Violence in Pursuit of Health: Living with HIV in the American Prison System

by Landon Kuester

Overview

This book offers a unique examination of how violence is situationally induced and reproduced for those inmates living with HIV in a US State prison system. Imprisonment is the only space where Americans have a constitutional right to healthcare but findings from this research suggest that accessing this care and associated welfare benefits requires some degree of violence. This book documents how HIV-positive inmates went about achieving agency through harm to their bodies and social standing to improve their health and wellbeing, in prison and upon re-entry to the community. It focusses on ethnographic research which was carried out in seven penal facilities in New England and comprises of accounts from inmates, prison staff, healthcare providers, ex-offenders, and community social workers. This book speaks to academics interested in prisons, violence, health, and ethnographic research, and to policy makers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030613501
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	12/01/2020
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	750 KB

About the Author

Landon Kuester is Research Associate at the National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, at King’s College London, UK.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Violence in Pursuit of Health.- 2. A Study on Prison Violence and HIV.- 3. Why Would an Inmates Swallow Razor Blades?.- 4. Benefits of Degradation.- 5.The Staff Who Play Prison Games.- 6. From Care to Corrections, Discussion: Degradation and Prison Games.