Joseph V. Femia
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198275435
- eISBN:
- 9780191684128
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198275435.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The unifying idea of Antonio Gramsci's famous Prison Notebooks is the concept of hegemony. In this study of these fragmentary writings this book elucidates the precise character of this concept, ...
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The unifying idea of Antonio Gramsci's famous Prison Notebooks is the concept of hegemony. In this study of these fragmentary writings this book elucidates the precise character of this concept, explores its basic philosophical assumptions, and sets out its implications for Gramsci's explanation of social stability and his vision of the revolutionary process. A number of prevalent and often contradictory myths are demolished, and, moreover, certain neglected aspects of his thought are stressed, including the predominant role he attributed to economic factors, the importance he gave to ‘contradictory consciousness’, and the close connection between his political thinking and his fundamental philosophical premises. The book concludes by critically examining Gramsci's novel solutions to three long-standing problems for Marxist theory: the reasons why the Western working class has not carried out its revolutionary mission; determining the appropriate strategy for a Marxist party working within an advanced capitalist framework; and what are the reasons behind the failure of existing socialist states in their task of liberation?Less
The unifying idea of Antonio Gramsci's famous Prison Notebooks is the concept of hegemony. In this study of these fragmentary writings this book elucidates the precise character of this concept, explores its basic philosophical assumptions, and sets out its implications for Gramsci's explanation of social stability and his vision of the revolutionary process. A number of prevalent and often contradictory myths are demolished, and, moreover, certain neglected aspects of his thought are stressed, including the predominant role he attributed to economic factors, the importance he gave to ‘contradictory consciousness’, and the close connection between his political thinking and his fundamental philosophical premises. The book concludes by critically examining Gramsci's novel solutions to three long-standing problems for Marxist theory: the reasons why the Western working class has not carried out its revolutionary mission; determining the appropriate strategy for a Marxist party working within an advanced capitalist framework; and what are the reasons behind the failure of existing socialist states in their task of liberation?
Susanne Karstedt
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197266922
- eISBN:
- 9780191938184
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266922.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law
Prisons across the globe are manifestations of inequality. In any society, its most marginalised groups are overrepresented in prisons and all institutions of criminal justice. Notwithstanding this ...
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Prisons across the globe are manifestations of inequality. In any society, its most marginalised groups are overrepresented in prisons and all institutions of criminal justice. Notwithstanding this universal condition of contemporary criminal justice, the link between social inequality and inequality of punishment has been found to be tenuous and elusive. This contribution addresses the question how socio-economic inequality shapes the manifestations of punishment for a global sample of countries. As socio-economic inequality and criminal punishment are both multi-faceted concepts, several indicators are used for each. The findings confirm the highly contextual nature of the link between inequality and criminal punishment; they suggest a variegated impact of political economies, and a multiplicity of mechanisms that link inequality and criminal punishment across the globe.Less
Prisons across the globe are manifestations of inequality. In any society, its most marginalised groups are overrepresented in prisons and all institutions of criminal justice. Notwithstanding this universal condition of contemporary criminal justice, the link between social inequality and inequality of punishment has been found to be tenuous and elusive. This contribution addresses the question how socio-economic inequality shapes the manifestations of punishment for a global sample of countries. As socio-economic inequality and criminal punishment are both multi-faceted concepts, several indicators are used for each. The findings confirm the highly contextual nature of the link between inequality and criminal punishment; they suggest a variegated impact of political economies, and a multiplicity of mechanisms that link inequality and criminal punishment across the globe.
Dario Melossi
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197266922
- eISBN:
- 9780191938184
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266922.003.0012
- Subject:
- Law
This Chapter advances two claims which are related and sustain each other. The first is that in the contemporary “post-Fordist” world, the coupling of imprisonment and production persists in a ...
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This Chapter advances two claims which are related and sustain each other. The first is that in the contemporary “post-Fordist” world, the coupling of imprisonment and production persists in a relationship, if not between “the prison” and “the factory” – as Dario Melossi and Massimo Pavarini wrote 40 years ago – rather between “the prison” and “subordination”, because what all the multiple forms of “labor” and “non-labor” have in common – and have in common with the origins of protoindustrial capitalism – is subordination. The second is that the traditional reading of the “Rusche and Kirchheimer hypothesis” on the relationship between economic cycles and imprisonment depends on the specific conjuncture and class composition of the capitalist social formation to which it is applied. One thing is economic development in the period of Fordist mass industry and another in the globalized and fragmented labor market of neo-liberalism. Often imprisonment promotes phases of capitalist development rather than crises and recessions. Furthermore, subordination and inequality are strictly linked and feed on each other. Inequality promotes subordination, by putting the squeeze on those who are at the bottom of the social hierarchy; but subordination at the same time promotes inequality, by making sure that those who occupy those bottom positions, stay there. One strong link in the chain of subordination to inequality is penality, because penality reinforces inequality by reaffirming subordination. Data about long-run empirical relationships between imprisonment rates and inequality measures for the US and Italy are discussed.Less
This Chapter advances two claims which are related and sustain each other. The first is that in the contemporary “post-Fordist” world, the coupling of imprisonment and production persists in a relationship, if not between “the prison” and “the factory” – as Dario Melossi and Massimo Pavarini wrote 40 years ago – rather between “the prison” and “subordination”, because what all the multiple forms of “labor” and “non-labor” have in common – and have in common with the origins of protoindustrial capitalism – is subordination. The second is that the traditional reading of the “Rusche and Kirchheimer hypothesis” on the relationship between economic cycles and imprisonment depends on the specific conjuncture and class composition of the capitalist social formation to which it is applied. One thing is economic development in the period of Fordist mass industry and another in the globalized and fragmented labor market of neo-liberalism. Often imprisonment promotes phases of capitalist development rather than crises and recessions. Furthermore, subordination and inequality are strictly linked and feed on each other. Inequality promotes subordination, by putting the squeeze on those who are at the bottom of the social hierarchy; but subordination at the same time promotes inequality, by making sure that those who occupy those bottom positions, stay there. One strong link in the chain of subordination to inequality is penality, because penality reinforces inequality by reaffirming subordination. Data about long-run empirical relationships between imprisonment rates and inequality measures for the US and Italy are discussed.
Philippa Tomczak
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781529203585
- eISBN:
- 9781529203691
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529203585.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Prison suicide is a global problem, but little is known about about investigatory processes occurring after prison suicides. This book addresses this gap, providing a case study of the investigations ...
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Prison suicide is a global problem, but little is known about about investigatory processes occurring after prison suicides. This book addresses this gap, providing a case study of the investigations that follow prison suicides in England and Wales. Despite the large range of prison oversight institutions in England and Wales, prison suicides reached a record high in 2016, with the rate having doubled between 2012 and 2016. These deaths represent the sharp end of a continuum of suffering, self-harm, despair and distress within prisons, which affects prisoners, their families and prison staff. This book details and critiques the lengthy and expensive police, ombudsman and coroner investigations that follow prison suicides. Drawing on extensive document analysis, including over 100 Prison and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations, and original semi-structured interviews with stakeholders undertaken between 2016-2017, this book provides a novel analysis of prison oversight. This book argues that post-suicide investigations create a significant burden for bereaved families and prison staff. The investigations are valuable, but can manufacture mystery around entirely manifest prison problems and obfuscate the role of deliberate political decisions in creating those problems.Less
Prison suicide is a global problem, but little is known about about investigatory processes occurring after prison suicides. This book addresses this gap, providing a case study of the investigations that follow prison suicides in England and Wales. Despite the large range of prison oversight institutions in England and Wales, prison suicides reached a record high in 2016, with the rate having doubled between 2012 and 2016. These deaths represent the sharp end of a continuum of suffering, self-harm, despair and distress within prisons, which affects prisoners, their families and prison staff. This book details and critiques the lengthy and expensive police, ombudsman and coroner investigations that follow prison suicides. Drawing on extensive document analysis, including over 100 Prison and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations, and original semi-structured interviews with stakeholders undertaken between 2016-2017, this book provides a novel analysis of prison oversight. This book argues that post-suicide investigations create a significant burden for bereaved families and prison staff. The investigations are valuable, but can manufacture mystery around entirely manifest prison problems and obfuscate the role of deliberate political decisions in creating those problems.
Charlotte Bedford
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781529203363
- eISBN:
- 9781529203516
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529203363.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Radio produced and broadcast behind prison walls is redefining traditional meanings of ‘public service broadcasting’ and disrupting traditional power structures within the prison system. Focusing on ...
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Radio produced and broadcast behind prison walls is redefining traditional meanings of ‘public service broadcasting’ and disrupting traditional power structures within the prison system. Focusing on one of the most interesting developments in UK prisons over the past ten years, this book examines the early history of the Prison Radio Association (PRA) and the formation of the first national radio station for prisoners. Highlighting the enduring importance of social values in broadcasting, this book shows how radio can be used as a powerful force for social change. It will be of interest to those involved in media, criminal justice, and social activism.Less
Radio produced and broadcast behind prison walls is redefining traditional meanings of ‘public service broadcasting’ and disrupting traditional power structures within the prison system. Focusing on one of the most interesting developments in UK prisons over the past ten years, this book examines the early history of the Prison Radio Association (PRA) and the formation of the first national radio station for prisoners. Highlighting the enduring importance of social values in broadcasting, this book shows how radio can be used as a powerful force for social change. It will be of interest to those involved in media, criminal justice, and social activism.
Paul Rock
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198260950
- eISBN:
- 9780191682179
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198260950.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
The rebuilding of Holloway prison announced in 1968 was intended to be of enormous significance for the treatment and therapeutic rehabilitation of female inmates. Reconstruction began in 1970 but ...
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The rebuilding of Holloway prison announced in 1968 was intended to be of enormous significance for the treatment and therapeutic rehabilitation of female inmates. Reconstruction began in 1970 but the new prison was not completed until 1985. By this time penal ideologies had changed, and the Prison Department had revised its conception of female criminality. Thus, what was intended to be a new therapeutic prison became a place of conventional discipline and containment. These developments created serious problems within the prison and led to Holloway being identified as a public and political scandal. Using original documents and extensive interviews, this book traces the genesis and consequences of the decision to rebuild England's major prison for women, and shows how the experience at Holloway reflects shifting attitudes towards female criminals, and the relationships among penal ideology, architecture, control, and behaviour in a penal institution.Less
The rebuilding of Holloway prison announced in 1968 was intended to be of enormous significance for the treatment and therapeutic rehabilitation of female inmates. Reconstruction began in 1970 but the new prison was not completed until 1985. By this time penal ideologies had changed, and the Prison Department had revised its conception of female criminality. Thus, what was intended to be a new therapeutic prison became a place of conventional discipline and containment. These developments created serious problems within the prison and led to Holloway being identified as a public and political scandal. Using original documents and extensive interviews, this book traces the genesis and consequences of the decision to rebuild England's major prison for women, and shows how the experience at Holloway reflects shifting attitudes towards female criminals, and the relationships among penal ideology, architecture, control, and behaviour in a penal institution.
Linda L. Fowler
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151618
- eISBN:
- 9781400866465
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151618.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter reviews previous scholarship about congressional scrutiny of the executive branch and about general patterns of legislative influence on foreign policy decisions. In the spring of 2004, ...
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This chapter reviews previous scholarship about congressional scrutiny of the executive branch and about general patterns of legislative influence on foreign policy decisions. In the spring of 2004, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposed public hearings regarding the conduct and objectives of the Iraq War. A month later, Senator John Warner, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, scheduled two days of hearings to investigate abuse of detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib Prison. The chapter examines the hearing activity of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees from 1947 to 2008 to assess the overall trends in oversight and identify similarities and differences in their behavior. It also considers what scholars know about congressional involvement in U.S. foreign policy, what they have concluded about oversight of national security more generally, and why these perspectives do not appear to fit together.Less
This chapter reviews previous scholarship about congressional scrutiny of the executive branch and about general patterns of legislative influence on foreign policy decisions. In the spring of 2004, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposed public hearings regarding the conduct and objectives of the Iraq War. A month later, Senator John Warner, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, scheduled two days of hearings to investigate abuse of detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib Prison. The chapter examines the hearing activity of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees from 1947 to 2008 to assess the overall trends in oversight and identify similarities and differences in their behavior. It also considers what scholars know about congressional involvement in U.S. foreign policy, what they have concluded about oversight of national security more generally, and why these perspectives do not appear to fit together.
Judah Schept
- Published in print:
- 1942
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479810710
- eISBN:
- 9781479802821
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479810710.003.0011
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
The epilogue ends the book by speaking to it’s relevance to the present historical moment, characterized as it is by increased attention to reform, notions of community justice and a growing emphasis ...
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The epilogue ends the book by speaking to it’s relevance to the present historical moment, characterized as it is by increased attention to reform, notions of community justice and a growing emphasis on jails. The epilogue cautions that current reforms may signify the reorganization of the carceral state and suggests that the book can be read as a case study of one community’s production and contestation of this insidious phase of the carceral state. The epilogue ends by gesturing toward the interdisciplinary and stirring field of critical prison studies as the source of needed abolitionist theorizing and historicizing of the present moment.Less
The epilogue ends the book by speaking to it’s relevance to the present historical moment, characterized as it is by increased attention to reform, notions of community justice and a growing emphasis on jails. The epilogue cautions that current reforms may signify the reorganization of the carceral state and suggests that the book can be read as a case study of one community’s production and contestation of this insidious phase of the carceral state. The epilogue ends by gesturing toward the interdisciplinary and stirring field of critical prison studies as the source of needed abolitionist theorizing and historicizing of the present moment.
Erline Bibbs
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252493
- eISBN:
- 9780520944565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252493.003.0060
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
The author, an incarcerated woman, describes the kind of leadership that “experienced” incarcerated women in Alabama and Louisiana have been willing—and determined—to exercise in the interests of ...
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The author, an incarcerated woman, describes the kind of leadership that “experienced” incarcerated women in Alabama and Louisiana have been willing—and determined—to exercise in the interests of their community. She shows how the Longtimers/Insiders Activist Group at Tutwiler Prison in Alabama claimed a voice in decision making about a number of issues, especially about the new women's prison under construction. The participants in this group believe fervently that they can offer important, seasoned insights about the proper size of the new facility, its location, and its programs. The chapter shows that even in a domain governed by crude practicalities and politics, a group of incarcerated women can act on the powerful urge to introduce logic and lay claim to the dignity of experience.Less
The author, an incarcerated woman, describes the kind of leadership that “experienced” incarcerated women in Alabama and Louisiana have been willing—and determined—to exercise in the interests of their community. She shows how the Longtimers/Insiders Activist Group at Tutwiler Prison in Alabama claimed a voice in decision making about a number of issues, especially about the new women's prison under construction. The participants in this group believe fervently that they can offer important, seasoned insights about the proper size of the new facility, its location, and its programs. The chapter shows that even in a domain governed by crude practicalities and politics, a group of incarcerated women can act on the powerful urge to introduce logic and lay claim to the dignity of experience.
Alfreda Robinson-Dawkins
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252493
- eISBN:
- 9780520944565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252493.003.0075
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
In this chapter, the author recalls the time she was in prison for nine and a half years for a drug conspiracy. She feels like her life has been interrupted, and now she seeks some semblance of ...
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In this chapter, the author recalls the time she was in prison for nine and a half years for a drug conspiracy. She feels like her life has been interrupted, and now she seeks some semblance of “catching up” and making the pieces fit, to live a life of normalcy and do the little things that would allow her to assimilate back into society. After all, every one talks about “reentry.” After being rejected from so many jobs and trying to maintain her self-esteem and faith, the author realized she was not alone out here. So many former women prisoners feel the same thing and think the same thoughts. After having so many doors closed, the author decided to take more assertive responsibility for her own course of action, to help cement her destiny. She had a strong desire to help other women who were facing the same obstacles, so she founded the National Women's Prison Project in Baltimore, Maryland. She continues to heal from her incarceration by helping other women like her heal.Less
In this chapter, the author recalls the time she was in prison for nine and a half years for a drug conspiracy. She feels like her life has been interrupted, and now she seeks some semblance of “catching up” and making the pieces fit, to live a life of normalcy and do the little things that would allow her to assimilate back into society. After all, every one talks about “reentry.” After being rejected from so many jobs and trying to maintain her self-esteem and faith, the author realized she was not alone out here. So many former women prisoners feel the same thing and think the same thoughts. After having so many doors closed, the author decided to take more assertive responsibility for her own course of action, to help cement her destiny. She had a strong desire to help other women who were facing the same obstacles, so she founded the National Women's Prison Project in Baltimore, Maryland. She continues to heal from her incarceration by helping other women like her heal.
Alexandra Bell and Leche
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252493
- eISBN:
- 9780520944565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252493.003.0084
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
In this chapter, the author narrates her encounter with a former prisoner named Leche, who at the time of writing is enrolled in an Alternative to Incarceration program. On her last bid in prison, ...
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In this chapter, the author narrates her encounter with a former prisoner named Leche, who at the time of writing is enrolled in an Alternative to Incarceration program. On her last bid in prison, the conclusion of which would have marked seven years served, she was accepted into an ATI program at the Women's Prison Association (WPA). Before the ATI, she had gone straight back to selling drugs after her release from prison. In her depiction, prison had offered little change from the social ills that women encountered on the outside. Leche had entered prison a hustler and continued to hustle on the outside, returning to prison four more times. Like Leche, more than 70 percent of New York's women prisoners are of Latina or African descent, and more than 80 percent of women who are incarcerated for drug offenses are women of color. Despite studies showing that drug treatment and ATI programs are healthier and more cost-effective alternatives to imprisonment, women continue to be imprisoned at staggering rates.Less
In this chapter, the author narrates her encounter with a former prisoner named Leche, who at the time of writing is enrolled in an Alternative to Incarceration program. On her last bid in prison, the conclusion of which would have marked seven years served, she was accepted into an ATI program at the Women's Prison Association (WPA). Before the ATI, she had gone straight back to selling drugs after her release from prison. In her depiction, prison had offered little change from the social ills that women encountered on the outside. Leche had entered prison a hustler and continued to hustle on the outside, returning to prison four more times. Like Leche, more than 70 percent of New York's women prisoners are of Latina or African descent, and more than 80 percent of women who are incarcerated for drug offenses are women of color. Despite studies showing that drug treatment and ATI programs are healthier and more cost-effective alternatives to imprisonment, women continue to be imprisoned at staggering rates.
Rod Earle and James Mehigan (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447353065
- eISBN:
- 9781447353089
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447353065.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Education
Degrees of Freedom is the first book to examine The Open University’s pioneering work with people in prison. This unique book gives voice to prisoners and ex-prisoners whose lives have been ...
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Degrees of Freedom is the first book to examine The Open University’s pioneering work with people in prison. This unique book gives voice to prisoners and ex-prisoners whose lives have been transformed by education. The first five chapters offer analysis from OU academics on the history and contexts of OU prison education. The other nine chapters are from people with first-hand experience of studying with the OU in prison. These vivid personal testimonies are supplemented by nine shorter reflective vignettes that combine to demonstrate the diversity of interest and experience among OU students in prison. Published in December 2019 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of The Open University, this book is a valuable resource for students, scholars and anyone curious to know more about prisons, education and universities. Widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest educational innovations, The Open University has developed a powerful reputation for delivering education in prisons. In doing so it fulfils an important part of its mission to promote social justice. The Open University’s work in prisons gives form and substance to its founding declaration ‘to be open to people, ideas, methods and places’. The men and women who have built this reputation by undertaking their studies in uniquely challenging circumstances have rarely had the opportunity to tell their story. This book changes that by presenting their accounts of learning inside prisons with The Open University and the effects it has had on their lives beyond prison walls.Less
Degrees of Freedom is the first book to examine The Open University’s pioneering work with people in prison. This unique book gives voice to prisoners and ex-prisoners whose lives have been transformed by education. The first five chapters offer analysis from OU academics on the history and contexts of OU prison education. The other nine chapters are from people with first-hand experience of studying with the OU in prison. These vivid personal testimonies are supplemented by nine shorter reflective vignettes that combine to demonstrate the diversity of interest and experience among OU students in prison. Published in December 2019 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of The Open University, this book is a valuable resource for students, scholars and anyone curious to know more about prisons, education and universities. Widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest educational innovations, The Open University has developed a powerful reputation for delivering education in prisons. In doing so it fulfils an important part of its mission to promote social justice. The Open University’s work in prisons gives form and substance to its founding declaration ‘to be open to people, ideas, methods and places’. The men and women who have built this reputation by undertaking their studies in uniquely challenging circumstances have rarely had the opportunity to tell their story. This book changes that by presenting their accounts of learning inside prisons with The Open University and the effects it has had on their lives beyond prison walls.
David Francis Taylor
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199642847
- eISBN:
- 9780191738869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199642847.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 18th-century Literature
The final chapter looks at the relationship between, on the one hand, scenes of imprisonment in new Gothic dramas staged at Drury Lane in the 1790s and, on the other, the images of incarceration ...
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The final chapter looks at the relationship between, on the one hand, scenes of imprisonment in new Gothic dramas staged at Drury Lane in the 1790s and, on the other, the images of incarceration deployed in Sheridan’s parliamentary speeches opposing the suspension of Habeas Corpus and the detention of radical activists during the same period. Reading scenography rather than dialogue, dramatic spaces rather than dramatic words, I suggest that Sheridan’s rhetoric and the repertory of his playhouse can be understood as operating within the same representational continuum: both posited carceral space as a site of pain, deprivation, and solitude, and both offered the prison as a symbol of the Pitt government’s institutionalization of violenceLess
The final chapter looks at the relationship between, on the one hand, scenes of imprisonment in new Gothic dramas staged at Drury Lane in the 1790s and, on the other, the images of incarceration deployed in Sheridan’s parliamentary speeches opposing the suspension of Habeas Corpus and the detention of radical activists during the same period. Reading scenography rather than dialogue, dramatic spaces rather than dramatic words, I suggest that Sheridan’s rhetoric and the repertory of his playhouse can be understood as operating within the same representational continuum: both posited carceral space as a site of pain, deprivation, and solitude, and both offered the prison as a symbol of the Pitt government’s institutionalization of violence
Paula McDowell
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183952
- eISBN:
- 9780191674143
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183952.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature, 18th-century Literature
Chapter 2 turns to the material which forms the basis for the central argument of Part 1: that women printworkers were not merely the producers and distributors of other people's political ideas. As ...
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Chapter 2 turns to the material which forms the basis for the central argument of Part 1: that women printworkers were not merely the producers and distributors of other people's political ideas. As makers and distributors of printed texts in a period of heightened political unrest, women printers, publishers, and hawkers were commonly arrested, imprisoned, and fined for their involvement in making, tracing, and erasing ‘seditious intentions.' Offences against property were a concern for the trade and the government, but this chapter focuses on prosecutions for seditious libel and treason, where women abound as producers, distributors, and press informants. Observing the efforts of female ‘offenders’, not only to participate in affairs of state but also to take charge of their situations once they found themselves in conflict with the law, leads one to suspect that ‘freedom of the press’ was as much a product of administrative exhaustion as of enlightenment.Less
Chapter 2 turns to the material which forms the basis for the central argument of Part 1: that women printworkers were not merely the producers and distributors of other people's political ideas. As makers and distributors of printed texts in a period of heightened political unrest, women printers, publishers, and hawkers were commonly arrested, imprisoned, and fined for their involvement in making, tracing, and erasing ‘seditious intentions.' Offences against property were a concern for the trade and the government, but this chapter focuses on prosecutions for seditious libel and treason, where women abound as producers, distributors, and press informants. Observing the efforts of female ‘offenders’, not only to participate in affairs of state but also to take charge of their situations once they found themselves in conflict with the law, leads one to suspect that ‘freedom of the press’ was as much a product of administrative exhaustion as of enlightenment.
Alison Griffiths
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231161060
- eISBN:
- 9780231541565
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231161060.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
A groundbreaking contribution to the study of nontheatrical film exhibition, Carceral Fantasies tells the little-known story of how cinema found a home in the U.S. penitentiary system and how the ...
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A groundbreaking contribution to the study of nontheatrical film exhibition, Carceral Fantasies tells the little-known story of how cinema found a home in the U.S. penitentiary system and how the prison emerged as a setting and narrative trope in modern cinema. Focusing on films shown in prisons before 1935, Alison Griffiths explores the unique experience of viewing cinema while incarcerated and the complex cultural roots of cinematic renderings of prison life. Griffiths considers a diverse mix of cinematic genres, from early actualities and reenactments of notorious executions to reformist exposés of the 1920s. She connects an early fascination with cinematic images of punishment and execution, especially electrocutions, to the attractions of the nineteenth-century carnival electrical wonder show and Phantasmagoria (a ghost show using magic lantern projections and special effects). Griffiths draws upon convict writing, prison annual reports, and the popular press obsession with prison-house cinema to document the integration of film into existing reformist and educational activities and film’s psychic extension of flights of fancy undertaken by inmates in their cells. Combining penal history with visual and film studies and theories surrounding media’s sensual effects, Carceral Fantasies illuminates how filmic representations of the penal system enacted ideas about modernity, gender, the body, and the public, shaping both the social experience of cinema and the public’s understanding of the modern prison.Less
A groundbreaking contribution to the study of nontheatrical film exhibition, Carceral Fantasies tells the little-known story of how cinema found a home in the U.S. penitentiary system and how the prison emerged as a setting and narrative trope in modern cinema. Focusing on films shown in prisons before 1935, Alison Griffiths explores the unique experience of viewing cinema while incarcerated and the complex cultural roots of cinematic renderings of prison life. Griffiths considers a diverse mix of cinematic genres, from early actualities and reenactments of notorious executions to reformist exposés of the 1920s. She connects an early fascination with cinematic images of punishment and execution, especially electrocutions, to the attractions of the nineteenth-century carnival electrical wonder show and Phantasmagoria (a ghost show using magic lantern projections and special effects). Griffiths draws upon convict writing, prison annual reports, and the popular press obsession with prison-house cinema to document the integration of film into existing reformist and educational activities and film’s psychic extension of flights of fancy undertaken by inmates in their cells. Combining penal history with visual and film studies and theories surrounding media’s sensual effects, Carceral Fantasies illuminates how filmic representations of the penal system enacted ideas about modernity, gender, the body, and the public, shaping both the social experience of cinema and the public’s understanding of the modern prison.
Lisa M. Corrigan
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496809070
- eISBN:
- 9781496809117
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496809070.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Prison Power centers imprisonment in the history of black liberation as a rhetorical, theoretical, physical, and media resource as activists developed movement tactics and ideology to counter white ...
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Prison Power centers imprisonment in the history of black liberation as a rhetorical, theoretical, physical, and media resource as activists developed movement tactics and ideology to counter white supremacy. In highlighting imprisonment as a site for both political and personal transformation, Prison Power underscores how imprisonment shaped movement leaders by influencing their political analysis and organizational strategies. The book suggests that prison became the critical space for the transformation from civil rights to Black Power, especially as southern civil rights activists faced setbacks in achieving equality. In centering the prison as a locus of political inquiry, Black Power activists produced autobiographical writings, essays, and letters about and from prison beginning with the early sit-in movement. Prison Power introduces the critical optic of the “Black Power vernacular” to describe how Black Power activists deployed rhetorical forms in their writings that invented new forms of black identification and encouraged support for black liberation from prison. In using Black Power vernacular forms, imprisoned activists improved their visibility while simultaneously documenting the racist abuses of the judicial system. This new vernacular emerged to force various publics to acknowledge and end the massive brutality perpetrated against black people in prison and in the streets in the name of law and order thereby helping to shore up support for Black Power organizations and initiatives.Less
Prison Power centers imprisonment in the history of black liberation as a rhetorical, theoretical, physical, and media resource as activists developed movement tactics and ideology to counter white supremacy. In highlighting imprisonment as a site for both political and personal transformation, Prison Power underscores how imprisonment shaped movement leaders by influencing their political analysis and organizational strategies. The book suggests that prison became the critical space for the transformation from civil rights to Black Power, especially as southern civil rights activists faced setbacks in achieving equality. In centering the prison as a locus of political inquiry, Black Power activists produced autobiographical writings, essays, and letters about and from prison beginning with the early sit-in movement. Prison Power introduces the critical optic of the “Black Power vernacular” to describe how Black Power activists deployed rhetorical forms in their writings that invented new forms of black identification and encouraged support for black liberation from prison. In using Black Power vernacular forms, imprisoned activists improved their visibility while simultaneously documenting the racist abuses of the judicial system. This new vernacular emerged to force various publics to acknowledge and end the massive brutality perpetrated against black people in prison and in the streets in the name of law and order thereby helping to shore up support for Black Power organizations and initiatives.
Linda O. McMurry
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195139273
- eISBN:
- 9780199848911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195139273.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines Ida B. Wells-Barnett's participation during the emergence of the black convention movement and the growth of national organizations at the turn of the century. It discusses the ...
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This chapter examines Ida B. Wells-Barnett's participation during the emergence of the black convention movement and the growth of national organizations at the turn of the century. It discusses the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and the important role she played in its deliberations. Wells-Barnett received new tasks at the convention—appointment to the editorial staff of the Woman's Era, selection as secretary of a committee to publish the minutes of the 1895 and 1896 conferences in pamphlet form, and designation as representative to the next Prison Congress of the United States.Less
This chapter examines Ida B. Wells-Barnett's participation during the emergence of the black convention movement and the growth of national organizations at the turn of the century. It discusses the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and the important role she played in its deliberations. Wells-Barnett received new tasks at the convention—appointment to the editorial staff of the Woman's Era, selection as secretary of a committee to publish the minutes of the 1895 and 1896 conferences in pamphlet form, and designation as representative to the next Prison Congress of the United States.
Philippa Tomczak
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781529203585
- eISBN:
- 9781529203691
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529203585.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter describes the global importance of analysing post-prison suicide investigations and introduces the case study of England and Wales, which has a substantive prison monitoring and ...
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This chapter describes the global importance of analysing post-prison suicide investigations and introduces the case study of England and Wales, which has a substantive prison monitoring and post-death investigations framework yet recent record numbers of prison suicides. This case study is used to provide the first analysis of these investigations in this book. This chapter details the importance of acknowledging that ‘manipulative’ prisoner behaviour can be lethal and recommends foregrounding potential death rather than querying prisoners’ potentially unknowable intentions. It outlines the underappreciated roles of suicidogenic discourses, institutional apathy and prisoner stigmatisation in suicide prevention, and explains the particular difficulties of suicide prevention work. It outlines that suicide prevention was significantly more effective from 2005-2011, which was predictably overturned by swingeing staff cuts from 2012.Less
This chapter describes the global importance of analysing post-prison suicide investigations and introduces the case study of England and Wales, which has a substantive prison monitoring and post-death investigations framework yet recent record numbers of prison suicides. This case study is used to provide the first analysis of these investigations in this book. This chapter details the importance of acknowledging that ‘manipulative’ prisoner behaviour can be lethal and recommends foregrounding potential death rather than querying prisoners’ potentially unknowable intentions. It outlines the underappreciated roles of suicidogenic discourses, institutional apathy and prisoner stigmatisation in suicide prevention, and explains the particular difficulties of suicide prevention work. It outlines that suicide prevention was significantly more effective from 2005-2011, which was predictably overturned by swingeing staff cuts from 2012.
Kris MacPherson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447353065
- eISBN:
- 9781447353089
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447353065.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Education
Kris McPherson writes of his experience of imprisonment in Scotland, his life in crime and his struggle to leave both behind him. Assembling powerful arguments from his prison life and his studies ...
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Kris McPherson writes of his experience of imprisonment in Scotland, his life in crime and his struggle to leave both behind him. Assembling powerful arguments from his prison life and his studies with The Open University, McPherson provides compelling insights into what criminologists have started to call ‘desistance’. McPherson’s unique synthesis of scholarship and penal experience is an outstanding example of “making good with criminology”. It offers personal tribute and testimony to the influence of Scottish criminologist Fergus McNeill and his colleagues.Less
Kris McPherson writes of his experience of imprisonment in Scotland, his life in crime and his struggle to leave both behind him. Assembling powerful arguments from his prison life and his studies with The Open University, McPherson provides compelling insights into what criminologists have started to call ‘desistance’. McPherson’s unique synthesis of scholarship and penal experience is an outstanding example of “making good with criminology”. It offers personal tribute and testimony to the influence of Scottish criminologist Fergus McNeill and his colleagues.
Charlotte Bedford
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781529203363
- eISBN:
- 9781529203516
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529203363.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter utilizes the Prison Radio Association's (PRA) core statement regarding ‘the power of radio’ as a starting point from which to explore the key ideas around radio as a socially and ...
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This chapter utilizes the Prison Radio Association's (PRA) core statement regarding ‘the power of radio’ as a starting point from which to explore the key ideas around radio as a socially and individually transformative medium in order to inform the understanding of how it came to be used in prison. The chapter outlines the shifting relationship between radio broadcasting and social change and argues that the evolution and establishment of radio within prisons is indicative of new opportunities for media activism, demonstrating the enduring social relevance and impact of radio. The chapter also places the development of National Prison Radio within a wider debate on the history and future of noncommercial broadcasting, based on the balance between governmental regulation and control on the one hand, and the countercultural opportunities it produces on the other.Less
This chapter utilizes the Prison Radio Association's (PRA) core statement regarding ‘the power of radio’ as a starting point from which to explore the key ideas around radio as a socially and individually transformative medium in order to inform the understanding of how it came to be used in prison. The chapter outlines the shifting relationship between radio broadcasting and social change and argues that the evolution and establishment of radio within prisons is indicative of new opportunities for media activism, demonstrating the enduring social relevance and impact of radio. The chapter also places the development of National Prison Radio within a wider debate on the history and future of noncommercial broadcasting, based on the balance between governmental regulation and control on the one hand, and the countercultural opportunities it produces on the other.
