Navigating emotions behind bars: Emotional governance and the social construction of charisma in Chinese women's prisons

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of ‘emotional governance’ to prison studies and explains how emotional governance facilitates effective prison management. Drawing on first-hand empirical data collected from a women's prison in China, the article explores the emotional vulnerability of female prisoners and the strategies that prison officers use to manage the women's negative emotions. On the one hand, it highlights how prison officers alleviate prisoners’ negative emotions, thus increasing their compliance with prison regulations. On the other hand, it suggests that emotional governance enables prison officers to become charismatic leaders, acquiring extensive discretionary power to control and exploit these women. As one of the few studies on Chinese women's prisons, it contributes to scholarship on the management of non-Western women's prisons.