Touring Operational Carceral Facilities as a Pedagogical Tool: An Ethical Inquiry

• In Event: Wanted (For Display), Dead or Alive: Interrogating the Ethics of Touring Prisons, Penal Museums and Captured Bodies

Abstract

This paper explores the ethics of touring operational carceral facilities, focusing on educational tours designed for students. Educators regularly utilize these tours as a pedagogical tool, often with the intention of allowing students to ‘see’ and ‘experience’ a penal setting. According to this logic, students develop a better understanding of the ‘reality’ of prison and learn to ‘humanize’ those who are imprisoned there. However, others argue that carceral tours amount to a dehumanizing spectacle, as incarcerated people are involuntarily put on display to be viewed (from a distance) for the ‘benefit’ of others, much like animals in a zoo. In this process, the tours assault human dignity, increase social control in the prison, and legitimize the prison as a form of state punishment. The paper provides an overview of the core ethical dilemmas and debates surrounding the issue and asks if, how, and under what conditions educational tours can be ethically justified, ultimately arguing that participating in carceral tours, as they are currently designed, causes harm and constitutes unethical practice.

Author

• Tammi Arford, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth