Ethnographies of the Carceral State I

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

These panels bring together ethnographers who are critically examining the carceral state in diverse settings, not only the prison itself, but the sprawling regulatory network formed by drug treatment, parole supervision, welfare provision and reentry programming. The researchers draw on the personal stories and lived experience of people navigating these spaces to interrogate the gendered and racialized logics of contemporary carceral governance. They also turn the spotlight on the practice of ethnography, discussing methodological dilemmas of research with stigmatized and heavily-policed groups located on the social margins. The panels are intended to promote discussion about the role of ethnography in criminology and the contribution of this research to developing critical accounts of mass incarceration.

Sub Unit

• Area VI. The Criminal Justice System / 50. Mass Incarceration

Individual Presentations

• Borrowing other people’s ‘facts’: Ethnography and making sense of penal logics, practices, and regimes - Robert Werth, Rice University

• Prisoner Reentry and the Welfare State - John Halushka, San José State University

• Confronting Injustice and Inequality in Reentry: Assessing the Impact of Legal Reforms on the Community Reentry of Individuals Registered as Sex Offenders in California - Edith Kinney, San José State University

• A Changing Landscape: Segregation practices in Canada? - Kelly Hannah-Moffat, University of Toronto

Chair

• Michael Lawrence Walker, University of Minnesota