The prison is a recent invention, hardly more than two centuries old,
yet it has become the universal system of punishment. How can we
understand the place that the correctional system occupies in
contemporary societies? What are the experiences of those who are
incarcerated as well as those who work there?
To answer these questions, Didier Fassin conducted a four-year-long
study in a French short-stay prison, following inmates from their trial
to their release. He shows how the widespread use of imprisonment has
reinforced social and racial inequalities and how advances in civil
rights clash with the rationales and practices used to maintain security
and order. He also analyzes the concerns and compromises of the
correctional staff, the hardships and resistance of the inmates, and the
ways in which life on the inside intersects with life on the outside. In
the end, the carceral condition appears to be irreducible to other forms
of penalty both because of the chain of privations it entails and
because of the experience of meaninglessness it comprises. Examined
through ethnographic lenses, prison worlds are thus both a reflection of
society and its mirror.
At a time when many countries have begun to realize the impasse of mass
incarceration and question the consequences of the punitive turn, this
book will provide empirical and theoretical tools to reflect on the
meaning of punishment in contemporary societies.
