1st Edition

Young Men’s Experiences of Long-Term Imprisonment Living Life

By Rachel Tynan Copyright 2019
    186 Pages
    by Routledge

    186 Pages
    by Routledge

    Long sentenced young people are a small but significant part of the juvenile prison population. The current approach to young people convicted of serious crime speaks to wider issues in criminal and social justice, including the idealisation of (some) childhoods, processes of racialisation and identity and the sociology of the body. Analysing the relationships between biography, trauma and habitus reveals the ways in which class, racial and legal status are experienced and resisted.



    Young Men's Experiences of Long-Term Imprisonment: Living Life considers the need for the reinvigoration of prison ethnography and calls for a phenomenological approach to understanding youth crime and punishment. An insightful ethnographic study on imprisoned 15- to 17-year-olds in England, this volume examines how young people experience long-term imprisonment, manage their time and imagine and shape their futures. Drawing on observations, interviews and correspondence, Tynan situates long-term imprisonment of young men within the wider social context of criminal and social justice; and analyses constructs and practices that locate responsibility for crime with individuals and communities.



    Young Men's Experiences of Long-Term Imprisonment: Living Life will be of interest to students and researchers interested in the sociology of prisons, punishment and youth justice and qualitative research methodology.

    1 ‘Be easy, see wagwan’: Introduction



    The shape of the field



    Crime, risk and harm



    Chapter outline





    2 ‘My story’s boring’: Why young prisoners’ stories matter



    The political economy of crime



    Understanding prisons or understanding prisoners?



    The fact of blackness and double consciousness



    Shame and (symbolic) violence



    Towards a phenomenology of long-term imprisonment.



    Conclusion





    3 ‘Real talk’: Methodology and reflections on fieldwork



    Getting in



    Research as ‘passing’



    Becoming participant 



    Paper files and straw men



    Ethics and safety





    4 ‘Just gotta ride it’: Adaptation, survival and change



    Life before Cypress



    From the first day to everyday



    The carceral habitus.



    Conclusion





    5 ‘That’s just their pen and ink’: Resisting the pains of imprisonment



    Atmosphere, accessories and alienation



    'It's just not a nice place to be'



    Deprivation of corporeal experience



    Identity



    Conclusion





    6 ‘Obviously, you can’t just back down...’ Violence and identity



    ‘Gangs’, groups and good old fashioned fighting



    Place, space and keeping face



    Violence and collective identity



    Collectivism vs individualism



    Conclusion





    7 ‘Clothes, food and love...’: family, fatherhood and the limits of fratriarchy



    Something in the way



    ‘It is what it is’: maintaining family ties



    Fatehrs and fatherhood



    Things fall apart



    Allies, associates and alliances



    Conclusion





    8 ‘Jail’s not gonna do nothin’...at all’: Conclusion



    Biography, habitus and trauma



    The experience and resistance of imposed class, racial and legal status and prisonisation



    Beyond the (purely) sociological imagination



    Impelling the phenomenology of youth imprisonment

    Biography

    Rachel Rose Tynan was awarded her PhD in Sociology from Goldsmiths in 2018 and manages prison/university partnerships and other criminal and social justice projects.