Carceral churn: A sensorial ethnography of the bail and remand court

Abstract

This article discusses findings from an ethnographic study of a bail and remand court in Victoria, Australia. Through a focus on the sensory dimensions of forced movements within and through the bail court, the article contributes to the burgeoning sub-field of sensory criminology and develops the concept of ‘carceral churn’. The article argues that the bail court’s churn reproduces criminal and carceral subjects and is implicated in a project of carceral buildup. The churn of the bail court involves forms of mobility and exchange via the inter- and intra-carceral spaces that variously dull, distort, deprive or assault the senses with oppressive effects. This includes both ‘new’ and ‘old’ penal technologies such as holding cells, the custody dock, AV links and court-prison transport. The analysis of sensory violence challenges the notion that court ‘efficiency’ can improve justice experiences and outcomes and instead calls for increased attention to the harms and lethality that flow from carceral churn left un-checked.

‘It’s a Gendered Issue, 100 Per Cent’: How Tough Bail Laws Entrench Gender and Racial Inequality and Social Disadvantage

“…Our research into women's experiences of the bail and remand system in Victoria involved court observations, interviews with lawyers and analysis of statistical data. Detailed methodological notes and findings from our court observations are available elsewhere (Russell, Carlton and Tyson 2020a;Russell et al 2020b). For this article, we explore some of the key findings to emerge from the 13 semi-structured interviews we conducted with criminal defence and duty lawyers during June-August 2019.…”

“…Veronica Nelson Walker died on 2 January 2020 at Victoria's maximum-security women's prison, the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, after being refused bail for shoplifting charges. These preventable and premature deaths highlight the racist silences and abject failures of the government to implement the recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (Whittaker 2020) and the dangers of unchecked carceral expansion through remand (Russell, Carlton and Tyson 2020a).…”

“…While remand numbers are again surging in 2021, the downturn of the previous year nevertheless indicates that high rates of remand are unsafe, unsustainable and unnecessary and that programs of 'decarceration' offer viable and much-needed alternatives (FCLC and LIV 2020). Deepening understanding of the bail laws' effects 'on the ground' (Russell, Carlton and Tyson 2020a) can support advocacy efforts to reduce political reliance on incarceration as a solution to social problems.…”

“…The defence and duty lawyers we interviewed reiterated a point that is well established in the literature (e.g., Bartels, Easteal and Westgate 2020;Segrave and Carlton 2010;Wilson et al 2017): trauma is bound up in many aspects of women's criminalisation. Frequently, women are already traumatised by the time they are arrested and charged, and if they are denied bail, they are then placed at risk of further traumatisation while on remand in the basement cells of the magistrates' court or at the maximumsecurity women's prison (Russell, Carlton and Tyson 2020a). Lawyer 4 stated:…”

“…Imprisonment can serve to extend and exacerbate women's experiences of gendered violence and reinforce a sense of powerlessness (Pollack 2012). This process of disempowerment is evident in bail hearings (Russell, Carlton and Tyson 2020a). First Nations women, who are uniquely and acutely marginalised within a colonial and patriarchal legal system, are especially affected (Baldry and Cunneen 2014;George et al 2020;Klippmark and Crawley 2018).…”