Power, Adaptation and Resistance in a Late-Modern Men’s Prison

Crewe, Ben

doi:10.1093/bjc/azl044

Cited by 141 publications

(154 citation statements)

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“…In these small but significant ways penal power, as traditionally conceived through techniques of governance and managerialism, is reconstituted in the flows of power on the landings (Crewe, 2007). New media technologies -widely regarded as privileges that are highly prized by an undeserving underclass -become the site of more complex ideological struggles and prisoner orientations, including resistance, acquiescence, normative commitment and 'resigned fatalism' (Crewe, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Driven by private sector providers, kiosks are 'sold' to the government as being integral to a 'responsible prisoner' strategy, helping prisoners to lead independent lives in preparation for their release. They are, then, part of the armoury of the late-modern prison described by Crewe (2007Crewe ( , 2009) that has created a shift in governance, and refashioned power and control from a coercive model to one that operates via self-interest and selfregulation. If prisoners do not receive family or legal visits, or get a doctor's appointment, or receive their canteen (items such as tobacco, chocolate and phone cards), they only have themselves to blame.…”

Section: Technologies That Are Already Transforming the Carceral Envimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Technologies (ICTs) bring; the extent to which they erode the 'totality' of the 'total institution'; and the ways in which ICTs are an effective resource in the exercise of 'soft power' by prison staff (Crewe, 2007). Like many other Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEPs), digital technologies function to enhance both decency and control, insofar as they eliminate many of the tensions of prison life, while providing officers with a 'carrot-andstick' at least as powerful as that provided by in-cell television -and one that many officers have similarly ambivalent feelings about in terms of their status as 'perks' that convicted offenders do not deserve.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A brave new world: The problems and opportunities presented by new media technologies in prisons

Jewkes

Reisdorf

2016

Criminology & Criminal Justice

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This article discusses the digital inequalities experienced by prisoners and the potential opportunities that providing 'new' media in prisons offers for offender rehabilitation and resettlement. Currently denied access to online and social media that most of us take for granted, and unable to communicate in ways that have become 'ordinary' in the wider community, it is argued that prisoners experience profound social isolation and constitute one of the most impoverished groups in the digital age. In prisons which provide selected prisoners some access to information and communication technologies, their high sociocultural status and consequent construction as a 'privilege' frequently results in them being used in the exercise of 'soft' power by prison officer gatekeepers. Moreover, when prisoners come to the end of their sentences, they not only are faced with prejudice and poor job prospects due to their criminal record, but their digital exclusion during a period of incarceration may have compound effects and lead to long-term and deep social exclusion. 1 The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful comments on an earlier draft of the article.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Technologies That Are Already Transforming the Carceral Envimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A brave new world: The problems and opportunities presented by new media technologies in prisons

Jewkes

Reisdorf

2016

Criminology & Criminal Justice

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“…Inmates in institutions do not, however, simply remain submissive to this type of control, but engage in different forms of resistance. While resistance sometimes takes dramatic forms, such as riots, it can also be seen in small acts in everyday life during which staff and inmates continuously negotiate powerresistance relationships (Crewe, 2007;Bosworth & Carrabine, 2001). Research on resistance in youth detention is sparse, but a few studies have illuminated youth resistance, for example, in the form of using rules to their advantage (Cesaroni & Alvi, 2010), or, by strategically complying or adopting a stance of "faking it" vis-à-vis their participation in rehabilitation (Cox, 2011).…”

Section: Study Ii: Teasing Laughing and Disciplinary Humor: Staff-yomentioning

confidence: 99%

Disciplining Freedom : Treatment Dilemmas and Subjectivity at a Detention Home for Young Men

Franzén¹

2014

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This ethnographic study explores treatment practices and staff-resident interaction at a detention home for young men, drawing on video recorded conversations and interviews. It investigates ideological dilemmas inherent in the institutional setting and how these produce complex subject positions to uptake, negotiate or refuse. Study I explores a core treatment dilemma: coercion vs. freedom, involving the dual institutional goal of coercing residents into norm abiding behavior and of producing individuals who behave "properly" out of their own free will. It focuses on staff members’ talk about token economy, illuminating rhetorical resources deployed to avoid the troubled subject position of a disciplinarian. Study II investigates disciplinary humor, illuminating how humor is used both to impose and disrupt social order. It shows how staff members and youths skillfully deploy humor in negotiating local hierarchies related to authority, generation, and age. Humor was also found to be a useful way of navigating ideological dilemmas. Study III explores behavior modification practices, focusing on how selfassessment practices can be conceptualized as responsibilization that emphasizes self-regulation. It documents the participants’ engagement in strategic deployment of specific subject position relations, “young boy”-caregiver rather than delinquent-disciplinarian. In brief, the thesis shows that subject positions are essentially co-constructed, and how positions related to age are highly relevant in this institutional setting. Paradoxical aspects of subject positions provide discursive resources that can be deployed to navigate ideological dilemmas such as that of coercion vs. freedom, but also to handle issues of authenticity.Denna etnografiska studie undersöker behandlingspraktiker och interaktion mellan personal och ungdomar på ett särskilt ungdomshem för unga män. Materialet består framförallt av videoinspelad interaktion och intervjuer. I studien utforskas ideologiska dilemman samt hur dessa producerar komplexa subjektspositioner att uppta, förhandla om eller neka. Studie I undersöker ett huvuddilemma: tvång vs. frihet, vilket involverar de dubbla institutionella målen att tvinga ungdomarna till önskvärt beteende och att producera individer som beter sig ”korrekt” av egen fri vilja. Fokus ligger på personalens tal om teckenekonomi och studien synliggör retoriska resurser som används för att undvika positionen ”disciplinär personal”. Studie II utforskar disciplinerande humor och synliggör hur humor används både för att skapa och omskapa den sociala ordningen. Studien visar hur personal och ungdomar skickligt använder humor i förhandlingar om lokala hierarkier relaterade till auktoritet, generation och ålder. Humor var också ett sätt att navigera ideologiska dilemman. Studie III undersöker beteendemodifieringspraktiker, med fokus på hur självutvärdering kan förstås som responsibilisering med fokus på själv-reglering. Studien dokumenterar deltagarnas strategiska användning av specifika subjektspositionsrelationer,...

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“…In so doing, they appear to take responsibility for their own personal development (see also Bosworth and Carrabine, 2001;Crewe, 2007) whereby one could argue that aspects of accountability and governance shift from the institution to the individual prisoner.…”

Section: Puzzling Dialoguementioning

confidence: 99%

To Be and Not to Be: Adaptation, Ambivalence and Ambiguity in a Danish Prison

Nielsen¹

2012

AASoci

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In a recent article on Scandinavian Exceptionalism, John Pratt urges that in era defined by a pre-occupation with penal excess, we need to explore what we can learn from the Scandinavian regimes characterized by low levels of imprisonment and exceptional prison conditions. This paper complements Pratt's comparative historical work by scrutinizing the realities of people living and working inside one Scandinavian penal regime. It explores prisoners' experiences of and adaption to institutional life focusing on implementation of security and order and the motivational and supportive work. It describes a thriving copresence of bewildering realities where prisoners' adaptation is defined by a straining uncertainty, ambiguity and ambivalence, and where moral divides are united in the Modus Vivendi of everyday life. In this context prisoners are expected to express regrets and aspire to reform by demonstrating they are morally on course and motivated to commence a life without crime. Instead prisoners mostly use the institutional reformative stimuli to pursue their own ends that are foreign to the system. The study describes a discrepancy between penal ideals and practices and suggests that penal realities as they are experienced from within may not match the level of exceptionalism that Pratt observes from the outside.

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Power, Adaptation and Resistance in a Late-Modern Men’s Prison

Cited by 141 publications

References 13 publications

A brave new world: The problems and opportunities presented by new media technologies in prisons

A brave new world: The problems and opportunities presented by new media technologies in prisons

Disciplining Freedom : Treatment Dilemmas and Subjectivity at a Detention Home for Young Men

To Be and Not to Be: Adaptation, Ambivalence and Ambiguity in a Danish Prison

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