The Prison Cell: Embodied and Everyday Spaces of Incarceration

348 Pages·2020·5.09 MB·English

by  Jennifer Turner, Victoria Knight

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN
PRISONS AND PENOLOGY
The Prison Cell
Embodied and Everyday
Spaces of Incarceration
Edited by
Jennifer Turner
Victoria Knight
Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology
Series Editors
Ben Crewe
Institute of Criminology
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
Yvonne Jewkes
Social & Policy Sciences
University of Bath
Bath, UK
Thomas Ugelvik
Faculty of Law
University of Oslo
Oslo, Norway
This is a unique and innovative series, the first of its kind dedicated
entirely to prison scholarship. At a historical point in which the prison
population has reached an all-time high, the series seeks to analyse the
form, nature and consequences of incarceration and related forms of
punishment. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology provides an impor-
tant forum for burgeoning prison research across the world.
Series Advisory Board:
Anna Eriksson (Monash University)
Andrew M. Jefferson (DIGNITY - Danish Institute Against Torture)
Shadd Maruna (Rutgers University)
Jonathon Simon (Berkeley Law, University of California)
Michael Welch (Rutgers University)
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14596
Jennifer Turner • Victoria Knight
Editors
The Prison Cell
Embodied and Everyday Spaces
of Incarceration
Editors
Jennifer Turner Victoria Knight
Department of Geography and Planning School of Applied Social Sciences
University of Liverpool De Montfort University
Liverpool, UK Leicester, UK
Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology
ISBN 978-3-030-39910-8 ISBN 978-3-030-39911-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39911-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans-
mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: © alamy FFCWCC
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This book is dedicated to Willow Jane Easton-Wooff
Acknowledgements
The origins of this book hark back to 2016 in Odense, Denmark. I am
grateful to Jennifer for entertaining the idea that resulted in this very
book. We both agreed that the prison cell demanded scrutiny. At the end
of our conversation at the drafty Danish bus station, we agreed to pursue
this work. I’d like to thank Jennifer for her determination, patience and
professionalism in creating this work. I’d also like to thank the contribu-
tors for their insights, our publisher Palgrave Macmillan and series edi-
tors. I am personally grateful to Professor Rob Canton and Professor
Dave Ward for their scholarly advice and patient reviewing when needed.
Lastly my lovely daughters, Olive and Lois.
Victoria Knight (Leicester, November 2019)
I would like to echo Victoria’s thanks to all of our contributors—many of
whom have been negotiating tricky logistics around access to prison
spaces and complex collaborations to deliver their chapters. These, of
course, are in addition to the many challenges presented by balancing
academic and personal lives. We are grateful to everyone for working so
hard towards and being so understanding of our rigid timetable and for
your positive responses to our most pedantic editorial instructions! We
very much appreciate the support of Palgrave Macmillan, including that
from Josie Taylor and the series editors in the development of the book
proposal and from Liam Inscoe-Jones to facilitate delivering it on time.
vii
viii Acknowledgements
Thanks also to Professor Ben Crewe for your warm encouragement via
the Afterword. It is also important to thank the other scholars who sub-
mitted abstracts, who we were unable to include in this volume. These
suggested chapters also offered rich, diverse and important contributions
but were simply too numerous for the book. We apologise to those col-
leagues for not being able to showcase their work on this occasion but
thank them for the support and interest in the volume, which served to
reinforce our confidence in the need for this collection specifically dedi-
cated to the prison cell. We hope that this book will provide a platform
for the development of associated work in this important area and look
forward to seeing it in print elsewhere. I would personally like to thank
Professor Kimberley Peters for her support in offering her expertise for
additional reviewing. Finally, I would like to thank Victoria for her will-
ingness to open up her own initial ideas to develop this collaboration and
for making the whole process both intellectually stimulating and a genu-
ine pleasure to be part of. Oh, and for digging out her A Level Biology
notes to entertain my most abstract ideas...
Jennifer Turner (Liverpool, November 2019)
Praise for The Prison Cell
“Just as cells are the building blocks of all organisms so too are they the founda-
tion of carceral life. They are places of pain, dislocation and resistance but also
of sanctuary, play and domesticity. In this innovative, informative and intrigu-
ing 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 intro-
duce 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 are they the living tissue of carceral
space, literally “the containers of prison life”. International in scope and enliv-
ened by a diversity of voices, including those of prisoners, this impressively
edited collection is a major and innovative contribution to studies of incarcera-
tion. Read it, borrow it, share it. Bring light to the shadow.”
—Dr Rod Earle, School of Health, Wellbeing and
Social Care, The Open University
Contents
1 Dissecting the Cell: Embodied and Everyday Spaces of
Incarceration 1
Jennifer Turner and Victoria Knight
Part I The Nucleus 21
2 ‘The Solitude of the Cell’: Cellular Confinement in the
Emergence of the Modern Prison, 1850–1930 23
Helen Johnston
3 Prison Cells as a Grounded Embodiment of Penal
Ideologies: A Norwegian- American Comparison 45
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 71
Raymund E. Narag and Clarke Jones
xi