Vernacularising dignity: Prison officers,legality,and the enchantment of carceral humanity

Abstract

Connecting penology and theology, this paper aims to explore how universal prisoners’ legal rights are vernacularised and localised within a specific cultural context. Building on qualitative interviews from Israeli prison officers, we argue that despite being subject to a modern prisoners’ rights paradigm, prison officers vernacularise prisoners’ dignity and humanity through the theological lens of the ‘Image of God’ discourse (in a direct or hybridised way) to (1) re-enchant carceral humanity and (2) humanise carceral legality. The findings illuminate the potential contributions and limitations of vernacularisation work in the carceral context for theorising prison officers’ professional ethics and identity, and the cultural dimensions of the making of prisoners’ rights.