' 10: Kate Gooch: Just don't wear prison issue!: Material deprivation, material machismo and the illicit prison economy 11: Jonathan Simon: The real human: Reimagining the 'real man' in The Society of Captives 12: Rajeev Gundur and Daniel Kavish: Captives in society: The role of race in the carceral cycle Order and authority 13: Alison Liebling: The changing 'regime of the custodians': Visions of order and authority in high security prisons in England and Wales, 1988-2018 14: Andrew Goldsmith: Sykes' 'corruption of authority' and the sociology of prison corruption 15: Peter Scharff-Smith: Dynamic security or corruption of authority? Normalization and prisoner- staff relations in Danish prisons" 16: Mark Halsey, Andrew Goldsmith, and Ben Crewe: Conclusion

Ben Crewe is Professor of Penology and Criminal Justice, and deputy director of the Prisons Research Centre, at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK. He has published widely on prisons and imprisonment, including his 2009 monograph 'The Prisoner Society' and (with Susie Hulley and Serena Wright) his recent book 'Life Imprisonment from Young Adulthood: Adaptation, Identity and Time'. Andrew Goldsmith Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor of Criminology, and Director of the Centre for Crime Policy and Research, Flinders University, Adelaide Australia. He co-authored (with Mark Halsey and Andrew Groves) Tackling Correctional Corruption: An Integrity Promoting Approach (Palgrave 2016). He has more recently co-authored (with several others) a book on Cybercrime Prevention (Palgrave 2019). Previously, for Clarendon Press, he edited (and contributed to) Complaints Against the Police: The Trend to External Review (Clarendon, 1991). Mark Halsey is Professor of Criminology, Centre for Crime Policy and Research, Flinders University, Australia. He is the co-author of Generations Through Prison: Experiences of Intergenerational Imprisonment (Routledge 2020) and Young Offenders: Crime, Prison and Struggles for Desistance (Palgrave 2015).

Highly engaging discussion of challenges faced in prison life, such as staff-prisoner relationships and control. Revisits and re-evaluates Sykes's celebrated (1958) text, The Society of Captives from a contemporary context. Conceptually and empirically grounded research from influential scholars.