Building Capital: Media Access and Control in Prison

Abstract

Incarceration means more than physical isolation; it disconnects prisoners from society, culture, and community. In U.S. prisons, access to media is shaped both by institutional structures and informal social processes. Although state and federal regulations set regulations, wardens have broad discretionary power and often use media access as a tool for reward or punishment. Media use and access in prisons becomes a form of currency that affects status, relationships, and perceived legitimacy within prison life. Through in-depth interviews with 26 individuals formerly incarcerated in Georgia, we examine how access to media resources defines and distributes power in closed and surveilled environments. With Bourdieu's field theory as a conceptual framework, we investigate how media becomes economic, political, cultural, social, and symbolic capital. We foreground the voices of those with lived experience and find that media is a mechanism for preserving identity, navigating social hierarchies, and maintaining ties to life beyond prison.

Keywords

prison media incarceration field theory media access

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bentham

(1778). Panopticon or the inspection house. Thomas Byrne.

Bourdieu

(1983). The field of cultural production, or: The economic world reversed. Poetics, 12(4–5), 311–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-422x(83)90012-8

Bourdieu

(1986). The forms of capital. In Richardson

J. G.

(Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). Greenwood Press.

Bourdieu

(1990). The Logic of Practice. Stanford University Press.

Bourdieu

(2008). Outline of a theory of practice. In The new social theory reader (2nd ed., pp. 80–86). Routledge.

Braun

Clarke

(2024). Thematic analysis. In Denzin

N. K.

Lincoln

Y. S.

Giardina

M. D.

Cannella

G. S.

(Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (Sixth edition, pp. 385–402). Sage.

Brignall

(2002). The new panopticon: The Internet viewed as a structure of social control. Theory & Science, 3(1), 1527–1558. https://theoryandscience.icaap.org/content/vol003.001/brignall.html

Carey

J. W.

(2002). Political ritual on television: Episodes in the history of shame, degradation and excommunication. In Media, ritual and identity (pp. 42–70). Routledge.

Carey

J. W.

Adam

G. S.

(2008). Communication as culture, revised edition: Essays on media and society. Routledge.

10.

Clegg

Ninan

(2023). Foucault’s governmentality and the issue of project collaboration. In Winch

Brunet

Cao

(Eds.), Research handbook on complex project organizing (pp. 99–106). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800880283.00020

11.

Comfort

(2008). Doing Time Together: Love and Family in the Shadow of the Prison. University of Chicago Press.

12.

Contreras Pulido

Martín Pena

Aguaded Gómez

J. I.

(2015). Derribando el autoestigma: Medios de comunicación en prisiones como aliados de la inclusión social. Cuadernos.Info, 36, 15–26. https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.36.708

13.

Cowton

C. J.

Dopson

(2002). Foucault’s prison? Management control in an automotive distributor. Management Accounting Research, 13(2), 191–213. https://doi.org/10.1006/mare.2001.0173

14.

Crewe

(2011). Depth, weight, tightness: Revisiting the pains of imprisonment. Punishment & Society, 13(5), 509–529. https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474511422172

15.

Crewe

(2012). The Prisoner Society: Power, Adaptation and Social Life in an English Prison. OUP Oxford.

16.

Curry

Wolf

Boutilier

Chan

(2003). Canadian Federal Prison Libraries: A national survey. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 35(3), 141–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000603353002

17.

Davenport

(2008, September 4). Prisons scramble to make digital TV switch [news]. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna26548827

18.

Dean

(2015). Neoliberalism, governmentality, ethnography: A response to Michelle Brady. Foucault Studies, 20, 356–366. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i0.4954

19.

Delaney

R. E.

(2021). Class Act: Symbolic Revolution and the Meaning of College in Prison [Doctoral]. City University of New York.

20.

DeMichele

(2014). Studying the community corrections field: Applying neo-institutional theories to a hidden element of mass social control. Theoretical Criminology, 18(4), 546–564. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480614526276

21.

Edwards

Holland

(2013). What is qualitative interviewing? Bloomsbury Academic.

22.

Faccio

Costa

(2013). The presentation of self in everyday prison life: Reading interactions in prison from a dramaturgic point of view. Global Crime, 14(4), 386–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/17440572.2013.831761

23.

Foucault

Melican

(2007). The digital and the divine: Taking a ritual view of communication and ICT interaction. In Aykin

(Ed.), Usability and internationalization. HCI and culture (pp. 74–82). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73287-7_10

24.

Foucault

(1977). Discipline and Punish (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Vintage Books.

25.

Foucault

(1986). Of other spaces. Diacritics, 16, 22–27. https://doi-org.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/10.2307/464648 https://doi.org/10.2307/464648

26.

Foucault

(1991). Governmentality. In Burchell

Gordon

Miller

(Eds.), The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality (pp. 86–104). University of Chicago Press.

27.

Foucault

(2008). “Panopticism” from “discipline & punish”: The birth of the prison. The Dynamics of Race and Incarceration: Social Integration, Social Welfare, and Social Control, 2(1), 1–12. http://www.jstor.com/stable/25594995

28.

Foucault

Martin

L. H.

Gutman

Hutton

P. H.

(1988). Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault. University of Massachusetts Press.

29.

Gane

(2012). The governmentalities of neoliberalism: Panopticism, post-panopticism and beyond. The Sociological Review, 60(4), 611–634. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02126.x

30.

Georgia Department of Corrections. (2024). Profile of all inmates during 2023 (p. 79). GDC: Office of Information Technology Data Management Section. https://gdc.georgia.gov/profile-all-inmates-during-2023

31.

Goffman

(1959). The presentation of self in everyday life (pp. 135–146). Penguin Books.

32.

Goodman

(2011). From “observation dude” to “an observational study”: Gaining access and conducting research inside a paramilitary organization. Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 26(3), 599–605. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjls.26.3.599

33.

Heffernan

Calderón

A. R.

(2023, October 18). Many Prisons Restrict Books to Stop Drug Smuggling. Critics Say It Doesn’t Work. The Marshall Project. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/10/18/prison-drugs-overdoses-book-banning

34.

Hier

S. P.

(2002). Probing the surveillant assemblage: On the dialectics of surveillance practices as processes of social control. Surveillance & Society, 1(3), 399–411. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v1i3.3347

35.

Jewkes

(2002). The use of media in constructing identities in the masculine environment of men’s prisons. European Journal of Communication, 17(2), 205–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323102017002693

36.

Jewkes

(2014). An introduction to “doing prison research differently”. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(4), 387–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800413515828

37.

Jewkes

Reisdorf

B. C.

(2016). A brave new world: The problems and opportunities presented by new media technologies in prisons. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 16(5), 534–551. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895816654953

38.

Kaun

Stiernstedt

(2023). Prison media: Incarceration and the infrastructures of work and technology. The MIT Press.

39.

Kvale

Brinkmann

(2009). Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. Sage.

40.

Lafferty

Chambers

G. M.

Guthrie

Butler

(2015). Indicators of social capital in prison: A systematic review. Health & Justice, 3(1), 7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40352-015-0020-8

41.

Leclercq-Vandelannoitte

(2023). The panopticon, an emblematic concept in management and organization studies: Heaven or hell? International Journal of Management Reviews, 25(1), 52–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12305

42.

Lerman

A. E.

(2013). The modern prison paradox: Politics, punishment, and social community. Cambridge University Press.

43.

T. M.

(2007). Governmentality. Anthropologica, 49(2), 275–281. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25605363

44.

Lippert

Walby

Wilkinson

(2016). Spins, stalls, and shutdowns: Pitfalls of qualitative policing and security research [37 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 17(1), Art. 10. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1601108

45.

Maculan

(2024). Law as a weapon: Exploring prisoners’ strategic use of the law in the prison field. Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 15(4), 1403–1424. https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl.2041

46.

Malizia

(2022). A study of prisoners: From Benthams panopticon to modern electronic surveillance. Problems and perspectives. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications (IJSRP), 12(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.12.01.2022.p12102

47.

Mann

(2016). Interviews as reflective practice. In Mann

(Ed.), The research interview (pp. 1–29). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137353368_1

48.

McCall

(2016). Rituals of conduct and counter-conduct. Foucault Studies, (2110.22439), 52–79. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i0.5013

49.

Meyer

(2020). Technology as a panopticon in American culture. Anthrocentric. Online Journal of the University of North Dakota. https://anthropology.nd.edu/assets/625636/technology_as_a_panopticon_in_american_culture_sara_meyer.pdf.

50.

Meyrowitz

(1986). No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior. Oxford University Press.

51.

Michalski

J. H.

(2017). Status hierarchies and hegemonic masculinity: A general theory of prison violence. The British Journal of Criminology, 57(1), 40–60. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azv098

52.

Moran

(2016). Carceral geography: Spaces and practices of incarceration. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315570853

53.

Pauly

J. J.

(2014). Ritual theory and the media. In The handbook of media and mass communication theory (Vol. 1, pp. 172–189). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

54.

Raffnsøe

Mennicken

Miller

(2019). The foucault effect in organization studies. Organization Studies, 40(2), 155–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840617745110

55.

Reid

Niebuhr

D. N.

(2022). Prison TikTok”: Incarcerated life shared on social media. CrimRxiv, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.21428/cb6ab371.2ef20c24

56.

Robbins

Teegardin

(2023, September 21). Georgia prison employees have aided prisoners’ criminal schemes. Atlanta Journal Constitution. https://www.ajc.com/news/investigations/prisons-inside-job/

57.

Rose

D. R.

Clear

T. R.

(2002, January 30). Incarceration, reentry and social capital: Social networks in the balance. National Policy Conference.

58.

Roulston

(2010). Considering quality in qualitative interviewing. Qualitative Research, 10(2), 199–228. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794109356739

59.

Rowe

(2015). Situating the self in prison research: Power, identity and epistemology. In Drake

D. H.

Earle

Sloan

(Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of prison ethnography (pp. 347–370). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137403889_19

60.

Saenz

(1992). Television viewing as a cultural practice. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 16(2), 37–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/019685999201600204

61.

Schaefer

D. R.

Bouchard

Young

J. T. N.

Kreager

D. A.

(2017). Friends in locked places: An investigation of prison inmate network structure. Social Networks, 51, 88–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2016.12.006

62.

Schlosser

J. A.

(2013). Bourdieu and Foucault: A conceptual integration toward an empirical sociology of prisons. Critical Criminology, 21(1), 31–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-012-9164-1

63.

Schneeweis

(2018). Dysfunctional Black men: Representations of race and masculinity from the Days of Oz. In Foss

K. A.

(Ed.), Demystifying the big house: Exploring prison experience and media representations (pp. 133–152). SIU Press.

64.

Simon

(2002). The return of panopticism: Supervision, subjection and the new surveillance. Surveillance & Society, 3(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v3i1.3317

65.

Skarbek

(2014). The social order of the underworld: How prison gangs govern the American penal system. Oxford University Press.

66.

Stiernstedt

Kaun

(2021). The Prison Media Complex: Labour, technology and communication infrastructures in the prison system. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 20(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v20i1.1270

67.

Surette

(2015). Media, crime, and criminal justice: Images, realities, and policies (5th ed.). Cengage Learning.

68.

Sykes

G. M.

(2007). The society of captives: A study of a maximum security prison. Princeton University Press.

69.

Ugelvik

(2014). Power and Resistance in Prison: Doing Time, Doing Freedom. Springer.

70.

U.S. Department of Justice. (1997). 28. C.F.R. § 501. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-28/chapter-V/subchapter-A/part-501

71.

VanCleave

(2024). Prison Banking. https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38959C901

72.

Visher

C. A.

Travis

(2003). Transitions from prison to community: Understanding individual pathways. Annual Review of Sociology, 29(1), 89–113. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.095931

73.

Walker

D. F.

(2015). The informal economy in prison. Criminal Justice Matters, 99(1), 18–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/09627251.2015.1026564

74.

Walmsley

(2015).

World prison population list (World Prison Brief).

Institute for Criminal Policy Research.

75.

Wang

(2026, April). Punishment beyond prisons 2026: Incarceration and supervision by state. Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/correctionalcontrol2026.html

76.

Watson

T. M.

Van Der Meulen

(2019). Research in carceral contexts: Confronting access barriers and engaging former prisoners. Qualitative Research, 19(2), 182–198. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794117753353

77.

Wright

(2014). Identities, education and reentry (part one of two): Identities and performative spaces. Journal of Prison Education and Reentry, 1(1), 32–41. https://doi.org/10.15845/jper.v1i1.609

78.

Yousman

(2009). Prime time prisons on US TV: Representation of incarceration (Vol. 10). Peter Lang.