Abstract
The merit of the material presented in In this place called prison may be the facts and statistics used for providing context, especially for readers not already immersed in the history or legislative context of correctional systems. The book is the product of a research study, an ethnography completed through approximately 500 hour of observation and interviews in a women's prison. Additionally, it appears to use a grounded theory approach to exploring the development of “secondhand carcerality,” a phenomenon where carceral control is replicated through other institutions. The primary thesis is that for incarcerated women, the institution of religion both supports and counters the control of the carceral system. For example, it is demonstrated that religious practices afford autonomy in incarcerated women's schedules and dress. However, the religious messaging reinforces the same gender traditionalism required by and of the correctional staff and setting. The duality of this thesis can create some confusion throughout the book as the author explores how religious experiences do or do not align with carceral goals. This balance can seem invalidating if the reader expects a clear delineation of an argument instead of the generation of theory or distilled observations.
The author primarily speaks to Protestant Christian practices most prevalent in the study's settings. Readers must look elsewhere for studies of religions’ impacts on incarcerated women who follow other faith traditions.
The book's goals were to look at the function of religion as both supporting and challenging correctional control. However, the author acknowledges in the conclusion that no counter-institutions can exist within a prison context that fully challenge the carceral control of the system because, were they permitted to thrive, they would invalidate the ability of the system to control those who are incarcerated. If this assumption had been introduced initially, the book could have been dedicated to delving deeply into the few pieces of religious practice that counteract carceral control as a dissenting and potentially revolutionary force.
In order to highlight secondhand carcerality, the author spends equal time discussing the ways that religion reinforces the goals of the prison. This approach may be frustrating for readers who are aware of the inherent ties between correctional programming and the setting's need to reinforce the status quo. For example, it is demonstrated that some religious messaging encourages women to be mad at God instead of correctional officers for their circumstances. Tensions arise in the logic of the argument that these experiences can be assigned to secondhand carcerality or to the women choosing what is best for them since the alternative—misconduct—is also not in their best interest. Readers would benefit from being open to the theoretical argument as a secondary goal of the material.
The gendered discussions in the book are most concentrated in one chapter that discusses motherhood, women's relationships, and gender conformity. However, discussions of the gendered pathways to prison and intersectional disparities of incarceration rates are spread throughout the book. The inclusion of gendered material is necessarily based on its setting and topic. A strength of the book is that it is uniquely easy for the reader to parse out what experiences may be universal to incarceration and what is specifically framed by gender, especially as guided by formal statistics throughout the book. Many rich vignettes and specific insights from women with lived experiences of incarceration stand alone in their reflective qualities. This book is highly valuable as an experience that helps readers build a mental schema of some of the women inmates’ realities of incarceration. For readers outside of the criminal-legal purview, this book can serve as an alternative to personally stepping inside a prison. It provides an excellent factual review of incarceration rates, the daily logistics of correctional settings, the impact of COVID-19, and the potential harms of discretionary enforcement and implementation of policies. The book provides an all-in-one review of the key issues that lead women to incarceration and their common experiences once they are living in a correctional facility.
Any potential conflict with the book's material may be an issue of disciplinary perspective; it is a definitively sociological piece that places value in the process of philosophizing. The theory development in this book requires that observations and statements are delivered in a realm of logical objectivity in order to open the possibilities of new interpretations. However, for readers from a discipline geared toward application, this ideological detachment may cause discomfort when addressing sensitive or practical issues. The most succinct example is where the author states that “[n]ationwide legislation prohibits all sex in prisons, which ends up outlawing meaningful gay and lesbian relationships among confined populations” (p. 138). It is objectively true that legislation rules that anyone incarcerated cannot give sexual consent to staff or other people housed in the prison. However, for some readers, this objectivity can feel dismissive of the harm that the policy is meant to protect against, such as sexual assault within prisons. As many readers of this journal likely come from a social work perspective, they should expect to take the additional step toward application through their own critical analysis. Although the study's specific goals and logical argument may only appeal to some, the book's entirety is valuable as it thoroughly discusses the realities of women's incarceration.
