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“Can you make it out alive?” Investigating Penal Imaginaries at Forts, Sanitaria, Asylums, and Segregated Schools

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Mussell, Linda, Walby, Kevin, Piché, Justin·2021·Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology
DOI 10.21428/88de04a1.d3d18f84
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Abstract

We draw from literature on penal imaginaries to examine representations at fright nights and other staged cultural scenes from across Canada and the United States that reproduce justifications for imprisonment and punishment. Based on an analysis of online content and news coverage of fright nights organized at forts, sanitoria, psychiatric institutions/asylums, and segregated schools, we demonstrate that these displays mobilize stereotypes and shame to denigrate prisoners and naturalize imprisonment. Moreover, we show that these displays invoke health tropes concerning contagion to intensify fears regarding prisoners by portraying them as a threat to the social body, further rationalizing the existence of human caging as a means of addressing social unease and anxieties. Relying on ideas of risk and contamination, this penal imaginary reproduces punitive ideas that normalize the deprivation of liberty including in (COVID-19) pandemic times. We conclude by discussing the significance of our findings for the study of penal imaginaries and penal spectatorship.

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  • Forts-early sites of military establishment, resource extraction, and settlement-were places of initial confinement and policing.

    “Fortsearly sites of military establishment, resource extraction, and settlement-were places of initial confinement and policing (Mussell et al., 2021).”

    From Decolonizing Research on the Carceral in Canadian Political Science (2023) · cites this paper as Mussell et al., 2021

    The Forts section says forts were built for military and trading, and the discussion of Lower Fort Garry describes a former penitentiary where prisoners were jailed. The paper also links the fort to settlement and discusses historical police violence, but it does not establish that forts generally were sites of initial policing or resource extraction. The source therefore supports the military, trading, settlement, and confinement elements, but not the full characterization. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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Research works printed but not linked: 54

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  52. Kevin Walby, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Winnipeg. He is co-author with R. Lippert of Municipal Corporate Security in International Context (2015, Routledge) and A Criminology of Policing and Security Frontiers (2019, Bristol). He is co-editor of Brokering Access: Power, Politics, and Freedom of Information Process in Canada with M. Larsen (2012, UBC Press). He
  53. has co-edited with R. Lippert Policing Cities: Urban Securitization and Regulation in the 21st Century (2013, Routledge) and Corporate Security in the 21st Century: Theory and Practice in International Perspective (2014, Palgrave). He is co-editor of Access to Information and Social Justice with J. Brownlee (2015, ARP Books) and The Handbook of Prison Tourism with J. Wilson, S. Hodgkinson, and J. Piché (2017, Palgrave-Macmillan). He is co-editor of Corporatizing Canada: Making Business Out of Public Service with J. Brownlee and C. Hurl (2018, Between the Lines Press). He is also co-editor of the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons.
  54. Justin Piché, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology and Director of the Carceral Studies Research Collective at the University of Ottawa. He is also Co-editor of the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons and Co-founder of the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project. He was awarded the Aurora Prize in 2012 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as the 2016 Young Researcher of the Year Award and 2020 Activities in the Media or Community Award from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa. Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology • 2021 | Volume 10, Issue 3 "Can you make it out alive?" Investigating Penal Imaginaries at Forts, Sanitaria, Asylums, and Schools

Cited by

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Authors
Mussell, L., Walby, K., & Piché, J.
Affiliations
  • Queen's University (CA)
  • The University of Winnipeg (CA)
  • University of Ottawa (CA)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology
Publisher
PubPub
Published
2021-04-20
DOI
10.21428/88de04a1.d3d18f84
OpenAlex
W3164181004
Cited by
3
References
3
Citations by year
2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 1
FWCI
4.34
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime, Deviance, and Social Control
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
Keywords
forts, psychiatric hospitals, segregated schools, incarceration, punishment, contagion, stereotypes, shame, risk, COVID-19 pandemic

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