Foreign National Women in the Spanish Prison System: Responsibilization, deportation and social exclusion

• In Event: The (Stalled) Gender Revolution in Incarceration Contexts

Abstract

In spite of the significant presence of foreign nationals in the Spanish penitentiary system, prison studies have paid little attention to the analysis of trajectories and particularities of foreign offenders and, particularly, of women. In parallel, over the last decades, the Spanish prison system has undergone some mutations due to the implementation of new programmes, such as the so-called “Respect Modules”, that, according to some scholars have introduced some practices of governmentality in the Spanish penitentiary system. Through a qualitative study carried out between November 2013 and September 2014, this paper analyzes the trajectories of foreign national women prisoners through the lens of the impact of gender, nationality and citizenship in the daily life in prison. The analysis has shown how recent shifts in the penitentiary field jointly with the enforcement of some migration practices have activated neoliberal and sovereign forms of governance and, ultimately, how these processes have shaped the carceral experiences of foreign national women prisoners. Additionally, the narratives of foreign national women have helped to understand how the ideal of social rehabilitation as a mechanism to get second chances for those committing crimes does not seem to exist anymore for foreign nationals.

Author

• Ana Ballesteros-Pena, University of Toronto (Canada) / University of A Coruña (Spain)