Review of Jon Burnett's book, Work and the Carceral State, published in 2022 at Pluto Press in London.

"Jon Burnett’s book ‘critically examines the role of work in sites of state confinement, demonstrating the ways carceral labour is involved in their material and ideological reproduction’ and ‘examines the work of the carceral state, exploring its role in maintaining and reproducing particular forms of social order’ (15-16). He argues that prison labour is malleable as it ‘can be imbued with different meanings’ and can ‘reconcile different interests and broader contradictions in the idea of punishment itself’ (2). For instance, proponents of a punitive prison regime will champion hard labour as a means to achieve this, whereas proponents of rehabilitation will argue that prison labour is a key to reintegration within society upon release."