“Prison is not a good place … ”: Learning from dilemmas surrounding an inmate's experience

Abstract

abstractExploring the complex lives of incarcerated African women is a powerful site for deepening our knowledge and responsibility as a transforming country. Empirical research by South African researchers on circumstances that lead African women to imprisonment, and the conditions they experience in prison, is sadly lacking. We take a narrative inquiry stance to explore what can be learned about life in a South African prison from an ex-inmate, Bakke. Drawing on the conceptual frame of dilemmatic spaces and Foucault's theory of ethics, we analyse two vignettes: Bakke's pathway to prison, and her decision to turn her life around during incarceration. The analysis opens our eyes to a deeper understanding of the dynamic, complex everyday lives of young African women growing up in rural settings, and who turn to crime.