Behind Steel Doors: Images From the Walls of a County Jail

Abstract

The compulsion and capacity for self-expression in penal institutions can be witnessed through the endless production of such creations as wall murals, graffiti, effigies, adornments, decorative envelopes, and tattoos. The intent of this paper is to examine the self-directed expressive endeavors of male residents at a county jail. The examples illustrate how the inmates, despite their impoverished and restrictive environment, were able to employ the image-making process as a means of enduring and adjusting to life circumstances within the jail environment. Several themes emerged; however, due to the limited scope of this paper, discussion is restricted to the themes of time, escape, anger, and redemption.

Writing on the wall: The form, function and meaning of tagging

“…One study mapped the housing and street conditions of 55 blocks from a state in the United States all known cases of gonorrhoea between 1994-1996, revealing a relationship between graffiti and the sexually transmitted diseases that was more accurately predicted by the "broken window syndrome" than poverty alone (Cohen et al, 2000). This finding corroborates earlier literature that identified such acts as a response to deprivation (Hanes, 2005;O'Dowd, 1987) and as a barrier to health (Bowling et al, 2006;Ellaway et al, 2005). The broken window syndrome acknowledges the fundamentally dynamic relationship between people and their environments and the consequent impact on well-being (Cohen et al, 2000;Kielhofner, 2002).…”

“…It is a way of people "adapting to their environment to make it work better" for them, in an aesthetic or cultural sense (Greason & Wilson, 1990, p. 1). Exploration of the self-directed artwork (including graffiti/tagging) of inmates in an American county jail revealed it to be an effort to empower and overcome the social, physical and cultural oppression that imprisonment created (Hanes, 2005). These conclusions are strengthened by international literature reporting similar ideas (Fuhrer, 2004;Lazi & Grognard, 1994;Whiteford, 1997).…”

“…Examples of oppression may be governmental or cultural censorship (Gross et al, 1997;Lapyai, 2003), the impact of colonisation on native peoples (Docker & Fisher, 2000;Frawley, 2002), civil unrest (Grove Art Online), and physical deprivation (Hanes, 2005). The functions of tagging as a response to oppression are discussed below.…”

“…It is classed as vandalism (Frawley, 2002), and the meaning is often ignored or people are too afraid to look (Murray & Murray, 2002). Some who have looked and sought to illuminate its purpose identified it is working class communities or restrictive environments that are most commonly targeted (Hanes, 2005;Lazi & Grognard, 1994).…”

“…Tagging empowers and acts as the voice of youthful dissent and anonymous resistance to authoritarian power (Hanes, 2005;Lapyai, 2003). Despite general public opinion that it is just an illegal and offensive act that is "ultimately destructive in nature", (Gross et al, 1997, p. 277), tagging allows the writer to explore what is forbidden or oppressed within their environment with the protection of anonymity (Lazi & Grognard, 1994).…”