Remote control: Horizontal surveillance and the gendering of carceral punishment

Abstract

Research traditionally suggests that men incarcerated in the USA regard horizontal surveillance—that is, monitoring the behaviors of other prisoners—as antithetical to notions of masculinity behind bars. Yet, following an 18-month ethnography in a US prison for men, this article reveals that the imprisoned may in fact embrace prisoner-on-prisoner monitoring tied to labor. It details how participants in this institution sought out peer surveillants who had the power to grant referrals to more desirable jobs. Within prison worksites, individuals further policed peers’ production and service quality. Labor-based horizontal surveillance was integral to performances of masculinity related to employment status and work ethic. Drawing on labor scholarship as well as studies of surveillance in other penal settings, this article reveals how supervision maps onto gendered beliefs about work, offending, and contemporary American corrections in ways that contribute to carceral agendas and broader systems of control.

“They’re Just Watching You All the Time”: The Surveillance Web of Prison Needle Exchange

“…Indeed, treatment settings are rife with the gathering of personal and intimate information by staff through a range of surveillant means that are mobilized in service of diagnosing, encouraging self-disclosure, or monitoring for adherence to program requirements (McCorkel 2003). A further relational dimension at play is the horizontal or lateral surveillance (Andrejevic 2004) between and among prisoners themselves, which at times is facilitated by prison authorities who encourage prisoners to gather intelligence and report back the information collected, in other words, engage in "snitching" (Bell 2006;Gibson-Light 2022;McCorkel 2003;Wortley 2002). In effect, this downloads the responsibility for surveillance from the prison authority onto people who are incarcerated, which can result in the internalization of correctional logics and agendas (Gibson-Light 2022).…”