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An insightful ethnographic study on imprisoned 15-17-year-olds in England, this volume examines how young people experience long-term imprisonment, manage their time and imagine and shape their futures.
List of contents
1 ‘Be easy, see wagwan’: Introduction
The shape of the field
Crime, risk and harm
Chapter outline
2 ‘My story’s boring’: Why young prisoners’ stories matter
The political economy of crime
Understanding prisons or understanding prisoners?
The fact of blackness and double consciousness
Shame and (symbolic) violence
Towards a phenomenology of long-term imprisonment.
Conclusion
3 ‘Real talk’: Methodology and reflections on fieldwork
Getting in
Research as ‘passing’
Becoming participant
Paper files and straw men
Ethics and safety
4 ‘Just gotta ride it’: Adaptation, survival and change
Life before Cypress
From the first day to everyday
The carceral habitus.
Conclusion
5 ‘That’s just their pen and ink’: Resisting the pains of imprisonment
Atmosphere, accessories and alienation
'It's just not a nice place to be'
Deprivation of corporeal experience
Identity
Conclusion
6 ‘Obviously, you can’t just back down...’ Violence and identity
‘Gangs’, groups and good old fashioned fighting
Place, space and keeping face
Violence and collective identity
Collectivism vs individualism
Conclusion
7 ‘Clothes, food and love...’: family, fatherhood and the limits of fratriarchy
Something in the way
‘It is what it is’: maintaining family ties
Fatehrs and fatherhood
Things fall apart
Allies, associates and alliances
Conclusion
8 ‘Jail’s not gonna do nothin’...at all’: Conclusion
Biography, habitus and trauma
The experience and resistance of imposed class, racial and legal status and prisonisation
Beyond the (purely) sociological imagination
Impelling the phenomenology of youth imprisonment
About the author
Rachel Rose Tynan was awarded her PhD in Sociology from Goldsmiths in 2018 and manages prison/university partnerships and other criminal and social justice projects.
Summary
An insightful ethnographic study on imprisoned 15-17-year-olds in England, this volume examines how young people experience long-term imprisonment, manage their time and imagine and shape their futures.
