Carceral Pedagogy: Historical Trends of Education, Transformation, and Power within the Carceral State

• In Event: Emerging Research on Inmate Perceptions of the Incarceration Experience

Abstract

This paper will examine the historical trends of education, transformation, and power within the carceral state. According to (Newbold, et al., 2014), autoethnography is an important aspect of describing the convict perspective in connection to prison life that cannot be found in conventional research. Therefore, the author will contribute a critical self-narrative describing his experiences in the carceral state and self-define a conceptual framework entitled Carceral Pedagogy. Historical archival retrieval will be utilized to expand beyond a single story. This study will look at the history of education within the carceral state and build upon literature around prisonization, which discusses how prisoners model the behavior of their peers and absorb the culture of prison from a negative perspective (Clemmer, 1958). A further exploration of transformation and power will look at how incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals either accept, reject, or become indifferent to the status quo of the carceral state. Some of these individuals may become leaders of criminal justice reform and shift the punitive paradigm to a more restorative model. Frank Tannebaum is considered the archetype for this project as he is considered the first formerly incarcerated leader of criminal justice reform from over 100 years ago (Yeager, 2016).

Author

• Aaron T. Kinzel, University of Michigan - Dearborn