The power of images: Exploring the pains of imprisonment and incarcerated individuals’ agency using prison cartoons

• In Event: Advocacy, Activism, and Performance

Abstract

To date, criminologists and penologists have established a robust body of literature on carceral experiences using numeric and narrative data. In this presentation, we explore the experiences of incarcerated individuals by pivoting from traditional data to a unique and underutilized source: cartoons. Using a series of cartoons published in The Pea Pickers Picayune, an American prison newspaper published in the 1960s and 1970s, we explore how incarcerated men used satirical humor to convey the harms of imprisonment, including the physical impacts of incarceration, loss of freedom, and lack of privacy. We also explore how artists expressed their agency in the face of penal oppression, as cartoons comedically presented prison officials as fallible and inept. Drawing on scholarship in visual criminology, we argue that prison cartoons represent a source of rich data that can deepen our understandings of confinement by clearly conveying ineffable experiences and capturing the imaginations of system-impacted individuals.

Authors

• Arden Richards-Karamarkovich, George Mason University

• Janani Umamaheswar, George Mason University

• Robert J. Norris, George Mason University