media release

BRIDGET WILLIAMS BOOKS

A Punitive Society
John Pratt

Falling Crime and Rising Imprisonment in New Zealand

New Zealand has one of the highest levels of imprisonment in the Western world. Yet the growth of imprisonment in New Zealand has occurred when the crime rate here, as in most other Western societies, has been in signicant decline. Why, then, the disjuncture? In this penetrating BWB Text, John Pratt describes the dramatic transformation in penal thought that has recently taken place in this country. Rising imprisonment in New Zealand, against the background of a falling crime rate, is connected with changes in how we, as a society, think about the purpose and function of punishment. The growth of penal populism, Pratt asserts, has caused enormous and lasting damage to New Zealands social fabric. John Pratts fearless analysis of the factors that led to New Zealands high imprisonment rate in the face of a declining crime rate, cements his growing reputation as a criminologist of international standing. The mirror he holds up to the citizens of Aotearoa, forces us to confront a darker and mean-spirited side to our collective character. It is not a pretty picture. Kim Workman, Spokesperson, Rethinking Crime and Punishment Author Information John Pratt is Professor of Criminology at Victoria University of Wellington and Adjunct Professor of Criminology at Monash University, Australia. He is the author of Penal Populism (2007) and Contrasts in Punishment: An Explanation of Anglophone Excess and Nordic Exceptionalism (2013). In November 2013 Professor Pratt was awarded the Mason Durie Medal for advancing the frontiers of social science. John Pratt is available for interview. Media copies of A Punitive Society are available. For interviews or review copies, please contact Angela Radford: angelaradford@xtra.co.nz, 027 540 1104

Publication: 10 December 2013 RRP$4.99 | 50 pages ISBN: 9781927277270 (EPUB) 9781927277287 (Kindle) Available direct from www.bwb.co.nz and from major retailers including Amazon, Kobo and eBooks.com

Bridget Williams Books PO Box 12474 | Wellington 6144 | New Zealand +64 4 473 8128 | info@bwb.co.nz | www.bwb.co.nz

What are BWB Texts? A BWB Text is a short, digital-only piece of high-quality New Zealand writing, produced swiftly and distributed globally online. Read on smart phones and e-readers, tablets and desktop computers, BWB Texts connect an exploding online readership to some of New Zealands best authors, reading and ideas.
BWB Texts draw on the publishing expertise of Bridget Williams Books to bring readers an exciting mix of New Zealand reading: cutting edge commentary sits alongside reective narrative, debate alongside history, articles follow memoir, and information precedes stories. Launching with Paul Callaghan: Luminous Moments, the rst set of BWB Texts now includes: Maurice Gees Creeks & Kitchens: A Childhood Memoir, Rebecca Maces Report from Christchurch (in association with the New Zealand Listener), and Kathleen Joness I think ... I am going to die.: Katherine Manseld at Fontainebleau. More BWB Texts, including Tracey Barnett, The Quiet War on Asylum and Sir Tipene ORegans New Myths and Old Politics, will be released through into 2014.

How do BWB Texts work? The BWB Texts programme is inspired by emerging overseas publishing models focused on short form digital-only works, often referred to as e-singles. Sharing similar characteristics as these offshore initiatives, BWB Texts are short digital-only works, produced quickly to ensure topicality, retailed at low cost, and distributed to the widest range of devices possible. BWB Texts are crafted in-house at BWB using a digital production workow powered by Infogrid Pacic, with covers from Base Two.
The strength of BWBs commissioning strategy based on providing excellent research and writing about New Zealand is widely recognised. BWB Texts build from this expertise, using the exibility of this new approach to provide readers with a broad sweep of topics: New Zealand history; contemporary issues; biography and autobiography; other New Zealand narrative non-ction (for example, travel writing and science). BWB Texts are available directly and DRM-free from our website (www.bwb.co.nz), in addition to a wide range of retailers including Amazon, Kobo and eBooks. com. Bundled sets of BWB Texts will also be made available. School, public and tertiary libraries in New Zealand and abroad will be able to purchase copies via distributors ebrary, EBL and Wheelers.

Why are BWB Texts important? Debate new readers, new thinking BWB Texts provide a new meeting space, connecting our histories, technologies, shifting readers, emerging and established authors, and our shared futures.
Quality serious writing amidst the online noise The internet is disrupting the quality and nature of our reading. BWB Texts help connect important ideas and a readership confronted with the noise of modern media. Silence the challenges facing media BWB Texts represent a response to these challenges, one that draws on these technological shifts to nurture great writing, both as BWB Texts and within the wider BWB publishing programme. Global immediate and crossing boundaries Produced within weeks and worldwide in distribution, BWB Texts broadcast New Zealand voices and stories across boundaries.

Who is behind BWB Texts? BWB Texts was instigated by publisher Tom Rennie and journalist Max Rashbrooke, in partnership with BWBs director Bridget Williams. The trio became a quartet with Geoff Walker bringing years of New Zealand publishing experience to the team as commissioning editor alongside Max Rashbrooke. Together, we have fashioned a contemporary vision drawing on many years of strong publishing experience. Acknowledgement We would like to acknowledge the funding support of the BWB Publishing Trust (www.bwbpublishingtrust. org.nz) that makes this new digital imprint possible.