Recontextualizing stigma experienced by families of prisoners as a site of neoliberal power relations

• In Event: When Families Pay: Carceral Harms, Financial Debt, and Neoliberal Power

Abstract

Research has extensive documented the degree to which many families of men and women in prison experience stigma. This includes both physical and verbal abuse but also more subtle manifestations of thereof, such as shunning. Moreover, many families report fearing stigma even in instances when they do not report overt stigmatization. Gresham Sykes, in his seminal work on stigma, however, noted that stigma is rooted in socio-political power. This paper asks why these families are stigmatized - who benefits from this stigmatization? It posits that in punitive neoliberalist societies, it is to the benefit of the state that that stigmatization occurs, as it justifies the others of this group of people, not providing them with necessary support and maintaining an austere prison system. It also serves to individualize and responsibilise families connected to people who offend and their imprisoned loved ones. This paper does not claim this is the only reason why families of people in prison expertise stigma, but argues that this is an important and thus under-discussed factor.

Author

• Anna Kotova, University of Birmingham