The Prison Cell: Embodied and Everyday Spaces of Incarceration

by Jennifer Turner (Editor), Victoria Knight (Editor)

Overview

This book advances conceptualisations and empirical understanding of the prison cell. It discusses the complexities of this specific carceral space and addresses its significance in relation to the everyday experiences of incarceration. The collected chapters highlight the array of processes and practices that shape carceral life, adding the cell to a rich area of discussion in penal scholarship, criminology, anthropology, sociology and carceral geography. The chapters highlight key aspects such as penal philosophies, power relationships, sensory and emotional engagements with place to highlight the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary perspectives on the prison cell: a contested place of home, labour and leisure. The Prison Cell’s empirical attention is global in its consideration, bringing together both contemporary and historical work that focuses upon the cell in the Global North and South including examples from a variety of geographical locations and settings, including police custody, prisons and immigrant detention centres. This book is an important and timely intervention in the growing and topical field of carceral studies. It presents the only standalone collection of essays with a sole focus on the space of the cell.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030399139
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	07/08/2020
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology
Edition description:	1st ed. 2020
Pages:	337
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Victoria Knight is Senior Research Fellow for the Community and Criminal Justice Division in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, De Montfort University, UK. She has expertise and research experience in the use of digital technologies in prisons; emotion and criminal justice; and offender education. She is the author of Remote Control: Television in Prison (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

Jennifer Turner is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Liverpool, UK. Her research is concerned with spaces, practices, and representations of incarceration, past and present. She is the author of The Prison Boundary: Between Society and Carceral Space (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and co-editor of Carceral Mobilities: Interrogating Movement in Incarceration (Routledge, 2017).

Table of Contents

1. Dissecting The Cell: Embodied And Everyday Spaces Of Incarceration, Jennifer Turner And Victoria Knight.- 2. ‘The Solitude Of The Cell’: Cellular Confinement In The Emergence Of The Modern Prison, 1850-1930, Helen Johnston.- 3. Prison Cells As A Grounded Embodiment Of Penal Ideologies: A Norwegian-American Comparison, Jordan M. Hyatt, Synøve N. Andersen And Steven L. Chanenson.- 4. The Kubol Effect: Shared Governance And Cell Dynamics In An Overcrowded Prison System In The Philippines , Raymund E. Narag And Clarke Jones.- 5. ‘I Feel Trapped’: The Role Of The Cell In The Embodied And Everyday Practices Of Police Custody, Andrew Wooff.- 6. A ‘Home’ Or ‘A Place To Be, But Not To Live’: Arranging The Prison Cell, Irene Marti.- 7. Prison As Palimpsest: The Dialectics Of The Cell And Everyday Life, The ACE Steering Committee.- 8. Power In “No-Cell” Detention: Spatial Restriction And Domestication Of Space For Foreign Detainees In Romania, Bénédicte Michalon.- 9. A Family Cell: Visual Ethnography In A Prison ‘Mothers’ Section’, Rossella Schillaci.- 10. Serving Time With A Sea View: The Prison Cell And Healthy Blue Space, Jennifer Turner, Dominique Moran And Yvonne Jewkes.- 11. Hearing Behind The Door: The Cell As A Portal To Prison Life, Kate Herrity.- 12. Prison Cell Spaces, Bodies And Touch, Elisabeth Fransson And Francesca Giofrè.- 13. Prisoncloud: The Beating Heart Of The Digital Prison Cell, Jana Robberechts And Kristel Beyens.- 14. Carceral Projections: The Lure Of The Cell And The Heterotopia Of Play In Prison Escape Hanneke Stuit.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Just as cells are the building blocks of all organisms so too are they the foundation of carceral life. They are places of pain, dislocation and resistance but also of sanctuary, play and domesticity. In this innovative, informative and intriguing book the cell is placed under the penal microscope to reveal connections and layers of meaning that would otherwise remain hidden.” (Professor Ian O'Donnell, University College Dublin, author of Prisoners, Solitude, and Time)

“Anyone thrown into a prison cell begins to live in the shadow of madness, according to the writer and imprisoned revolutionary, Victor Serge. This vivid collection of essays challenges the reader to think into these shadows and search for new meanings and fresh understanding of incarceration. The editors introduce a fascinating analogy and disturbing sense of scale by likening the prison cell to the microscopic biological cell. Just as prison cells “symbolically represent the monolithic values of the prison”, so arethey the living tissue of carceral space, literally “the containers of prison life”. International in scope and enlivened by a diversity of voices, including those of prisoners, this impressively edited collection is a major and innovative contribution to studies of incarceration. Read it, borrow it, share it. Bring light to the shadow.” (Dr Rod Earle, School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care, The Open University)