Moving Beyond Tradition: Understanding Prison Life

Centre for Prisons Research

Criminology Professor Ian O'Donnell discusses the potential benefits of moving beyond the traditional ‘society of captives’ literature.

Speaker: <a href="https://people.ucd.ie/ian.odonnell" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Professor Ian O&#x27;Donnell</a>Ian O&#x27;Donnell is professor of criminology at University College Dublin. His recent books include Prisoners, Solitude, and Time (Oxford, 2014) and Justice, Mercy, and Caprice: Clemency and the Death Penalty in Ireland (Oxford, 2017). Abstract: My forthcoming book, Prison Life: Pain, Resistance, and Purpose, offers a fresh appreciation of how people in prison organize their lives, drawing on case studies from Africa, Europe and the US. The book contrasts the soul-destroying isolation of the federal supermax in Florence, Colorado with the crowded conviviality of an Ethiopian prison where men and women cook their own meals, seek opportunities to generate an income, elect a leadership team, and live according to a code of conduct that they devised and enforce. In this seminar I will say a little about the case studies that underpin the book and the potential benefits of moving beyond the traditional ‘society of captives’ literature to a set of understandings that are comparative, sensitive to context, and rooted in individual experiences.

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Moving Beyond Tradition: Understanding Prison Life

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Moving Beyond Tradition: Understanding Prison Life

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