#prisionstrike2018: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Twitter Productions of Incarcerated Communities

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Policing Discipline and Disciplining Policies: Research Imperatives in the Carceral State

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which incarcerated individuals are discursively produced on Twitter. In April of 2018, incarcerated workers organizations, worked alongside incarcerated individuals across 17 facilities in the US and parts of Canada to produce a comprehensive list of demands outlining the purpose for the strike taking place from August 21st-September 9th, 2018 (Prison Strike, 2018). Our findings highlight how responding tweets speak to broader cultural norms around bodies/minds, and specifically how public produces the ‘less-than-human criminal’ in ways that are steeped in morally-imbued claims of ‘rightness'. We argue that such constructions perpetuate taken-for-granted, racialized understandings of criminality that ultimately sustain and normalize the school to prison pipeline.

Authors

• Casey Marie Pennington, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Jessica Nina Lester, Indiana University