Gender, Race, and State Control in Prison

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

When men and women become incarcerated, the state suddenly gains substantially greater control over their lives, from family ties to addiction to sense of self. Although explicit, the state intervenes directly in inmates’ lives in ways that are not fully understood in current scholarship. This thematic panel draws upon innovative qualitative research to uncover how prisons regulate and disrupt inmates’ lives through a range of mechanisms, including institutional narratives, private rehabilitation programs, religious programs, and public child support enforcement. Furthermore, we interrogate how the coupling of rehabilitation and responsibilization is shaped by assumptions around race, gender, and sexuality.

Sub Unit

• Area VII. Criminal Justice Policy and Practice / 34. Corrections

Division of Special Interests

• Divisions of Special Interest / Division on Corrections & Sentencing

• Divisions of Special Interest / Division on Women & Crime

Individual Presentations

• How Religion Regulates Women’s Sexuality in a U.S. State Women’s Prison - Rachel Ellis, University of Missouri-St. Louis

• The Second Coming: Gender, Profit, and Carceral Drug Rehab - Jill McCorkel, Villanova University

• Familial Death and the Penal State: Disadvantaged Fatherhood in an Era of Mass Imprisonment - Lynne Haney, New York University

• The Stock Narratives of Persistent Offenders: Intersectional Variations and Their Implications for Imagined Future Lives - Candace Kruttschnitt, University of Toronto; Timothy Kang, University of Toronto

Chair

• Rachel Ellis, University of Missouri-St. Louis