Diminished citizenship in the era of mass incarceration

Abstract

This paper lays out a model of diminished citizenship as a tool for understanding the experiences of the large population of people who, at least in part by virtue of their relations with criminal justice apparatuses, do not benefit from the full complement of responsibilities and rights associated with citizenship in a modern democracy. The frame of diminished citizenship places mass incarceration within a larger historical and social context, moving ideas about “criminals” away from the individual focus of mainstream criminology and providing a useful framework for considering how a variety of marginalized groups navigate the American landscape. At the same time, the frame of mass incarceration offers insights into a crucial mechanism for constructing, diminishing and enforcing citizenship in the United States. Our argument draws on our decade-long ethnographic research with a cohort of women who had been released from prison in Massachusetts in 2007–2008.

“I don't have time for drama”: Managing risk and uncertainty through network avoidance*

“…Finally, network avoidance diminishes citizenship of those who practice it, reducing their ability to fully participate in society and extending the negative effects of mass incarceration and the expansion of the criminal legal apparatus (Miller & Stuart, 2017; Sered, 2020). Mistrust of social institutions and avoidance of public space reduces community engagement, political participation, organizing, protesting, and capacity building, activities which build stronger social infrastructures and are engines of social and personal change (Haldipur, 2018; Jones, 2018; Rios, 2011).…”

“…Impoverished individuals, especially the minoritized poor, have faced increasing uncertainty and precarity posed by an unstable economy and a shrinking social safety net since the 1970s (Kalleberg, 2009) but are, through risk discourses, identified as the ones posing the greatest, rather than absorbing the greatest, degree of risk. Risk discourses also commonly involve responsibilization tropes, using institutional (often carceral) technologies to instill messages about the importance of self‐control in managing behavior (Garland, 2001; Sered, 2020; Soyer, 2016).…”

“…They view the formation of social ties, such as romantic relationships, as introducing an untenable level of risk (Roy, 2004; Silva, 2013). Messages conveyed through correctional‐therapeutic programs encourage participants to view themselves as lacking self‐control (Sered, 2020) and to welcome restrictive measures such as house arrest (Soyer, 2016). Other research, however, has found that stigmatic predictions by adults can lead to resistance identities and political consciousness and engagement (Rios, 2011).…”

“…The key task of survival in the risk society is managing uncertainty by applying a probabilistic assessment to personal decisions and avoiding behavior, including police contact, that appears unpredictable and thereby risky. Risk and responsibilization discourses reinforce public services ranging from correctional‐therapeutic to social welfare (Ray, 2017; Sered, 2020).…”

Beyond Recidivism and Desistance

“…Looking to move past the individual orientations reified by the language of recidivism and desistance, we currently are developing a model of diminished citizenship as a tool for understanding the experiences of the large population of people who, at least in part by virtue of their relations with criminal justice apparatuses, do not benefit from the full complement of responsibilities and rights associated with citizenship in a modern democracy (Sered, forthcoming). The lens of diminished citizenship centers analyzes of homelessness, criminalization, substance mis/use and a variety of other stigmatized identities and statuses firmly in the realm of the state rather than individual failure or deviance.…”