This book focuses on the emotional experience of imprisonment. In no uncertain terms: prisons seethe with emotions and feelings. Based on two empirically rigorous studies, this book analyses how prisoners attempt to adapt and control their emotions. It begins with an account of male and female prisoners held in medium-security prisons and then moves to the particular case of emotions in solitary confinement. There has been a turn towards emotions in criminology but this is the first book to centralize the subject of prisoner emotions in a detailed manner. The ethnographic study of feelings has much to contribute to broader debates about survival in prison and pathways to desistence. Most importantly, it emphasizes that ‘full-blooded’ depictions of prisoners belong at the heart of academic inquiry.
Author(s): Ben Laws
Series: Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 276
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
List of Figures
Part I: Emotions and Imprisonment
1: Introduction
References
2: Emotions Before Prison
Troubled Lives
A Cycle of Trauma
Crossing the Bridge: Emotions Before and During Prison
Implications
References
3: Emotions and ‘the Self’ in Prison
Emotion Regulation and Imprisonment
‘Bottling-up’
‘Pressurised Explosions’ and Losing Control
‘Diluting’ Emotions
‘Alchemy’ and Emotion Transformation
‘Distilling’ and Emotional Processing
Letting It Flow: Expressing Emotions
Controlling Emotions: Flexibility and Rigidity
Emotional Rigidity
Emotional Flexibility
Conclusion
References
4: Relational Emotions in Prison
The Social Exchange of Emotions
Sharing with Officers and Staff
Intimate Relationships and Family
Sharing Emotions with Prisoners
Emotions as Social ‘Glue’
Emotions and the Social Arena
Going with the Flow: Care, Affection and Humour
Destructive Forces and Contagious Emotions
Gender and Emotion
Emotions: Power, Order and Control
Conclusion
References
5: Space and Emotions
Living Spaces
Claustrophobic Cell Spaces
The Cell as Sanctuary
Wings and House Blocks
Hostile Spaces: Boiling Over
Free Spaces
Visits Halls
Therapeutic Spaces
Privacy and Selection of Space
Spatial Selection and Emotion
Conclusion
References
Part II: Solitude and Segregation
Introduction to Part II
References
6: Motivation for Segregation
A Contentious Debate About Effects
Motivation Reconsidered
The Broader Patchwork of Imprisonment
Complex Motives
Avoiding the Toxic Social World
Developing Insight and Discipline
Frustration and Movement
Barometers and Prisons without Segregation Units
References
7: The Body and Solitary Confinement
Damaged Bodies
Maintaining the Body
The Spiritual Body
Understanding Bodies in Conflict
References
8: Conclusions
Main Findings
Destructive Life Experiences and Cycles of Imprisonment
The Damage of ‘Passive’ Regulation
‘Active’ Regulation
The Fluid-Container Metaphor
Emotions as Social ‘Glue’
Contagious Emotions
‘Liminal’ Journeys
Stagnant and Volatile Zones
‘Communitas’ and Free Spaces
Forging a Space
Gender Differences and Emotion
Main Contributions
Limitations and Future Directions
References
Appendix A: Prisoner Artwork
Appendix B: Plutchik’s Emotion Wheel
References
Index
