“I’ll Say What She Wants to Hear:” Psychologists and Prisoners in the Santa Monica Prison

• In Event: Precariedad y mundos carcelarios en América Latina II (Brasil, Ecuador y Perú)

Abstract

Prisoners in the Santa Monica prison in Lima, Peru related to their psychologists in varying ways which illustrate the relationships of inequality that existed among incarcerated women. All prisoners had to undergo scheduled sessions with psychologists while they served their sentences as the prison emphasized psychological reasons for female criminality. The goal was to change one’s personality for the better during incarceration. But most important about their role was that each prisoner was required to have an exit report from her psychologist before she was allowed to leave. As prisoners put together their release papers, a final positive report from the psychologist was vital. Using an intersectional framework, I argue that the different ways that women responded to the role of the psychologist largely depended on citizenship. Foreign women, especially those from wealthier countries, relied on strategies of manipulation including bribery, while Peruvian women had less power to avoid the demands and punishments laid out by psychologists. Therefore the Santa Monica prison not only mirrored but it also magnified the structural inequalities that existed beyond its walls. This paper is based on ethnographic dissertation fieldwork conducted in 2008-2009 with incarcerated women.

Author

• Stephanie M Campos, CUNY/The Graduate Center