Voices from Inside: The Role of Soft Civil Oversight in Regulating Prisons in Japan and the Australian Capital Territory
type: CreativeWork
description: States increasingly respond to public demands for scrutiny of prisons by establishing civilian monitoring bodies. This regulatory trend began after World War II, when European human rights advocates argued that civil oversight prevents abuses and promotes prison reform. Their sincere belief and the mechanism's rhetorical appeal led to rapid diffusion, aided by the 2002 Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). This thesis examines 'soft' civil oversight, the simplest, purely persuasive form of the mechanism. Soft oversight bodies are included in the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) networks that OPCAT state parties must establish. As soft mechanisms rely on dialogue and voluntarism, they seem to fit at the base of Ayres and Braithwaite's 'regulatory pyramid' (1992). However, theorists like Hood (2004) have warned that inspection and monitoring bodies are ineffective against risky government activity - and there has been almost no evidence of their efficacy in prisons. This mixed methods empirical study put soft civil oversight's commendable aims respectfully aside to investigate its nature and impact. It gathered data on the lived experience of 2,700 prisoners, staff, and overseers who animate these mechanisms at 50 prisons in Japan and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The study analysed these data using Valerie Braithwaite's social alignments and motivational postures theories (2017), which establish that persuasive mechanisms 'run on goodwill'. Regulatees - here prison staff - tend to cooperate with persuasive mechanisms when they see them as legitimate, beneficial, fair, and worthy - and otherwise resist, disengage, or 'game' their response. Japan's design emerged as rigid, minimalist and relying on community norms, while the ACT's flexible, expansive, human rights-oriented design seemed exemplary. Yet empirical analysis of the nature of both mechanisms in prisons revealed…
abstract: States increasingly respond to public demands for scrutiny of prisons by establishing civilian monitoring bodies. This regulatory trend began after World War II, when European human rights advocates argued that civil oversight prevents abuses and promotes prison reform. Their sincere belief and the mechanism's rhetorical appeal led to rapid diffusion, aided by the 2002 Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). This thesis examines 'soft' civil oversight, the simplest, purely persuasive form of the mechanism. Soft oversight bodies are included in the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) networks that OPCAT state parties must establish. As soft mechanisms rely on dialogue and voluntarism, they seem to fit at the base of Ayres and Braithwaite's 'regulatory pyramid' (1992). However, theorists like Hood (2004) have warned that inspection and monitoring bodies are ineffective against risky government activity - and there has been almost no evidence of their efficacy in prisons. This mixed methods empirical study put soft civil oversight's commendable aims respectfully aside to investigate its nature and impact. It gathered data on the lived experience of 2,700 prisoners, staff, and overseers who animate these mechanisms at 50 prisons in Japan and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The study analysed these data using Valerie Braithwaite's social alignments and motivational postures theories (2017), which establish that persuasive mechanisms 'run on goodwill'. Regulatees - here prison staff - tend to cooperate with persuasive mechanisms when they see them as legitimate, beneficial, fair, and worthy - and otherwise resist, disengage, or 'game' their response. Japan's design emerged as rigid, minimalist and relying on community norms, while the ACT's flexible, expansive, human rights-oriented design seemed exemplary. Yet empirical analysis of the nature of both mechanisms in prisons revealed…
author: Lawson, Carol
language: en_AU
date published: 2024
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:07:11Z
provider: Australian Catholic University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian Catholic University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/315629