Sociology of prison life

Cheap labour plays a vital role in today’s global competitive economies by creating huge profit opportunities for employers through two ways: Capital flows into undeveloped and developing countries for employing the cheap labour; and cheap labour from undeveloped countries moves to the developed and developing ones. On the basis of this framework, Turkey can be argued as an example country for employing foreign workers as cheap labour in both national and international markets related to labour market restructuring and employment policies. While the Turkish labour market is evaluated as a cheap labour source by international firms, ironically Turkish workers do not prefer low skilled and low wage jobs, according to the data given by Turkish Employment Organisation. Although there are very limited official statistical data concerning the issue, the new trends and the new regulations need to be studied. Most information is based on written and visual media articles cited by employers and reports from governmental and non-governmental organisations. In this article, these new trends and regulations related to seeking cheap labour are examined through three examples:  ‘Migrants, especially Syrian refugees who are in Turkish labour market’, ‘Turkish prison labour usage by private sector firms as a new governmental implementation’ and ‘employment preferences of Turkish construction firms which are engaged in international market’.

From the "land of incarceration" to a society with minimal use of pain: Finnish experience of reducing the prison population. Helsinki: National Research Institute of Legal Policy, 2012 (in Russian).

В книге содержатся статьи и эссе известных финских криминологов – Инкери Анттилы, Патрика Торнудда и Тапио Лаппи-Сеппалы, – описывающие уникальную реформу системы наказаний в Финляндии, в результате которой в этой стране многократно сократилась численность заключенных. Еще в середине XX в. Финляндию называли “страной тюрем”, доля заключенных в составе населения в несколько раз превышала значения этого показателя в других скандинавских странах. Однако в настоящее время Финляндия занимает одно из последних мест в Европе в этом отношении. Каким образом это стало возможным? И в какой степени финский опыт может быть применим в России, занимающей третье место в мире по числу заключенных? Именно эти вопросы определили содержание предлагаемой книги.

All too often, media outlets report on young men who entered Western European prisons as petty criminals and, over time, radicalized, eventually conducting terrorist attacks in the name of ISIS. Today, prisons are viewed as one of the primary areas of terrorist recruitment in Europe, but this has not always been the case. Merely two decades ago, paramilitary activists deradicalized in Northern Irish prisons, as IRA members transformed into active supporters of the Irish peace process. How did it work? And what can this historical case study teach us about confronting radicalization today?

Erving Goffmans Beschreibung „totaler Institutionen“ ist eine der folgenreichsten sozialwissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzungen mit geschlossener Unterbringung und ihren Folgen. Erstmals 1961 als Monografie veröffentlicht, avancierte die Studie zu einem Klassiker, an den vielfach angeschlossen wird. Allerdings teilt das Buch das Schicksal anderer prominenter Werke, insofern sie z. T. eher zitiert als in ihrer Differenziertheit wahrgenommen werden. Bis heute lohnt es sich allerdings, so unsere Annahme, sich mit den Kernthesen Goffmans gerade in ihrer Vielschichtigkeit zu befassen. Um dies zu verdeutlichen, schildern wir zunächst Goffmans Anliegen und einige seiner zentralen Argumente. Anschließend verorten wir diese in neueren Debatten zu Gefängnis und Inhaftierungen, um auf dieser Basis wieder zu Goffman mit der Frage zurückzukehren, welche Aktualität seine Vorgaben gegenwärtig noch besitzen.

What is prison architecture and how can it be studied? How are concepts such as humanism, dignity and solidarity translated into prison architecture? What kind of ideologies and ideas are expressed in various prison buildings from different eras and locations? What is the outside and the inside of a prison, and what is the significance of movement within the prison space? What does a lunch table have to do with prison architecture? How do prisoners experience materiality in serving a prison sentence? These questions are central to the texts presented in this anthology. Prison, Architecture and Humans is the result of a collaboration between researchers and architects from Italy, Norway and Sweden. It presents new approaches to prison architecture and penological research by focusing on prison design, prison artefacts, everyday prison life and imprisoned bodies. The book will be of interest to students, researchers, architects and politicians.

I contatti con il mondo esterno sono una dimensione fondamenta-le dell'esperienza detentiva di tutti coloro che sono ristretti all'interno delle mura di un carcere. Attraverso i colloqui con gli avvocati i detenuti possono cercare di (ri)prendere le proprie vite in mano cercando di ottenere dei benefici e dei miglioramenti della propria condizione di vita. Le udienze in tribunale corrispondono agli epiloghi, che possono risultare positivi ma anche negativi, di questi tentativi. La possibilità di accedere a una visita ospedaliera ricorda al detenuto che anch'egli come qualsiasi altra persona può godere di determinati servizi di cura. I colloqui e le telefonate con i propri cari rappresenta-no dei momenti caratterizzati da una portata emozionale molto alta. Momenti spesso brevi, addirittura singoli attimi, attraverso i quali si cerca di ricostruire di volta in volta quei legami che la vita in carcere ha eroso ed erode inesorabilmente. Momenti spesso caratterizzati da sentimenti contrastanti che coinvolgono non solo i detenuti ma anche i loro genitori, le/i loro compagne/i, i figli, gli amici, vale a dire le forgotten victims (Matthews 1983) del sistema penale italiano.

This short article discusses the need for the government of Ghana to consider using the human resource in Ghana's prisons, especially now that the government has introduced a great initiative to encourage agriculture.  Prisoners serving sentences for some offenses could be engaged in this initiative. Not only will it lead to a better prison reformation but will provide easy organized labor needed for this program.

Using Foucault’s concept of governmentality vis-à-vis Appadurai’s “global ethnoscapes” as frames, I argue for a techno-cultural dimension which brought forth the phenomenon of the “dancing inmates,” an argument against the charge of Filipino colonial mimicry of a Hollywood popular entertainment. Albeit the inmates’ dance routines indeed depict Foucault’s “docile bodies” in his analysis of the modern prison, as pointed out by critics, I am inclined to show how the internet mediation through social media networks awakened a culturally imbibed dance and musical character trait vis-à-vis the jolly cultural disposition of Filipinos. Thus, I view these characteristics as existential responses, hence, ‘creative resilience,’ to the inhuman incarcerating conditions of the prison life through using the art of dance with the aid of media technology. I argue on the role of the internet as the prisoners’ avenue to the outside world that was strategically deprived of them as a form of punishment,...

Unrest marks the instability of any foundation wherever it spreads its roots. It weakens the superstructures and the bases that it integrates. Usually, it is viewed from the opinion of bigwigs of society and the people belonging to lower strata who suffer most are ignored. Content analysis of the memoir, The Shell: Memoirs of A Hidden Observer weaved by Syrian Writer Mostafa Khalifa and translated by Ruth Ahmadzai Kemp is done in this research article to check impacts of prisonization on the prisoners of Tadmur Jail in Syria. In this context the paper focuses on the application of 'theory of prisonization' on the text. This research on Syrian work is done by the utilization of theory of prisonization and content analysis as a methodology keeping in view the qualitative mode of analysis. The study focuses on both the inhuman treatments in the jail of Tadmur and how do the experiences of incarceration go hand in hand with the symbolic and actual silencing of the subject.

The incarcerated in America are an estimated 2.4 million people at any moment in “1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,259 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,283 local jails, and 79 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, and prisons in the U.S. territories.”    More than 60% of these are people of color.  Add in another almost five million on probation or in some way under the supervision of the criminal justice system and you've reached about seven million, the equivalent of the population of Serbia or Paraguay.  In other words, a reasonably sized nation of prisoners.

This is also the largest prison population on Earth.  No other country comes close. On any given day, the United States, with 5% of the world’s population, has close to 25% of the people imprisoned on the planet.  That population, by the way, has risen by 700% since 1970, a tidal movement for incarceration that only in recent years has shown small signs of finally ebbing. In short, state by state or as a country, the U.S. leaves the rest of the world in the dust.

Abstract: «Like an island»: contrasting basic education programs and everyday life in the Swiss prison system. The concept of the total institution could be understood to suggest that prisons work like frictionless machines. However, research has long shown that prison life is ambiguous and often less clearly defi ned than one would expect. We present fi ndings from a project (BiSt), which was initiated in 2007 to improve basic education in the Swiss prison system. We build our account around a notion of fi ssure voiced by inmates: the idea that the educational unit is like an island (of normality) within the restricted and restrictive world of the prison.

Her picture is on the five-pound British note. She brought about prison reform in Britain, which spread to civilized nations in Europe and beyond. Her school of nursing inspired and supported the work of Florence Nightingale. She was the first woman to address Parliament and did so several times. She was visited in her prison-reform work by kings and queens of Denmark and Prussia. She was a recorded Friends minister who provided Bibles for people, established multiple organizations for social reform, challenged the death penalty and slavery, and who was sponsored by Queen Victoria. Referred to as "the Angel of the Prisons," her name was Elizabeth Fry-a noteworthy Friend, indeed!

"Comment les drogues exercent-elles leurs emprises ? Quels sont les parcours de vie de ces individus sous influence qui, entraînés par la spirale toxicomaniaque, «errent» sans relâche en quête de leur dose ? Qui sont ces «toxicos» : des funambules du risque, des délinquants au comportement irrationnel, des malades potentiellement contagieux, des êtres irresponsables que la dépendance ferait «agir malgré eux» ?

Depuis les squats précaires et insalubres jusqu'aux maisons d'arrêt en passant par les lieux de deals, les shootoirs et la rue, l’auteur s'appuie ici sur une enquête ethnographique de près de dix ans dans l'économie souterraine de la défonce, pour nous dévoiler la vie méconnue de ces «marginaux», pris dans un mouvement de circulation entre errance urbaine et expérience carcérale. La démarche sociologique adoptée nous invite à une nouvelle compréhension de la question sociale par l'analyse des liens complexes et multidimensionnels unissant les mécanismes de domination et d'exclusion à l'«expérience totale» des usagers de drogues les plus précarisés.

Fugueurs, sans-papiers, travailleurs au noir, détenus sous substitution, petits dealers, séropositifs hospitalisés, voleurs, mendiants ou prostitué(e)s : quels regards portent-ils sur le monde qui les entoure ? Quel sens accordent-ils à leurs pratiques, notamment celles qui sont susceptibles de compromettre leur état de santé (sida, hépatite C) ? Que nous disent-ils des institutions (médicale, sociale, préventive, judiciaire, policière et pénale) auxquelles ils sont confrontés, des solutions ou traitements qu'elles proposent, des inégalités qu’elles renforcent ou qu’elles négligent ?

Sans parti pris ni certitudes préconstruites, l’auteur questionne ici, dans et par-delà la prison, les limites politiques, sociales et morales fixées à la libre disposition de soi et de son corps en situation de précarité. Il nous livre ainsi une contribution théorique originale à ce débat contemporain majeur : l’emprise de la société sur la liberté individuelle."

To speak the ‘language of state violence’ is for penal abolitionists to insist that irrespective of the conditions, architecture, or general resources available, the prison will always be a place that systematically generates suffering, harm and death.  Understanding prisons as a modus operandi of state violence may help abolitionists gain political momentum, for it leads to focus on both ‘institutional’ and ‘structural’ violence.  Ultimately Speaking the language of state violence provides a name for penal abolitionists to mobilise around and makes connections between the prison and social inequities.

The aim of the article is to methodologically reflect possibilities and pitfalls of prison ethnography in the Czech prison research. Based on his own survey of Czech prisons , the author discusses some potentially dangerous parts of research in this field with emphasis placed on administrative obstacles, researcher's position in the process of data production and research ethics. Using prison ethnography in the Czech context is compared with a position of ethnography as a scientific discipline in the global prison research. Despite many methodological difficulties, the author considers the prison ethnography to be an effective way of analyzing prison system in the Czech Republic. For the purpose of successful development of the Czech prison ethnography a critical methodological discussion is necessary. The aim of the article is to contribute to such discussion.

Reprinted as: Cheliotis, L. K. and A. Liebling (2014, forthcoming) 'Race Matters in British Prisons: Towards a Research Agenda', in C. Phillips (ed.) Race and Crime, Volume III. London: Routledge.

Drawing on surveys of 4,860 prisoners’ perceptions of the quality of prison life in 49 establishments in England and Wales, this paper examines the extent to which prisoners viewed race relations in prison as problematic. Emphasis was placed upon how aspects of race relations were rated by different ethnic groups, and in individual prisons. Significant differences were found between prisons of the same security category. The findings support those of previous studies in that they raise concerns about the treatment of ethnic minority prisoners, particularly in some prisons. Attention was also paid to the role of gender, age and the security category of the prison. Ethnic minority prisoners tended to rate the quality of race relations in prison more poorly than their White counterparts. Large proportions amongst all ethnic minority groups felt that they were subject to unfair treatment compared to the White majority. On the whole, female prisoners were more likely than males to rate the quality of race relations more favourably, as were adult prisoners in comparison to their young counterparts. Gender and age had a considerable impact on the views of ethnic minority prisoners on the quality of race relations in the establishment. Perceived quality of race relations was significantly associated with prisoners’ views on more general aspects of their treatment in prison, such as respect, humanity, fairness, relationships with staff and safety. Neither the ethnic composition of each prison’s population nor the respective ratio of White to ethnic minority staff had a significant impact on how prisoners viewed the quality of race relations. These results suggest, amongst other things, that perceptions of the legitimacy of penal practices differ significantly between age and ethnic groups, and that attempts to reduce discrimination work more effectively in relation to distributive practices than in relation to attitudes and general treatment.

Obra publicada pela Editora Revista dos Tribunais, em 2020. ISBN: 9786550652920.
A obra apresenta uma análise inédita acerca do trabalho prisional, com profundidade e abordagem inovadoras, trazendo à tona reflexões instigantes: Por que louvamos o trabalho como condição de dignidade? O trabalho confere dignidade a todos em igualdade? Qual a relação entre o trabalho livre e o sistema penitenciário? Por que os presos trabalham e por que o trabalho prisional é, pela lei, uma obrigação, mas também um direito? Em uma sociedade marcada pelo desemprego sistêmico, quais as perspectivas para os trabalhadores egressos? Faz sentido postular o trabalho como instrumento de ressocialização? Através dessas indagações chaves, o tema do trabalho prisional é esmiuçado em seus aspectos históricos, legais, práticos, ideológicos, sociológicos e criminológicos.
O livro é dividido em três partes. A primeira é dedicada ao tema do trabalho em geral, com enfoque à evolução das relações de trabalho e de sua valorização na sociedade. A segunda parte se dedica ao sistema penal, com especial atenção à função de prevenção especial positiva, na qual o trabalho prisional normalmente se insere. A terceira parte trata do tema do trabalho prisional em específico, sob diversas perspectivas. Todos os capítulos tratam os temas propostos em pelo menos duas perspectivas. Em um primeiro momento, busca-se trazer uma macro-história global para, então, mediar o tratado com especificidades da realidade brasileira.

Disponível em: https://www.livrariart.com.br/carcere-e-trabalho/p

The majority of prison stations in Malawi are now offering education services to inmates. However, the question that one can ask is; are these schools effectively managed? This study set out to examine the internal effectiveness of the management of the education programme in Malawi prisons. The study was conducted at seventeen prison stations in Malawi using a mixed methods research approach; utilising the convergent parallel design. The study involved a total of 243 respondents, drawing from students, teachers, station education coordinators, senior prison officers, as well as the Civil Society Organisations officials. Questionnaires, in-depth interviews, documentary review and observations were used for generating data. The key finding of this study was that the management of Prison Education Programme in Malawi was not effective in terms of its management structures, resources availability and teachers‟ capacities. The study revealed a number of serious challenges that had retrogressive repercussions on the programme. Firstly, the programme was managed by unqualified personnel who hardly had experience and skills in managing an education institution. As a result, the programme was run haphazardly without any policies or guidelines. Secondly, the programme lacked support from authorities hence facing numerous challenges such as lack of enough proper school blocks and having unqualified teachers. From the findings, it was concluded that the management of prison education programme in Malawi was not effective. The implication of the findings of this study is that there is a need for the prison authorities and the Ministry of Education to work together to effectively manage education activities in prisons.

This exploratory paper introduces the notion of the ‘green’ prison, exploring uncovering the ways in which environmental sustainability inflects carceral policies and practices.  Focusing on the United States, it highlights the construction of an ‘organizational sustainable development’ discourse within the correctional system, and argues that it is the system, rather than the environment, which is being ‘sustained’, through the promulgation of a ‘green’ prison discourse which serves to deflect attention from the mounting human and financial costs of mass incarceration. It examines the ways in which ‘sustainability’ plays out in correctional facilities, narrowly structured around compliance with ‘green’ environmental and energy-related regulations, and the provision of ‘green-collar’ training for inmates. Drawing on architectural geographies and notions of therapeutic landscapes, the paper presents theorises an alternative interpretation of the ‘green’ prison as a nurturing environment, but argues that this model functions only in decarcerative settings imbued with a rehabilitative, rather than a retributive, atmosphere.

Maintaining order and control within prisons has become an increasingly key priority for HM Prison Service. Indeed, maintaining adequate staffing levels, preventing assaults, and stopping disorder are axiomatic to sustaining a functioning prison system. The chief purpose of this paper is to analyse the 'problem of order' (Bottom, Sparks and Hay 1996) from both a theoretical and practical perspective. The paper critically analyses key texts in this area, as well as specifically discussing the 'problem of order' in relation to prison riots, and the contrasting policies employed by public and private sector prisons.

Rights of women in prison have been addressed in the Bangkok Resolution in 2011 and later in 2015 by the Mandela Rules. Nevertheless, with more than 700 000 women in prison around the world it is appalling to witness the lack of measures enforced in practice.
This research aims to give a comparative study of how women and more specifically pregnant women and young mothers are treated in French and Norwegian prisons.

No ano de 2016, inúmeros homicídios se concentraram, em efeito dominó, por alguns bairros de Porto Alegre. Desde o início da década de 80 e até 2018, esse foi o ano em que houve maior número de homicídios na capital, tornando-a uma das mais violentas do país. Algumas das características presentes nessas mortes sugeriam que algo estava ocorrendo nas relações do crime. Concomitantemente, na Cadeia Pública de Porto Alegre, principal prisão do estado e onde convive uma multiplicidade de grupos criminais, os homicídios entre presos vinham caindo consideravelmente. De forma geral, a reflexão que serviu de estímulo a esse trabalho circunda as relações existentes entre os grupos criminais e a violência letal. Analisando o universo social da prisão, bem como o cenário de alguns dos bairros do município, busca-se compreender o caldo de relações sociais que possibilitou a coexistência entre um processo de “pacificação” da prisão e a recente emergência de um ciclo de mortes do lado de fora de suas muralhas – investigando, nesse interim, a presença da violência como recursivamente reproduzida nas ações de integrantes de agrupamentos. Para tanto, foram feitas entrevistas com um conjunto de atores sociais: presos, policiais, atores do sistema de justiça, adolescentes cumprindo medida socioeducativa em meio fechado e aberto e moradores de regiões de periferias. Ainda, utilizou-se de dados advindos da observação de bocas de venda de drogas e de grupos online de moradores de bairros com forte presença de coletivos criminais, da sistematização de conversas informais e da análise documental. No primeiro capítulo, recupera-se o processo compreendido entre o surgimento da Falange Gaúcha na Cadeia Pública – primeiro grupo da capital, cuja emergência foi acompanhada de incessantes instabilidades como motins, rebeliões e homicídios entre presos – até a acomodação atual das relações sociais internas, que desvelou na “pacificação” da prisão. Essa análise é feita levando-se em conta as táticas empregadas pelos policiais a fim de assegurarem a “ordem” no estabelecimento, as mudanças percebidas nos mercados da droga, no âmbito da legislação e no aprisionamento. No segundo capítulo, busca-se reconstituir o que os interlocutores chamaram de a guerra, a fim de compreender as relações que desaguaram nesse período do crime em Porto Alegre. Tal reconstituição abrange as transformações percebidas nas redes de tráfico nos últimos anos, especialmente marcadas pela constituição de embolamentos – frentes de alianças – através do apoio, um mecanismo que prevê a reciprocidade no crime. Pode-se perceber que, com a guerra e a partir das negociações internas ao presídio, o crime polarizou-se entre dois grandes embolamentos – Bala na Cara e Antibala – redimensionando conflitos microlocais e englobando os grupos da capital em torno do binômio aliados e contras. A reordenação dessas dinâmicas provocou impactos para a circulação urbana da juventude periférica do município, acirrou a produção de identidades coletivas constituídas, pelos grupos, em oposição aos contras e alterou os padrões para o uso da violência, que se tornaram muito mais extremos e adquiriram um caráter simbólico, com fins de tocar o terror nos contras. Por meio dos atentados e da “caça” aos contras, orientados antes a enfraquecer a moral do embolamento inimigo do que a cobrar indivíduos específicos, ampliaram-se as vítimas em potencial e foi inaugurado um ciclo retaliatório de violência letal. Assentada sobre outros arranjos, foi possível constatar que a “pacificação” da prisão decorreu não da alienação do uso da violência como recurso estruturante dos grupos, mas de acordos feitos com os agentes do Estado e entre diferentes grupos criminais, acomodando interesses de todos eles a partir da máxima de que a guerra existe, mas deve ser travada na rua. Assim, a “paz” resultou da priorização, por parte dos coletivos, dos benefícios adquiridos pelos fluxos entre o dentro e o fora, o que contribuiu para que substituíssem a lógica da conquista prisional pela do gerenciamento dos contras – lançando mão do espaço, da autonomia e do poder internos, pactuados com a administração em troca da manutenção da “ordem”, para se fortalecerem na rua e capitalizarem-se no crime.

Коллективная монография является результатом работы по социологическим проектам "Около тюрьмы: идентичность и повседневность родственниц заключённых" (грант НИУ ВШЭ 12010153) и "Наказание и социальное конструирование тендера в постсоветской России: влияние тюремной системы на родственников заключённых" (AHRC AH/H008349/1). Оба проекта были посвящены изучению историй женщин, включённых в режимы поддержки осуждённых мужей и сыновей. Внимание авторов обращается к вопросам двойной маргинализации родственников осуждённых, корням феномена "жён заключенных" (декабристок) в ХІХ и ХХ веках, эмоциональной работы родственниц осуждённых. Рассматриваются также режимы заботы женщин о своих родственниках в заключении; трансформация повседневности семей, поддерживающих осуждённых; гендерные особенности партнерских и семейных отношений с мужчинами в заключении; формы "ожидания" женщин; социальные сети и активизм женщин, включённых в режимы поддержки. Книга основана на материалах глубинных биографических интервью с жёнами, подругами, матерями и сестрами осуждённых, а также с активистами гражданского сектора. В монографии также используются литературно-исторические документы.

Книга будет интересна исследователям пенитенциарной системы, социологам, психологам, юристам, всем, кто интересуется скрытыми, невидимыми и неслышимыми сообществами.