Clare Hall Life Member and former Visiting Fellow Dr Federica Coppola has published a new book, The Real Pain of Punishment: Prison, Belonging, and the Quest for Humanized Justice, with Cambridge University Press.

The book grew out of the project Federica brought to Clare Hall during her Visiting Fellowship back in 2022. “It benefited greatly from the opportunities for intellectual exchange and discussion with other Fellows and Cambridge faculty members, particularly those at the Institute of Criminology,” says Dr Coppola.

The book explores the true pains of incarceration using insights from empirical sciences and the experiences of people who have lived through imprisonment. It highlights the concept of “belonging” as a novel lens through which to critically interrogate the legitimacy of incarceration across penal theory, sentencing practice, and human rights frameworks. The chapters chart pathways for bridging the gap between the normative ideals of punishment and the stark realities of prison life. The final chapter, written with scholars who are currently or were formerly incarcerated in a New York State facility, reflects on how embracing belonging within penal approaches can inform responses to harm grounded in humanization, proximity, empowerment, and collaboration. The book thus advances a call for deeper epistemic dialogue within legal discourse on crime, punishment, and justice.

We warmly congratulate Dr Coppola on the publication and are delighted to see a project with such strong roots in her time at Clare Hall come to fruition.

The Real Pain of Punishment is available on the Cambridge University Press website.