“We’re Silent Heroes”: Inmate Firefighters’ Experiences with Dignity and Shame in a Prison Labor Program

Abstract

Adults in custody (AICs) in a prison labor program experience conflicting messages and feelings of shame and dignity. Despite the program’s mission to help ease reentry, experiences of shame and shaming from correctional officers (COs) and the community may be setting AICs up for an increased likelihood of reoffending upon release. Using the concepts of shame and dignity, 21 program interviewee narratives were explored for their insights. Program improvements and recommendations for interventions with correctional officers, AICs, and the community are offered.

Perspectives on Prison Labour in Canada and Beyond: An Introduction

“…Meanwhile, issues related to prison labour have been increasingly central to prison protests and strikes in Canada, the United States, and other jurisdictions (ACCA, 2019;ACLU, 2022;House, 2018;Losier, 2021;Nowak, 2016;Wijnen, 2018). There has recently been renewed interest in American prison labour from a variety of disciplinary angles, (Cao, 2019;Crittenden et al, 2018;DelSesto, 2021;Feldman, 2019;Fink, 2016;Hatton, 2020;Hatton, 2021;Khater, 2021;VanderPyl, 2021) -which can at least be partially attributed to dramatic national prison labour strikes in 2016 and 2018 in the United States. Such scholarship builds on earlier literature that considered the linkages between the modern prison industrial complex and American racialized chattel slavery -and its afterlives (Davis, 2003;Lichtenstein, 1996).…”