This issue of Concilium takes as its central topic the reality of prison. For

many, prisons are spaces that hover at the border of societal imagination.

On the one hand, prisons are places that most people know little about

because they have never seen the inside of a prison themselves. On the other hand, prisons are very present in films and fictional literature. It is the news and the press that give us daily insight into what happens in prison, and the news is often not good news.

In their diversity, the contributions reveal central challenges in the penal system and a considerable need for theological reflection.