The Pains of Imprisonment and Contemporary Prisoner Culture in Canada

Laura Mckendy,Rosemary Ricciardelli

doi:10.1177/00328855211048166

Abstract

Drawing on interviews conducted with former federal and provincial prisoners in Ontario, Canada, we consider how the unique social conditions in these two institutional contexts shape interpersonal dynamics and the prisoner experience. Despite notable differences in federal versus provincial prisoner culture, we suggest that prisoners in both contexts lived in environments marked by uncertainties and risk; in response, they tended to adapt to a highly individualistic orientation toward doing time. Based on our analysis, we complicate the conceptualization of prisoner culture as primarily serving an adaptive function, suggesting the prison social climate may actually drive the most salient pains of imprisonment.

Highlights

Well over half a century ago, prison scholars drew attention to the influence of a “prison society” in fundamentally shaping prisoners’ experiences of incarceration (Clemmer, 1940; Goffman, 1961b; Sykes & Messinger, 1960)
As Sykes (1958) observed, the prison society continue to play a key role in softening the impact of prison deprivations? to what extent does immersion in prison culture continue to undermine the official aims of intervention, as Clemmer (1940) and Goffman (1961a) observed, by entrenching the “inmate” identity? Drawing on our research conducted with provincial and federal former prisoners in Canada, we explore the contemporary and locally-specific nuances of prison culture to discern the implications for prison experiences
We suggest social uncertainties may look different for provincial versus federal prisoners, largely due to differences in population dynamics, conditions of confinement, and legal and case circumstances

Summary

Introduction

Well over half a century ago, prison scholars drew attention to the influence of a “prison society” in fundamentally shaping prisoners’ experiences of incarceration (Clemmer, 1940; Goffman, 1961b; Sykes & Messinger, 1960). Given that carceral realities are shaped both by the events and workings in greater society (Crewe, 2009; Irwin & Cressey, 1977), as well as the conditions of prison life (Clemmer, 1940; Sykes, 1958), prison research is needed, as Crewe (2015) argues, to shed light on such ‘blind spots’ of penal theory and to provide insights on the lived realities of incarceration within a particular time and place. Canadian federal prisons, which hold prisoners serving sentences of two years or more & nbsp; (Correctional Service Canada, 2016), witnessed changes in prisoner demographics Such changes include more racialized prisoners (Gottschall, 2012), Indigenous and women prisoners (Sapers, 2015), older prisoners (Beaudette & Stewart, 2014; Greiner & Allenby, 2010), and prisoners serving life and indeterminate sentences (Ruddell et al, 2010). New federal policies regarding the use of segregation, placement of transgender prisoners, and prison needle exchange have been and continue to be introduced

Methods

Results

Conclusion