States of Incarceration and Subordination in the Learning and Lived Experiences of Youth in a Juvenile Detention Facility
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ARE THE[SE] KIDS ALRIGHT?: STATES OF INCARCERATION AND SUBORDINATION IN THE LEARNING AND LIVED EXPERIENCES OF YOUTH IN A JUVENILE DETENTION FACILITY by Jonathan Patrick Arendt A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Jonathan Patrick Arendt 2012 ARE THE[SE] KIDS ALRIGHT?: STATES OF INCARCERATION AND SUBORDINATION IN THE LEARNING AND LIVED EXPERIENCES OF YOUTH IN A JUVENILE DETENTION FACILITY Doctor of Philosophy 2012 Jonathan Patrick Arendt Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning University of Toronto ABSTRACT This study examines the dynamics and implications of trans-spatial subordination in/across the lived experiences of six incarcerated participant youths in a secure custody facility for juveniles in Louisiana. Five male teenagers (four African American, one White) and one female teenager (African American) discuss the limitations, harassment, and confinement in various aspects of their lives and speak about the impact on their expectations for the future. The author employs several methodologies in order to develop a multimedia, multifaceted representation of their lives. The narratives elicited through interviews provide the bulk of the data as the participants describe this perpetual subordination. The photographs, resulting from the implementation of a visual ethnographic methodology, provide images that serve as catalysts for introspection and analysis of significance in the mundane and routine, particularly as they apply to the carceral facilities, structures, and policies themselves. Film viewing and discussion offer an array of depictions of youth and criminality to which the youths responded, granting a simultaneous peek at how these marginalized youths viewed themselves and how mainstream media productions depict them. ii After a particularly provoking viewing session of an animated film, the author expands the preliminary boundaries of the work beyond cells and the walls of the prison. The expanding focus examines subordinating elements in their lives with their families and in their neighbourhoods. The challenges, harassment, and obstacles experienced in their communities continued in their schools and during their encounters with law enforcement, the latter of which often led directly to imprisonment. Finally, the youths reflected on the confining subordination that existed in the facilities, the product of the combination of: their discomfort with the surveillant structure, their perceived arbitrariness of privilege, and the lack of any relevant education. They also identified opportunities for voicing their opinions and recognized the relative safety of this facility compared to others. As the participants conceptualized their futures and articulated their relatively narrow and often ambiguous hopes, the sobering influence of such perpetual subordination is evident. The author closes with a discussion of the study’s importance to future research with marginalized youth in a society of increasing surveillance and security as well as implications for teacher education. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The first acknowledgments are for my participants: Katie, Jay, Rider, Fisher, Nemo, and Bambam. These six youths invested much in the power of their own narratives and their consistent pleas to be heard underscored the importance they saw in their stories and became a sort of chorus to the dissertation. That they trusted me with their stories and their words, after assigning so much significance to them, is a humbling compliment and a responsibility I was proud to have. I can only hope that I’ve done their stories, feelings, and fears some justice, something they’d experienced little of in their lives, at least those parts which they shared with me. I would also like to thank the administration and staff at the Kakau Parish Juvenile Detention Center (KPJDC) for their willingness to open their doors to an outsider, allowing for a documented glimpse of a juvenile space that is not often available publicly. The site was generally accommodating from the initial proposal, partly the result of the facility’s attempts to distinguish itself as more progressive than the other, more traditional and maligned juvenile prisons in the state. I am perhaps most grateful that they allowed me to put cameras in the hands of these six youths so that they might chronicle, through their photographs, their lives in prison spaces. The resulting images add a dynamic to the research that would not have been possible otherwise. My advisor, Dr. Karyn Cooper, has been an invaluable resource and staunch ally in all phases of my work. She has given of her time and self, even though she had much more significant responsibilities of her own to deal with. Unfailingly, she listened as I pitched one idea after another, balancing critique and caution with approbation and iv encouragement. There were also those times when she became close friend and confidant when I struggled—conceptually and practically. I cannot express my thanks enough for all that she has done for and meant to me. I hope that she reads this manuscript with pride, and feels that she’s presided over success. Thanks also to Dr. Henry Giroux who has been a mentor and sounding board for my thoughts, questions, and ideas. After meeting Henry in December of 2008, on the verge of my research, he has humored me with his time and his own thoughts as I struggled with articulating difficulties as my work grew increasingly sociological and cultural. There was no other academic whose work was more influential and inspiring to me than Henry and having the ability to tell him that in person as well as have him answer my questions is one of those precious, serendipitous opportunities that remain with people their entire lives. The rest of my committee was likewise supportive. Dr. Peter Trifonas has proved to be a supporter from my early days at OISE/UT. Finding myself in Toronto after having left Louisiana on the morning Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, I struggled with the coverage of the storm, the well-being of my family, and my own place with respect to it all. Peter’s course was a haven for me, my disgust and my doubts concerning media coverage that also gave me a deconstructive framework for working through those tensions. He was, and remains, a supportive colleague whom I admire and respect and to whom I am grateful for his continued advocacy for the work that I produce. Thanks, as well, to Dr. Diane Conrad whose advice and career I respect tremendously. As the foremost authority in education working with incarcerated teens in Canada, I approached her early for any help, insight, or resources she might have to offer. v She is a pioneer in this field and I’m awed by her consistent accommodation of help when asked. My family back in Louisiana (father Michael, mother Maxine, sister Michelle, brother Chris, and sister Tracy) has been consistently supportive, enduring our separation knowing that I am pursuing something personally important and to which I have been firmly committed. It’s been easy for none of us, especially with my mother’s increasingly debilitating dementia taking its toll. The frantic and at times merciless march to the dissertation was assuaged by the comfort and confidence in the sacrifices of my father and sister, Michelle, at home with my mother, caring for her and enabling me to focus my efforts on this work. The completion of this dissertation owes a tremendous debt to them both, one I am not sure I’ll ever be able to repay. My thanks are, I grant, poor. And my mother shaped me, morally, ethically, and educationally. I regret that she won’t fully understand how her influence has culminated in my work in the coming pages, but she knew what I intended when I started and I’ll satisfy myself with the pride I am certain she would have right now. Finally, thanks to my wife, Martha. Our relationship has withstood cross-country moves, immigration departments in the United States and Canada, and now—a dissertation. Of these, I am not sure which has been most strenuous. But the last few years, working full time as I attended school full time, she supported me, in every way that word can be understood. The tempestuous completion of this dissertation has not always, or perhaps often, been easy. But her strength, commitment, and grace never failed and are absolutely things I could not have done without. Our relationship has only become stronger and the sacrifices she has made for this pursuit I will likely never fully vi understand or appreciate. Once again, I find that my thanks are poor. And in the last two years, our family has grown by one. Our daughter, Cecily, has been a constant source of inspiration and joy. I am a better husband and father because of her. And I believe this dissertation is a better work because of the influence of all of the people that have been a part of my life during its conception and execution. Much obliged. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS viii LIST OF FIGURES xii DEDICATION xiii CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION 1 Narrative Beginnings 1 Organizational Overview 3 Topic Importance and Contemporary Relevance 6 Listen . 8 CHAPTER 2 – ABSTRACT CONTEXTS 10 Comment on the State of Juvenile Incarceration 10 Media Representations and Attitudinal Impact 18 Media, Truth, and Reality 23 Media and the Redemptive Fantasy 26 Cultural Studies 28