Abstract
Leisure is commonly understood as contributing to well-being; this is especially appealing when considering multiply marginalized populations such as incarcerated women. However, leisure is not impervious to cooptation by less benevolent social processes. In this conceptual analysis, I argue that incarcerated women's leisure must be rethought as a component of its environment and by extension, as subjected to coercive and normative prison missions. After broadly delineating incarcerated women's leisure, I determine that some characteristics of leisure can be compatible with these prison missions. I then examine individual, organizational, and social benefits and issues with leisure in women's prisons. I link these practices to reduced coerciveness and increased normativity. I conclude by suggesting that ensuring incarcerated people's well-being through leisure is not in itself an end, but a means to achieve prison's coercive and normative ends. I discuss implications for scholars, practitioners, and advocates.
Highlights
Criminalized women tend to be multiply marginalized—poor, racialized, single parents, survivors of physical, and sexual violence, struggling with mental or physical health problems and addictions (Balfour and Comack, 2014)
How does leisure fit within prison’s missions? What does this entail for incarcerated women? After broadly delineating leisure in women’s prisons, I examine whether leisure could fit by tying some of its characteristics to Canadian prisons’ coercive and normative missions (Vacheret and Lemire, 2007)
Beyond problems in access to leisure based on gender and race, introduced above, it follows that leisure in prison may rely on gendered and racialized practices to achieve or attenuate normative and coercive missions
Summary
Criminalized women tend to be multiply marginalized—poor, racialized, single parents, survivors of physical, and sexual violence, struggling with mental or physical health problems and addictions (Balfour and Comack, 2014). I argue that incarcerated women’s leisure must be rethought as a component of its environment and by extension, as subjected to coercive and normative prison missions. After broadly delineating incarcerated women’s leisure, I determine that some characteristics of leisure can be compatible with these prison missions.
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