Schreeche-Powell, Edwin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5551-9649 (2026) Double liminality: transitional imprisonment and the ambiguities of the Open Prison. Theoretical Criminology. ISSN 1362-4806 (Print), 1461-7439 (Online) (In Press)

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Abstract

institutions of suspension. Building on work on penal liminality, it advances the concept of double liminality to capture how transitional imprisonment governs through compounded ambiguity. Drawing on qualitative accounts of English open prisons, it theorises a condition where prisoners are suspended between two thresholds: the threat of regression and conditional release. This dual suspension produces fractured autonomy, temporal instability, and structurally embedded uncertainty. By framing open custody within logics of neoliberal conditionality and responsibilisation, the article offers a generalisable analysis of institutional doubleness, where the demand for autonomy coincides with its denial. It contributes to emerging debates on penal transformation, temporal power, and carceral governance through absence.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	double liminality, open prisons, transitional imprisonment, responsibilisation, institutional withdrawal, neoliberal conditionality, temporal governance, identity work.
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) K Law > K Law (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > Centre for Communities and Social Justice Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Law and Criminology
Last Modified:	03 Mar 2026 09:32
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/52573

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