Dispositions that matter: Investigating criminalized women’s resettlement through their (trans)carceral habitus

Abstract

Whether prisoner resettlement is framed in terms of public health, safety, economic prudence, recidivism, social justice, or humanitarianism, it is difficult to overstate its importance. This article investigates women’s experiences exiting prison in Canada to deepen understandings of post-carceral trajectories and their implications. It combines feminist work on transcarceration and Bourdieusian theory with qualitative research undertaken in Canada to propose the (trans)carceral habitus as a theoretical innovation. This research illuminates the continuity of criminalized women’s marginalization before and beyond their imprisonment, the embodied nature of these experiences, and the adaptive dispositions that they have demonstrated and depended on throughout their lives. In doing so, this article extends criminological work on carceral habitus which has rarely considered the experiences of women. Implications for resettlement are discussed by tracing the impact of criminalized women’s (trans)carceral habitus (i.e. distrust, skepticism, vigilance about their environments and relationships) on their willingness to access support and services offered by resettlement organizations.

Shaping the road to reentry: Organizational variation and narrative labor in the penal voluntary sector

“…PVS organizations cannot exercise unlimited latitude in their practices without betraying field-level agreements about the boundaries and stakes of their collective struggle (Quinn, 2019). Therefore, the distinctiveness that we highlight in this paper exists within a set of similar organizational structures/practices evident in the reentry literature (e.g., Halushka, 2016;Mijs, 2016;Miller, 2021;Prior, 2020;Quinn, 2021). We now explore PVS organizations' differing philosophies as distinct roads to reentry.…”

“…Esther highlights a phenomenon also made clear in the first author's fieldwork (Quinn, 2019(Quinn, , 2021. PVS organizations often recruit "professional exes" on a trial basis, using their time as clients as a vetting process (see also Martin, 2021).…”

“…As Canada's largest metropolitan area, the GTA has a notable density and diversity of PVS organizations-spanning employment, drug treatment, restorative justice, legal advocacy, We purposively recruited participants from four organizations representing a fairly wide spectrum within the former category because of their power and prominence in the GTA's penal field. The first author's ethnographic and archival research in this context (Quinn, 2019(Quinn, , 2021 informs our reading of these organizations as major players in this region's penal field-they have occupied prominent roles within field conversations (and contestations) for several decades and are well-known amongst PVS practitioners, political leaders, journalists, police, correctional staff, and criminalized individuals. There are also key differences to explore, including these organizations' sizes, client populations, referrals, faith-basis, and programming (see Table 2).…”

Sensing probation in Canada: Notes on affect and penal aesthetics in risk assessment

“…In Canada and transnationally, probation en masse forms a large part of the 'penal dragnet' that reshapes the sociosymbolic landscape (Benekos and Merlo, 2014;Wacquant, 2008Wacquant, , 2010Wacquant, , 2016. As technocracy and statecraft mix anew, this environment has created a 'transcarceral habitus' marked by its strict rules, regulations and policies, which devalue the human experiences of trust and evoke scepticism and vigilance (Quinn, 2021).…”

‘A whole new world …’: Exploring transcarceral habitus and women's transition from a closed to an open prison

“…We don't speak, there's tension in the room. (Joanne, HMP Open) Viewed through a transcarceral lens, we begin to understand the continuum of this gendered notion and its association with experiences of social isolation, through which women avoid relational interaction as an embodied habitus to protect against harm (Quinn, 2023). Moreover, while the anxieties associated with new ways of occupying spaces with others have been documented (Moran, 2012;Schliehe & Crewe, 2022), cultural shock was also activated by sensory changes from the physical boundaries of this new space.…”