Work

We Need to Talk About Court Custody

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT Court custody is an overlooked but significant site of incarceration that holds tens of thousands of individuals each year in England and Wales. Providing one of the first scholarly investigations of court custody, we find that insurmountable bureaucratic barriers make it impossible to conduct interview‐based empirical research within court custody in England and Wales. We motivate a critical discussion about the gatekeeping role that state processes play in determining criminal justice research topics. We present a thematic analysis of 16 interviews and 26 reports by regulators. We identify three inter‐related groups of problematic experiences in court custody—poor cell conditions, the pains of waiting and the pains of judgement—that begin to characterise the dynamics of court custody. We argue that court custody is a distinct form of imprisonment and critical site of criminal justice transitions that significantly impacts other sites of incarceration and has escaped scholarly attention for too long.

Source: The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice

DOI: 10.1111/hojo.70032

Authors: Tom Kemp, Philippa Tomczak

Institution: University of Nottingham

Language: English

Topic: Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,470