Show me the prison! The development of prison tourism in the UK

Abstract

Abstract:This article presents an analysis of the historical development of prison tourism in Britain and the ways in which prisons are currently represented via prison museum websites. While there has been significant examination of various prison museums overseas there has been comparatively little published on these institutions in Britain. In response to contending pressures, prison museums have endeavoured to present a balanced and objective depiction of past prison systems whilst their promotional websites, which serve to draw in customers, frequently rely on 'popular' depictions. These representations raise important questions as prisons cannot be seen as neutral or apolitical, neither those in the early twenty-first century nor those of the past. Despite these pressures, prison museums have great potential to increase public understanding of the prison and this article promotes a more ethical, multi-perspective and politically diverse interpretation within prison museums.

Familiarity and strangeness: Seeing everyday practices of punishment and resistance in Holloway Prison

“…Numerous decommissioned carceral sites are now visitor attractions, reinforcing cultures of punishment (Turner, 2013;Barton and Brown, 2015). As Turner (2016:40) argues, 'The everyday processes of locking people up, and the routine segregation that it entails, have rendered incarceration a banal practice'.…”

“…Transforming sites of pain into sites of voyeurism and entertainment is a phenomenon with a long history (Turner, 2016). Numerous decommissioned carceral sites are now visitor attractions, reinforcing cultures of punishment (Barton and Brown, 2015; Turner, 2016). As Turner (2016: 40) argues, ‘The everyday processes of locking people up, and the routine segregation that it entails, have rendered incarceration a banal practice’.…”

Penal Agnosis and Historical Denial: Problematising ‘Common Sense’ Understandings of Prison Officers and Violence in Prison

“…This is of course a particular manipulation of the 'present' and the omission of certain evidence from the 'past' to manufacture ignorance. Barton and Brown (2015) have also observed how the past and present are manipulated to create penological illiteracy. However, they noted that harms and violence of the present can be ignored in favour of brutalised images of the past as means to show how modern humane and civilised prisons are today.…”

“Sweat a little water, sweat a little blood”: A spectacle of convict labor at an American amusement park

“…Just as the authors experienced when touring defunct prisons, including the Missouri State Penitentiary, Alcatraz, Eastern State Penitentiary, and Kilmainham Gaol, scholars of penal tourism document the ways that tour guides incorporate humor at the expense of prisoners into their narratives, while also making a spectacle of the statesanctioned violence and death used to control and punish prisoners (Chen et al, 2016;Welch, 2013;Wilson, 2008). Punishment, especially the more harsh, gruesome, or brutal practices, is a major theme in advertising for, and often takes center stage in, prison tours (Barton and Brown, 2015;Huey, 2011;Walby and Piche, 2011;Welch, 2013). However, these penal spectacles are presented to guests as mechanisms to gaze at practices of the past, so that they view not only the physical structures of the prisons, but also the punishment that happened inside the walls, as anachronistic.…”

“…However, these penal spectacles are presented to guests as mechanisms to gaze at practices of the past, so that they view not only the physical structures of the prisons, but also the punishment that happened inside the walls, as anachronistic. Additionally, by displaying artifacts of brutality independent of their social and political contexts (Barton and Brown, 2015;Walby and Piche, 2011), prison museums free audiences from contemplating the austerity and severity of punishment both past and present. Prison museums are thus able to graphically discuss their grim histories in such a way that "generally evokes the state-sanctioned narrative of penal progressivism which infers that things were harsh then, but they are acceptable now.…”