Description

Playing the “Treasury Card” to Contest Prison Expansion: Lessons from a Public Criminology Campaign

This article explores how Canadian abolitionists have sought to tap into public anxieties about the economy to contest the further entrenchment of imprisonment through campaigns emphasizing the impact of punishment measures on the pocketbooks of taxpayers. Building on Loader’s discussion on the “treasury card,” the gains and pitfalls encountered during these advocacy efforts are discussed. The article concludes with a discussion on the limits of contesting moral issues such as the infliction of pain through a monetary lens.

prison abolitionism–Canada, media, government policy-prisons and penality, public criminology

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 41, No. 3 (2014): 145-167