Who is in charge? Researching ideas of responsibility within the penal system

• In Event: Solitary confinement, isolation, victimization and riots in prison

Abstract

The authors of this paper aim to enter a dialogue about ideas of responsibility in the everyday life of penal institutions by drawing from two anthropological research projects – one on the everyday practices of prison directors, the other focusing on general questions of care and constraint in the everyday of penal institutions. On a theoretical level, responsibility could be considered from various angles: (1) The individual responsibility of the inmate, both as the author of their crime and as the agent of their release, (2) the structural responsibility of the institution vis-à-vis inmates and staff,  or (3) the societal responsibility of the prison system. Within the highly hierarchical structure of penal institutions, different kinds of responsibilities are not only being taken for granted but also negotiated, distributed, and navigated – albeit with specific affordances – by prison directors, staff, and inmates. Asking how responsibility is evoked in different ways in the everyday life of the penal system, this paper considers responsibility not as a normative goal to be achieved (as in “responsible” vs. “irresponsible”) but as an arena that produces specific ethical subject positions. Responsibility produces both an individualized subject (“Whom is to blame?”) and a dialogical relationship (“Who to answer to?”/ “Whom to care for?”). As such, responsibility offers valuable insights into the production of individual agency and structural constraints. This contribution aims to bring an anthropological perspective into the criminological prison discourse and, in doing so, to initiate the investigation within an interdisciplinary framework: What does (individual, collective, institutional) responsibility mean to people within the prison system?

Authors

• Jago Wyssling, Universität Bern

• Louise Emily Frey, Universität Bern