The emergence and stalling of ‘decarceration consensus’: Nation-building, nationalism and penal struggle in Scotland, 2007–10

Abstract This article explores the emergence and stalling of what has been described as a ‘decarceration consensus’ in the Scottish penal field (2007–10). It traces how commitments to reduce Scotland’s prison population were forged to a nation-building project, and how this both created space for and limited decarceration discourses. The analysis draws from narrative interviews with a group of penal elites central to this period of imprisonment debate and a review of documents that played key roles in constructing consensus. This penal episode highlights the restrictive effect appeals to inherent or binary identity can have on penal imagination, and the article overall makes a case for exploring how visions of nation shape penal struggles—in Scotland and beyond.