Embodying prison pain: Women’s experiences of self-injury in prison and the emotions of punishment

Abstract

This paper explores the meanings and motivations of self-injury practices as disclosed in interviews with a small group of female former prisoners in England. In considering their testimonies through a feminist perspective, I seek to illuminate aspects of their experiences of imprisonment that go beyond the ‘pains of imprisonment’ literature. Specifically, I examine their accounts of self-injury with a focus on the embodied aspects of their experiences. In so doing, I highlight the materiality of the emotional harms of their prison experiences. I suggest that the pains of imprisonment are still very much inscribed on and expressed through the prisoner’s body. This paper advances a more theoretically situated, interdisciplinary critique of punishment drawn from medical-sociological, phenomenological and feminist scholarship.

Pregnancy and childbirth in English prisons: institutional ignominy and the pains of imprisonment

“…handcuffs). In prison, women's psychological pain is often demonstrated through self‐harm behaviours (Chamberlen , Walker et al . ).…”

“…handcuffs). In prison, women's psychological pain is often demonstrated through self-harm behaviours (Chamberlen 2015, Walker et al 2016). Institutional spaces were described by Goffman (1961) as segregation and emotion zones eliciting a wide array of emotions.…”

Casualties of debate: A critique of the sociology of emotion

“…Sociologists need not adopt psychoanalysis and/or haphazardly use "affect" as opposed to emotion (which, as it happens, is the term people tend to use in their daily lives to describe the topic.). Phenomenology, for example, has COBB 7 of 13 served as a productive platform to include the lived and embodied experiences of integrated beings (Denzin, 1990(Denzin, , 2007Katz, 1999), a trait recognized by feminists concerned with power and inequalities who are similarly interested in such a task (Berry, 2007;Chamberlen, 2016. Sociologists can and do merge theoretical traditions and perspectives that theorize emotion, among many other topics, "as embodied, socially constructed, political, and localized" (Zembylas, 2015, p. 186; see also Chandler, 2014Chandler, , 2016Crawley, Foley, & Constance, 2008;Ellis & Rawicki, 2017).…”

The Thrill of the Chase: Punishment, Hostility and the Prison Crisis

“…The 'pains' and effects of imprisonment have been consistently reported by researchers as serious and long-lasting (Sykes, 1958;Christie, 1981;Crewe, 2016;Liebling and Crewe, 2012;Chamberlen, 2016), especially when coupled with the lack of proper resettlement opportunities, training and rehabilitation, along with the harmful impact of prison stigma. Imprisonment has been shown to hinder rather than create opportunities for 'correction', 'repair' and 'inclusion' (Garland, 1990).…”

“…The prison undoubtedly provides a channel for such hostile sentiments, since the practice of incarceration is still inextricably linked to pain and violence (Sykes, 1958;Christie, 1981;Liebling and Maruna, 2005;Liebling, 2011;Chamberlen, 2016).…”