Governance, Performance, and Capacity Stress: The Chronic Case of Prison Crowding (Executive Politics and Governance)

Public policy systems often sustain chronic capacity stress (CCS) meaning they neither excel nor fail in what they do, but do both in ways that are somehow manageable and acceptable. This book is about one archetypal case of CCS - crowding in the British prison system - and how we need a more integrated theoretical understanding of its complexity. Public policy systems, much like humans, can operate under continual stress over long periods of time. Whereas analysis of these systems often tends to focus on the extremes of success or failure, the more complex reality is that more often than not they neither completely excel nor completely fail in what they do, but combine elements of both in the way they cope and perform under stress. This book explores these dynamics through the archetypal case of crowding in British prisons. Packed with data, it provides an original analysis of the prison system through an era of managerialist change. It contributes to contemporary debates on the management of prisons, and the wider fields of public management, governance, and executive politics. At its heart lies a new concept of "chronic capacity stress" (CCS), one which will be valuable to anyone - academics, practitioners, students alike - interested in how policy systems both succeed and fail in complex and ever-changing political, economic, and social environments Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-11 Traditional Explanations of Capacity Stress and Their Limitations....Pages 12-37 A More Holistic Governance-Style Approach....Pages 38-64 Performance and Capacity in a Managerialist Era....Pages 65-96 Measuring and Setting Capacity Standards....Pages 97-123 Senior Ministers and the Limits of Their Influence to Resolve the Capacity Problem....Pages 124-152 Top Officials and the Interface between Political and Operational....Pages 153-177 Governors, Staff, and Strategies of Local Adaptation....Pages 178-200 Privately Contracted Prisons: New Setting, Same Condition....Pages 201-224 Chronic Capacity Stress: A Complex Condition....Pages 225-250 Back Matter....Pages 251-278 Cover 1 Series 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 7 List of Figures 9 List of Tables 11 Acknowledgements 13 Introduction 14 1 Traditional Explanations of Capacity Stress and Their Limitations 25 2 A More Holistic Governance-Style Approach 51 3 Performance and Capacity in a Managerialist Era 78 4 Measuring and Setting Capacity Standards 110 5 Senior Ministers and the Limits of Their Influence to Resolve the Capacity Problem 137 6 Top Officials and the Interface between Political and Operational 166 7 Governors, Staff, and Strategies of Local Adaptation 191 8 Privately Contracted Prisons: New Setting, Same Condition 214 9 Chronic Capacity Stress: A Complex Condition 238 Notes 264 Bibliography 274 Index 285