Doing Indefinite Time An Ethnography of Long-Term Imprisonment in Switzerland

This open access book provides insights into the everyday lives of long-term prisoners in Switzerland who are labelled as 'dangerous' and are preventatively held in indefinite, probably lifelong, incarceration. It explores prisoners' manifold ways of inhabiting the prison which can be...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Marti, Irene (auth)
Format: Electronic Book Chapter
Language:English
Published: Cham Springer Nature 2023
Series:Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology
Subjects:
Online Access:OAPEN Library: download the publication
OAPEN Library: description of the publication
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This open access book provides insights into the everyday lives of long-term prisoners in Switzerland who are labelled as 'dangerous' and are preventatively held in indefinite, probably lifelong, incarceration. It explores prisoners' manifold ways of inhabiting the prison which can be used to challenge well established notions about the experience of imprisonment, such as 'adaptation', 'coping', and 'resistance'. Drawing on ethnographic data generated in two high-security prisons housing male offenders, this book explores how the various spaces of the prison affect prisoners' sense of self and experience of time, and how, in particular, the indeterminate nature of their imprisonment affects their perceptions of place and space. It sheds light on prisoners' subjective, emplaced and embodied perceptions of the prisons' various everyday time-spaces in the cell, at work, and during leisure time, and the forms of agency they express. It provides insight into prisoners' everyday habits, practices, routines, and rhythms as well as the profoundly existential issues that are engendered, (re)arranged, and anchored in these everyday contexts. It also offers insights into the penal policies, norms, and practices developed and followed by prison authorities and staff.
Physical Description:1 electronic resource (353 p.)
ISBN:978-3-031-12590-4
9783031125904
Access:Open Access