Walking an Emotional Tightrope: Managing Emotions in a Women's Prison

Abstract

Until recently, the emotional experiences of women in prison have been overlooked by symbolic interactionists and social scientists. Similarly, research relevant to the sociology of emotions has not been explored in the social context of a correctional institution for women. The purpose of this study is to investigate emotional experiences from the unique perspective of incarcerated women. This research examines how women in prison perceive and manage their emotional lives while con ned and asks whether their chosen strategies have an impact on their interactions and thus affect the institutional environment. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with thirty-ve women incarcerated in a correctional institution located in the midwestern United States. Using a semistructured interview schedule, respondents were asked about a range of topics, one of which involved their emotional lives while incarcerated. Findings indicate these women de ne their emotional experiences as being simultaneously provocative and constrained. Respondents suggest that their emotional resources are individually, contextually, and culturally grounded. They discuss employing various strategies to manage their emotional lives while incarcerated, including diversions, spiritual pursuits, blocking exercises, self-re ection, and humor. The majority of the techniques employed to control emotions are intrapersonal. Respondents describe personal efforts designed to manage their emotional experiences rather than share their feelings with others.

Diseño, aplicación y evaluación de un programa de educación emocional en un centro penitenciario

“…Greer (2002) también señala la importancia del aspecto emocional en mujeres internas y describe las estrategias de regulación que utilizan en el interior de los centros penitenciarios: distracción conductual, búsqueda espiritual, ejercicios de bloqueo, autorreflexión y humor.…”

Teasing, laughing and disciplinary humor: Staff–youth interaction in detention home treatment

“…Crawley, 2004;Geer, 2002) or as a way of temporarily bracketing traditional social positions (Nielsen, 2011). Our recordings of situated interactions instead show that humor might be one of the staff members' key resources when monitoring residents into (willingly) following norms (Foucault, 1997).…”

“…Holmes and Marra, 2002) and school settings (Tholander and Aronsson, 2002), there are only a few studies of humor and laughter in penal settings. These studies primarily show that humor is used for coping under difficult conditions in prison, both by staff members (Crawley, 2004;Nylander et al, 2011), and residents (Geer, 2002). Nielsen (2011) argues that humor is inextricably linked to prison officers' identity work, and their management of relationships with colleagues and residents.…”

Disciplining Freedom : Treatment Dilemmas and Subjectivity at a Detention Home for Young Men

“…Humor can be both disciplinary in that it maintains social order, and rebellious in that it can be seen to challenge or disrupt social order (2005). While many scholars have illuminated disciplinary aspects of humor in other institutional settings (such as humorous teasing as a form of norm control among students in junior high school: Tholander and Aronsson, 2002), few studies have been conducted on humor in penal settings, and those that exist have primarily focused on humor as a coping mechanism (for example, Crawley, 2004;Geer, 2002;Nylander, Lindberg, & Bruhn, 2001). However, total institutions, such as detention homes, are interesting sites for a study of disciplinary humor since they are designed to work on their subjects' selves (Goffman, 1961;Foucault, 1977), and, furthermore, because in these settings, staff members and residents tend to have strict behavioral guidelines to orient to (cf.…”