Women, the embodiment of health and carceral space

Abstract

Using the example of women incarcerated in Canada, this paper aims at showing the necessity of studying prisoners' health and healthcare through a perspective informed both by a criminology of the body and prison/penal sociology. Health is too often constructed as a set of discrete variables that can be isolated from the whole person and her environment. In this paper, we want to show the complexities and richness of situating carceral health and healthcare within the experience of the body and prison. After describing the situation of women in prison in Canada and their health status before incarceration and while in prison, the intricacies of health, healthcare and punishment will be described and we will conclude by showing how health and the body act as a site of control and a site of resistance for incarcerated women.

Self-Reports of Health before and during Imprisonment in Female Inmates

“…The reported health complaints were frequent, which corroborates the findings of Butler et al [5] and Robert et al [27], indicating that health complaints among female inmates are frequent during imprisonment. This might be a result not only of their vulnerability in terms of mental and physical health, but also of the increase in self-awareness due to their imprisonment [27].…”

“…Regarding health surveillance before imprisonment, most inmates reported they had seen their GP and/or a health professional in emergency services at least once during the 6 months prior to imprisonment, suggesting that access to community health services is frequent, contrary to what other studies have documented [16, 21, 26, 27]. However, the reason for this behavior is not included in this study.…”

“…Langner et al [38] also concluded that there is a higher prevalence of medicine consumption in the female inmate population when compared with the community; in the same way, Butler et al [5] showed that incarcerated women have a higher percentage of consumption of these substances than their male counterparts. This might happen due to the fact that female detainees have a higher tendency to pursue medical services [27, 39], which is related to the previously mentioned high rates of diseases and health complaints, as well as the replacement of illegal drugs by psychotropic medication.…”

“…This might be a result not only of their vulnerability in terms of mental and physical health, but also of the increase in self-awareness due to their imprisonment [27]. The high prevalence of anxiety-related complaints is a sign of psychological stress among female inmates.…”

The Impact of Incarceration on Greek Female Prisoners’ Self-reported Health Status

“…Furthermore, it is confirmed that prisoners report a deterioration of their health status during their detention [3,30,[60][61][62]. The age constitutes an important factor.…”