Critical Encounters

Abstract

The raison d’être of our three NGOs is in part to change prisons. In this chapter we argue that they too are changed — by the prisons. The differences we observe in the NGOs’ day-to-day practices can best be explained by the fact that the prisons they work in are different. Therefore, they invite the NGOs to respond to them differently. This is to say that prisons affect the NGOs as much, if not more, than the NGOs affect prisons. The NGOs adopt the strategies they adopt in response to the nature of the prisons they interact with. In spite of pressure to conform to a single generic model for intervention (holding states accountable to human rights norms and standards from a position of externality), we see significant variation in styles. This is the result of the different realities confronting the NGOs. The point to emphasise here is that the NGOs and the prisons work on each other.