Carceral interventions



Topic: Carceral InterventionsTeam members’ names: Allie, Jennifer, Melissa, Brandon, & Marsha Part 1: Guided notes for assigned (2014, Dec. 30). Incarceration and Beyond. Retrieved from this podcast, four scholars highlight incarceration and penal policies in the U.S.: Emily Baxter explains to us the difference between “clean” and criminal; David Harding outlines the major “challenges faced by people just released from prison”; Hadar Aviram “examines the impact of cost-cutting” for incarceration; & Liat Bet-Moshe “calls for an expanded definition of incarceration” (). Emily BaxterKey concepts:In the first part of the podcast, Emily Baxter refers to “people with criminal records” as those persons who are either released on parole/on probation or have been arrested and not charged as well as those persons whose charges are dismissed. Due to such a wide range of the concept “people with criminal records,” Baxter argues that the line between “criminal” and “clean” records remains quite “blurry.”Author’s stance: Arrests are public and permanent ()Criminal records prevent employmentEx-prisoners are banned from safe and affordable housing, getting into a college, receiving loans, joining the military, immigrating, travelling, getting marriedSuggested interventions: Emily Baxter suggests we stop avoiding the problem, as class and race do intersect when it comes to incarcerating racialized individuals from low-income families.The author invites us to think of what our own story might be: Do we have any family members, friends who are struggling with finding a job because their police clearance check is not “clear”? What if these people witnessed a crime, were convicted by mistake and now are unable to get a job because their name is mentioned on ?David HardingKey concepts:In the second part of the podcast, David Harding refers to the concept of “prisoner re-entry”, which means ex-prisoner’s re-integration in the mainstream society, where a number of social support programs are provided. Author’s stance: North America faces mass incarceration. Prisoners are kept in rural areas, away from the public; and this ‘out of sight, out of mind’ principle leads to further isolation and exclusion from the society.Once ex-prisoners leave institutions, they end up with heavily relying on the support of their family members and social services, and often can’t get a job. Therefore, families carry extra-burden of financial support. In addition, because ex-inmates fail to be breadwinners, they may face challenges of mental health and drug addiction.Suggested interventions:In particular, the author encourages inmates’ families and friends to often/regularly write letters to their loved ones. Because phone calls are expensive in institutions, paper letters can work miracles – they do support the inmates.Harding urges us to find an alternative to carceral interventions; and in the meanwhile we are encouraged to allocate more funds/run more NGOs to support families of the inmates. Most importantly, more funding is needed for social programs, which support inmates and ex-convicts, such as job training, health care, shelters, housing, etc.Hadar Aviram:Key concepts:In the third part of Incarceration and Beyond podcast, Hadar Aviram describes American “penal landscape,” which refers to punitive system, including penal institutions in the U.S. The author links “penal landscape” to a “humoneytarism” trend, which sees incarceration as a costly intervention. Aviram underlines the fact that the U.S. politicians often use the issue of cost as an excuse to make certain illegal acts legal (“smart/right uncrime”), an example of which would be the taxation of legally sold marijuana.Author’s stance: The U.S. is #1 incarcerator in the world, with heavily packed jails.Prisons are too expensive.One of options to prevent incarceration is to make marijuana legal and taxable.Suggested interventions:Hadar Aviram encourages the mainstream society to stop re-producing humoneytarism, which values people based on their cost for the state.The author urges to run more active campaigns against death penalty.Liat Ben-Moshe:Key concept: Liat Ben-Moshe suggests a wider understanding of “incarceration”, which should include all premises where people are kept against their will: institutions, prisons, asylums, immigration centres, detention centres, psychiatric hospitals, jails, institutions for PWCD, nursing homes, group homes, etc.Author’s stance:Mass Incarceration: the practice of incarcerating large numbers of people in prisons and in jails in the United States of America. The exact date of the trend towards mass incarceration is debated but sometime between the 1970’s and 1980’s states began to embrace the policy of mass incarceration.Institutionalization is the practice of incarcerating people based on disability or mental illness. Asylums and Institutions were at their peaks between the 1950’s and 1980’s. Deinstitutionalization is the practice of shutting down institutions through advocacy and activism. It began in the 1970’s and continues on today as not all institutions have been closed.Disabled people are not thought to be valuable participants of the capitalist economy. Instead, their value comes from an individual’s disability. Neoliberalism has found a way to make a profit off people in that they generate money for the institution (group home, nursing home…) they live in.Non-Carceral Mindset (Deinstitutionalization of the mind) is the idea that many of the issues that people faced while institutionalized still exist because the mind set has not changed. With out a non-carceral mindset it will be hard to move forward.Suggested interventions:The two major interventions suggested by Liat Ben-Moshe include de-institutionalization (i.e. releasing those who are incarcerated) and active self-advocacy, which means that the ex-inmates should stand up for themselves more actively.Ben-Moshe, L. (2013). The institution yet to come: Analyzing incarceration through a disability lens. In Lennard J. Davis, The Disability Studies Reader 4-ed. New-York, NY: Routledge.Summary:Ben-Moshe highlights the theoretical, historical, and pragmatic connections between confinement in psychiatric institutions and confinement within the criminal justice system. The author insists that the term “incarcerated” should include those persons who are kept in public and private institutions against their will. Ben-Mosche argues that the more mad people are diagnosed, the more prisoners we get every year. Alas, in both cases, a certain amount of people are segregated from the mainstream for safety reasons and for their “own” good. Instead of addressing issues caused by structural violence and incarceration, we would benefit from de-constructing the systemic disabling economic structures that lead to imprisonment. The author employs the Foucaultian concept of analyzing incarceration: medical and legal professionals weed out the undesired citizens.Key concepts: Ben-Moshe refers to institutions as the "disability gulag" which is part of the "mass/hyper incarceration," which means the growth of prisons after institutions began to close. She also refers to "the institution yet to come" as the ghost of forced confinement, and "the disability yet to come" as the (universal) fear of becoming disabled, and of thus being institutionalized (pp. 132; 136).Author’s stance: The majority of prisoners are impoverished, people of colour and do not reflect the general population or typical social landscape. Moreover, race, gender, and disability play a significant role in incarceration rates.Attempting to understand disability within the context of prisons is challenging but several connections exist between the two.Prisons and institutions for people with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities seek to dehumanize the inhabitants by removing an individual’s identityMedico-judicial discourse has arisen from attempting to classify abnormalities, which are associated with danger/deviance People that have been institutionalized have described the experience as a form of incarceration.Political economic analysis shows there is a rise of privatization of institutions and prisons, which can potentially be driven by racial and capitalist motivations. Neo-liberal perspective holds the view that disabled people put a strain on the economy. While there is no link between the rate of crime and growth of the prison industry, it appears that neoliberal economic policies help to create a class divide. The impoverished people of colour are maintained as the proletariat class by incarcerating them and preventing them from rebelling.Overall:By using a disability studies lens to analyze incarceration and disablement, many similarities between institutions become apparent, including the people that inhabit them. As such, it is crucial to consider that institionalization affects the very marginalized and that the concept of incarceration should be expanded to include various settings!Most importantly, incarceration is an intersectional issue: “forced confinement” haunts poor people, people of color, and disabled people (p. 132)Imprisonment and institutionalization intersect in various ways that legitimize incarcerationThere is an existing relationship between medicalization and criminalizationThe social model of disability is limited and could benefit from examining the relationship between incarceration and institutionalizationSuggested interventions:Anti-psychiatry, deinstitutionalization and prison abolition movements to work together to challenge current practiceAbolition of psychiatric practices as a form of resistance to incarcerationCommunity based services rather than institutionsSocietal reform that includes readdressing education, healthcare and justice systemsContinued political economic analysis by disability studies scholars and activists Reconceptualization of the social model of disability to include perspectives and understanding of the intersections of medicalization and criminalizationCBC.ca (2015, July 17). Ashley Smith Case & Mental Health in Canadian Prisons//The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti. Retrieved from segment is formatted as a multifaceted set of rolling interviews that are formed around the central topic of a coroners’ inquest that is being conducted into the death of Ashely Smith. Ashley Smith was a 19-year-old teenager who died in custody by her own hand, while prison officials watched without intervening. Smith was originally incarcerated at the age of 14 for throwing crab apples at a mailman. Once inside the system, Ashley was subsequently charged with additional behaviour based crimes. During her 5 years in custody, Ashley was shuttled between 17 prisons and treatment centres without ever being given a comprehensive mental health assessment upon her arrival or admission to any of the institutions. The segment outlines the deplorable and deleterious state of mental illness supports available in the corrections system.Key concepts:Anna Maria Tremonti and guest speakers talk about the importance of human rights and gender equity, which need to be reflected in the institutional policies. The guest speakers stress the lack of funds allocated for rehabilitation programming and mental health supports, which debilitate existing institutional stigma and oppression in prisons, jails, correctional institutions, and other facilities. Tremonti points to the fact that we live in the time of cultural indifference, as we are sinking in punitive militarization of corrections ideology. The guest speakers often operate the concept “under filled”, which is applied towards under qualified individuals, who are NOT licensed professionals in field, carry out the duties of a professional (i.e. a psychologist) and supervised on paper remotely by a psychologist.Author’s stance:An initial appointment for mental health counseling has a projected wait-time of two to three years. The backlog is primarily blamed on the high number of unfilled vacancies in mental health professions, such as psychological support nurses and psychologists. Moreover, many more positions are under-filled, whereby an unqualified and unlicensed individual carries out the duties of the position while being remotely ‘supervised’ by an actual psychologist. This lack of resources has coincided with a government decision to reduce support programming and increase the Federal penitentiary population; overcrowding and increasing violence have become the?‘new’ normal.? Supports and programming for women are less than those in the male prison system.Suggested interventions:One of the options to stop mass incarceration is to “focus on those victims outside of prison” (Public Safety Minister Vic Toews).In addition, the guest speakers encourage us to improve community based intervention teams, which would launch a female centric holistic wellness program as well as individual treatment plans.Providing equal levels of mental health resources for women is another effective intervention outlined in the radio program.Ultimately, authors suggest an enhanced legal discretion to assess and divert individuals from punitive sentencing versus seeing incarceration as the only means to ‘fix’ the situation.CBCplayer.ca (2015, Sept. 10). Robert Pickton case haunts former detective Lori Shenher//The Current. Retrieved from Current examines the police investigation into the serial killer Robert Pickton with the former lead investigator of the case, Lori Shenher, who crtitically reflects on the case. In the interview, Shenher highlights the fact that investigation would have been conducted very differently if a victims were not racialized sex workers. Importantly: Despite women’s testimonies and strong public opinion that Pickton, a disabled man, could not have worked alone and is bearing the full responsibility of the crimes committed, The Current does not pick up on this angle of the story. Key concepts:Entrenched police culture sets up neoliberal perceptions of normalcy, otherness, and difference.By supporting the culture of silence, i.e. not taking actions today, we all support racism and institutional bias in police as both victims and criminals are moved through carceral systems.Authors’ stance:Remains of DNA from 33 women were found @Pickton’s place; women were assumed to be alive and choose this life deliberatelySome supervisors were incompetent/didn’t care; the file was not taken seriously by management because of cultural perceptions of normalcy and morality, racism and institutional bias in policingShenher notes the police mindset and culture is so deep seated that they have adopted an us versus them mentality; the police are afraid of the community, otherness, and differenceAboriginal individuals are viewed as outsiders and many police view indigenous peoples as an immigrant group; the police lack the perspective to understand where the community is coming from and fail to support vulnerable populationsBottom line: Indigenous activists know -- and have told us -- that there is no way that Pickton, a disabled man, could have worked alone. So indigenous activists are pointing to a failure in the system, which Lori Shenher was caught up in. Ultimately, this example illustrates the ways in which disability is leveraged in a case like this one.Suggested interventions:Robert Shenher urges the mainstream society to challenge the stereotyped mindset regarding ‘normalcy’ of applying sex trade discourse towards the aboriginal women.The guest speaker stresses the importance of providing extra training for the police and institutions staff, which ideally should be led by the aboriginal women themselves. In addition, it is important for the police officers to take into account where the community is coming from. Through the provision of this additional training, Tremonti and her guest speakers are aiming at changing the police culture in general.Robert Shenher admits that a change in the police culture will require more resources for investigations & prevention.Ultimately, Shenher urges us to try on Indigenous women’s lens and stop epidemic without response – the culture of silence.Roulstone, A., Thomas, P. & Balderston, S. (2011). Between hate and vulnerability: unpacking the British criminal justice system’s construction of disablist hate crime. Disability & Society. 26(3), pp. 351-364. Summary:Within the racist and religion frameworks, hate crime is a generally accepted term that is now widely used, this is particularly true when it comes to discriminating against members of the LGBTQ community. Application of ‘hate crimes’ towards disabled people took time to be legally recognized by the state. This late ‘acceptance’ of the term can be explained by the originally narrow definition of disability and the reluctance to view people with disabilities as vulnerable. The delay of the ‘hate crime’ application towards disabled people suspended the protections of the law for this group. Despite this, there are numerous examples proving that hate crime is present in many disabled people’s lives. The authors of the article outline key aspects of hate crime policy and practice, and they challenge socially constructed concepts of disability, hate, and vulnerability that are in place today.Key concepts:In their article, Roulstone et al. analyze various synonyms of hate crime: “motivated crime/targeted crime/bias crime/racist hate crime,” terms widely used in the U.K, U.S., and Canada. Most importantly, the authors propose a wider definition of hate crime, which should include: “hostility, bullying, and intimidation that disabled people experience; name calling; murder; prejudice, unease, othering.”Also, hate crime is “any incident which is perceived to be based upon prejudice towards or hatred of the victim because of their disability or so perceived by the victim or any other person.”Roulstone et al. highlight targeted vulnerability, which means diminished capacity of people with disabilities to resist disablist hate crime within criminal justice system and public life.Author’s stance: The key message of the reading is that disability hate crime remains invisible!Major motives of hate crimes include prejudice, “lives not worth living”, media stereotypes, multiple oppressions, and charity discourses (p. 354)The state often questions disability-related hostility & provides limited responses to disablist hate crime (pp. 351; 355)Vulnerability equals to pity, tragedy, weakness, something related to impairment (pp. 357; 358). Officially, law separates hate and vulnerability; and this is against disabled people (p. 352)Paternalism denies independent living, full judicial rights (p. 352)Under-reporting of hate crimes is systemic, mostly because of poor accessibility of police stations (p. 359)Suggested interventions:Social model of disability: Addressing the social variables due to individualization, invisibility, and cause and effect on disabled people’s lives.Policy and practice review: Redefining hate crime based on utilizing data, motivation of hate crime, and its impact on disabled people in order to positive reconstruction.Holistic understanding of hate crime: Approaching to hate crime in a broad sense through its linkage to targeted vulnerability and hostility for disabled people.Including disabled people in criminal justice system: Including disabled people in policy making to repair the harm caused by invisibility and prevention of hate crime.Guiding questions:1) Liat Ben-Moshe and other thinkers in Against the Grain demonstrate how marginalized people have been institutionalized in various settings over time (prisons, psychiatric institutions, nursing homes, etc). How can disability studies develop and promote a 'non-carceral mindset' that resists the reorganization of institutions? What would a truly non-institutional space for support of disabled people look like? And, are there pitfalls to broadening our understanding of incarceration?2) Liat Ben-Moshe believes that the definition of incarceration should be broadened to include group homes. In your work life have you experienced community settings that would fit the definition of incarceration/confinement? Do you believe that group homes, for example, are acting as mini institutions? Is there a need for another deinstitutionalization movement geared towards group homes or are there other interventions that you can think of that would help??3) In light of The Current's re-visiting of Ashley Smith's case, what kind of interventions can you think of that might have been useful in addressing her needs and the needs of other folks in her situation? Think back to some of the suggestions we bounced around in the module on Indigenous interventions, as well as suggestions offered in the Against The Grain program. Consider, too, wide-ranging social interventions.4) Our second example, also from The Current, gives us a glimpse into the political processes behind Robert Pickton's incarceration and invites us to reflect on disability being part of complex carceral systems. How do these relate in your view?Part 2: Preliminary outline of a theoretical approachCarceral interventions consist of multiple dimensions, which certainly present a certain interest for the critical disability studies. The purpose of this presentation is to encourage all our group mates to deconstruct our understandings of incarceration and who is eligible for incarceration in a neoliberal context. In order to analyze incarceration, we invite you to think through the concept of carceral interventions through various forms of analysis: Critical Discourse Analysis (e.g., language/lables used to describe inmates/prisoners/people with disabilities/indigenous women, etc.), Feminism (e.g., societal perceptions of mental health problems to be natural part of women’s nature; gender roles and expectations from incarcerated women versus men; police response to male and female ‘abnormal’ behavior, etc.), Decolonizing (e.g., power holders’ attitudes towards FNMI versus the mainstream; lack of action towards incarceration causes and consequences among racialised communities, etc.), Disability Rights (legal framework in place re: incarceration interventions aimed at vulnerable individuals), Narrative Inquiry (what kind of stories/themes dominate in media portrayal of incarcerated people/ex-prisoners), and Ethnography (e.g., is data kept re: incarcerated people kept somewhere; if yes, in what format/where/controlled & published by whom).Throughout the readings and podcasts assigned for this week, what models of disability were highlighted? Is one model sufficient to deconstruct the dominant discourse of ‘fair’ incarceration as ultimately ‘the most effective intervention?’Part 3: Practical application of a theoretical approachNews event/practice-related issue (example picked by our group):Barc, A. (2005, May 28). Asylum By The Lake. Retrieved from their website, Agatha Barc briefly outlines the history of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, she tracks the follow-up stories of its patients, which allows the reader to draw a connection between current prisoners and the patients of Lakershore Psychiatric Hospital. Barc’s analysis of 1,511 patients’ common experiences was inspired by Dr. Geoffrey Reaume’s publications. Most importantly, the author provides data (images and text) about the staff, the institution, the routines, and in some cases the specific names of staff and patients. This is addition to providing a number of valuable links to accurately depict the history of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital.Interested in first-hand experiences? Please visit Remember Every Name on their YouTube channel - concepts:Agatha Bark describes rooms where inmates lived. The author uses some abbreviations like QR, which stands for “quiet room” and refers to unequipped cells for inmates; the author also uses the abbreviation S.O.U., which means “special observation unit”, a ward where all the patients’ beds were in the centre of a square room, surrounded by iron bars. Lastly, the author mentions “cold packs”, a condition when patients were wrapped up like mummies and injected with tranquillizers.Author’s stance:Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital was known as the "asylum by the lake" in Etobicoke, Ontario, and opened between 1889 and 1979 for individuals who were mentally ill (Barc, 2005).The cells were called "quiet rooms" which contained nothing; the floor and walls were bare, the door was steel, and the only enclosed window was made out of mesh wire. Patients were also denied blankets and pillows as a consequence of their disruptive behaviour.Patients were restrained and drugged because they were considered "dangerous" and a threat to others. They were often put in "cold packs" which meant that they were wrapped up like mummies and injected with tranquillizers.Inmates were denied freedom as they were locked-up and confined on wards. Some were victims of physical and sexual abuse from other residents living on their floors.Suggested interventions:In her website materials, Agatha Barc strongly proposes to shut down existing institutions.The author also suggests we empower Lakeshore survivors to raise awareness in our communities through sharing personal experiences via story telling.Lastly, Agatha Barc recommends that we archive data so that we stay aware of institutionalization consequences.Guiding questions:Many disabled people experienced and continue to experience systemic and structural violence and institutionalization. This has been fought through legal frameworks, (such as the class action suit against Huronia Regional Centre). Could there also be a role for community accountability and transformative justice to support survivors of systemic violence, and change conditions that contribute to systemic violence? And what sorts of non-traditional interventions could support this type of justice? Think through Agatha Barc's work as you imagine what this could look like.?Script for our Pixton comic about PatrickOur group mates are given 4 comic scenes to reflect on and generate possible further steps for Patrick to take. Having collected our peers’ ideas, we will edit comic and post an updated version of it on Sunday. Group mates will be encouraged to comment on the edited version.1Patrick: Yay. Finally released from prison. I can finally start my life.(Patrick is a racialized male, who is being released from prison, he is excited about his freedom and the future)[Behind him there is a picture of the prison, with sun shining, and Patrick is smiling]2Patrick: How can I start my life if I have nowhere to go? At least I had a few supports in prison … I recall an inspirational public speaker Nick Vujicic coming to our prison… I can try…(Patrick is coming to the realization that there is no transition plan, or housing supports, HE IS SCARED)[Patrick is inside a building, with rows of bunk beds or cots, he is confused and bewildered]3Monica: I’m so excited that you are free. We can finally start our life together. When can you get a job?Patrick: I am ready and willing to work. I’m hoping someone gives me a chance. (Patrick is nervous and hiding the fact he is homeless and experiencing anxiety, he is desperate and needs Monica for support)[In a coffee shop, Monica and Patrick are meeting for first time since his release, they are speaking and building connection / catching up on their bond]4Patrick: I’m getting desperate. I’m in a dark place. I just need a hand-up not a hand-out. I feel alone, what should I do?(Patrick is sad, desperate, and depressed. He has lost hope and is alone. He is very vulnerable)[Under a bridge, unshaven, looking dirty and tattered. There is garbage and dirt around. The weather is dark]XTRA (additional resources to reflect on):1) Vujicic inspires inmatesWhat messages do we get here? What intersections mingle in what Nick is doing? How is disability portrayed here? What kind of model/narrative dominates in this discourse?2) the Box campaign – activists approach Barak Obama to promote access to jobs for ex-prisonersWhat other forms of activism do you find effective?3) to work rehab programmme, UKWhat type of intervention is illustrated here? Do you find it effective? How would you modify/expand it?4) program helps ex-prisonersWhat type of intervention is illustrated here? Do you find it effective? How would you modify/expand it?5) gets free college tuitionWhat type of intervention is illustrated here? Do you find it effective? How would you modify/expand it?6) "Are Prisons the New Psychiatric Institution?' broadcasted on a radio show (personal narrative accounts)What are your thoughts on disability angle here?7) how disabled people are treated in Canadian prisonsWhat are your thoughts on disability angle here?8) Canada Must Respond To Demographic Shift Behind Bars, Watchdog SaysWhat are your thoughts on disability angle here? ................
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