A Study of Women in Prison in Ireland

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A Study of Women in Prison in Ireland Discourse and Identity: A Study of Women in Prison in Ireland Christina Quinlan, BSc, MSc, Dip. Stats Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dublin City University School of Communications January 2006 Discourse and Identity: A Study of Women in Prison in Ireland Christina M Quinlan B.Sc. M. Sc. Dip. Stats Thesis presented for the qualification of Ph.D. to the School of Communications, DCU January 2006 Supervisor: Dr. Barbara O’Connor ! hereby certify that this material, which 1 now submit for assessment on the programme o f study leading to the award o f Ph.D. is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed — ^Candidate) rD N o.:99145901 Date: ¿ L m c^ In memory of my father, Tom Quinlan. I would like to thank all of the people who supported and encouraged me in this research. I would like to thank my mother Mary-Jo Quinlan, all my family, and in particular my beloved nephews Daniel Lanigan and Tom Quinlan. I would like to thank all o f my friends for encouraging and supporting me in the work. I would particularly like to thank Bemie Morris, Karen Talbot, Grainne Blair, Maria Luddy, Muireann NT Dhuigneain and Barbara Henry. I would like to thank the School of Communications for funding the research and for supporting me through it. I would particularly like to thank my supervisor Dr. Barbara O’Connor, for her years of critical engagement with the work, without which neither the thesis nor I would have grown and developed as we have. I would like to thank Professor Farrel Corcoran, for reading the thesis and for his many helpful and encouraging comments on it. I would like to thank The Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform, and particularly Mr. Sean Alyward, Secretary General, for the years of interest, support and encouragement. I would like to thank the Irish Prison Service, for giving me access to the prisons and the Director General, Mr. Brian Purcell, for on-going support. I would particularly like to thank Governor John Lonergan o f Mountjoy Prison, for allowing the research, for supporting the research and for encouraging both it and me in every possible way. I would like to thank Governor Kathleen McMahon of the Dochas Centre, for years of friendship, good humour, support and encouragement. I would like to thank Governor Pat Laffan and ACO Eamon Mullane of Limerick Prison, for all the help they gave me. I would like to thank all of the participants in the research. In particular I would, above all, like to thank all of the imprisoned women who participated in the research, and all of those women, who have, over the past seven years, be-friended me. Abstract This dissertation deals with the question of whether women prisoners’ identities are completely subjugated by the prison or whether they are able to resist identity- subjugation. My thesis is that, although women prisoners are subjugated as prisoners, they have developed ways of resisting subjugation as women. This study is based on a critical ethnography of women’s experiences of imprisonment in Ireland in both a historical and contemporary context. Methodologically the study is informed by feminist epistemology, discourse analysis, and semiotics. The aim of the research was to explore the social and spatial experiences of imprisonment. The historical data is taken from published and archived memoirs, historiographies, prison records and reports. The contemporary data is based on a quantitative profile of women currently in prison, the crimes for which they are imprisoned and the sentence imposed upon them. I also conducted a series of qualitative in-depth interviews with 83 imprisoned women. During these interviews I photographed the women’s personal prison spaces. Using a series of photo-elicitation interviews, I examined with the women the meanings of their personal prison spaces and the meanings of the artefacts which they displayed within those spaces. In addition, I interviewed thirty people involved with and working in the prisons; conducted a content and semiotic analysis of print media representations of women’s prisoners in a range of newspapers; and undertook an examination of the structures of the women’s prisons. The analysis of the research material reveals a comprehensive profile of women prisoner’s experiences in the Irish prison system. The meaning, effect and implications of their experiences are established. The main conclusions centre on the manner in which these prison experiences shape their identities, subjectivities, and senses of self. Table of Contents Chapter One Introduction 1 1.1 The Research Project 2 1.2 Situating the Research 4 1.3 The Thesis 11 1.4 Organisation of the Chapters 12 Chapter Two Literature Review 14 2.1 Identity, Criminality and Penality 15 2.2 Gender and Class: The Critical Dimensions 23 2.3 Historical Representations of Criminal Women 28 2.4 Contemporary Representations of Criminal Women 33 2.5 Prison Space 36 2.6 Penal Gazes 41 2.6(i) Media Gaze 42 2.6(ii) Expert Gaze 48 2.7 The Irish Female Prison Experience 52 2.8 Summary 57 Chapter Three Research Methodology 58 3.1 Introduction 58 3.2 Ethnography 59 3.3 A Feminist Study 62 3.4 Data Collection Techniques 67 3.4(i) Observation 68 3.4(ii) In-depth Interviews 69 3.4(iii) Spatial Analysis 76 3.4(iv) Content Analysis 80 3.4(v) Archival Analysis 83 3.4(vi) Discourse Analysis 83 3.5 The Research Process 86 Chapter Four Historical Experiences 88 4.1 The Nineteenth Century: women in Irish society 89 4.2 Prisons: Policies, Philosophies and Institutions 91 4.3 The Women Imprisoned 97 4.4 Conditions and Accommodations 104 4.5 Female Criminality in the 1800’s 108 4.6 Female Imprisonment in the 1800’s 114 v ii 4.7 The Twentieth Century: Prisons: Policies, Philosophies and Institutions 115 4.9 The Women Imprisoned 128 4.10 Female Imprisonment in the 1900’s 137 4.5 Summary 139 Chapter Five Contemporary Discourses 141 5.1 Expert Gazes 141 5.2 The Press 145 5.3 Prison Staff 154 5.4 Prison Structures 170 5.4(i) Reception 171 5.4(iii) Healthcare 175 5.4(iii) Education 183 5.4(iv) Accommodation 189 5.5 Summary 192 Chapter Six Contemporary Profiles, Prison Experiences and Personal Identities 193 6.1 Profiles 193 6.1 (i) The Women Imprisoned in the Dochas Centre over One Year 193 6.1 (ii) A Profile of the Women on One Day in the Dochas Centre 199 6.1 (iii) The Women Interviewed 201 ‘Trustees’ 202 Addicted Women 205 6.2 Prison Experiences 210 6.2 (i) Experiences of Control 211 6.2 (ii) Prison Structures 213 6.2 (iii) Prison Discipline 217 6.3 Personal Identities 224 6.3 (i) The Sub-cultures 225 6.3(ii) The Addicted Women 228 6.3 (iii) Sexuality 230 6.3(iv) The Media 235 6.3(v) Prisoner Identities 237 6.4 Summary 239 Chapter Seven Presentations of Self 241 7.1 Female Prison Space 241 7.2 Signs and Signifiers 244 7.3 Representing Self 249 7.4 Performing the Feminine 267 7.5 The Women in Their Spaces 270 v iii 7.6 Summary 279 Conclusions Chapter Eight 281 The Dochas Centre 282 Bibliography 283 Appendices Appendix 1 Ireland’s Prisons 329 Appendix 2 A Journey into the Women’s Prisons 330 Appendix 3 Interviewees (Working with the Prisons) 341 Appendix 4 Interview Schedule (Those workers) 342 Appendix 5 Interview Schedule (Imprisoned Women) 343 Appendix 6 Photo-Elicitation Interview Schedule 355 Appendix 7 Historical Data 356 Appendix 8 Kilmainham Data 358 Appendix 9 Average Daily Number/Closure of Prisons 1930-2000 360 Appendix 10 Prison Industries 361 Appendix 11 Table of Offences 1930-1990 362 Appendix 12 Recidivism Rates 365 Appendix 13 List of Newspaper Article Titles 366 Appendix 14 In the Press 373 Appendix 15 The Women Featured 374 Appendix 16 Home Address - Women Currently Imprisoned 375 Appendix 17 Listed Data - Range of Offences 2000-2001 377 List of Photographs Chapter Four Photograph One: Aerial shot Mountjoy Prison 1949 97 Photograph Two: Mountjoy Prison 1993 123 Photograph Three: The Dochas Centre 125 Photograph Four: The path to the female wing of Limerick Prison 127 Chapter Five Photograph Five: The Dochas Centre 167 Photograph Six: One of two duplicate corridors in Limerick Prison 174 Photograph Seven: Padded Cell with Refractory Gowns and Blankets: Dochas Centre 178 Photograph Eight: Door into females’ school: Limerick Prison 187 Photograph Nine: The women’s exercise yard in Limerick Prison 190 Chapter Six Photograph Ten: The Big Yard in The Dochas Centre 217 Photograph Eleven: Double Cell Limerick Prison 220 Photograph Twelve: Padded Cell: The Dochas Centre 222 Photograph Thirteen: Two-woman cell: Limerick Prison 224 Chapter Seven Photograph Fourteen: The artist’s studio: Dochas Centre 246 Photograph Fifteen: An empty room: the Dochas Centre 249 Photograph Sixteen: An inhabited room: the Dochas Centre 250 Photograph Seventeen: A woman’s room: Dochas Centre 251 Photograph Eighteen: A woman’s room: Dochas Centre 252 Photograph Nineteen: Woman’s cell: Limerick Prison 253 Photograph Twenty: Bedside locker, woman’s room: Dochas Centre 254 Photograph Twenty-One: Bedside locker, woman’s room: Dochas Centre 255 Photograph Twenty-Two: Double occupancy cell: new accommodation, Limerick Prison 256 Photograph Twenty-Three: From a wall in a cell in Limerick Prison 257 Photograph Twenty-four: Poster, wall in woman’s room, Dochas Centre 258 Photograph Twenty-five: A woman’s cell, old accommodation: Limerick Prison 259 Photograph Twenty-Six: Woman’s room: Dochas Centre 260 Photograph Twenty-seven: Cell in Limerick Prison 261 Photograph Twenty-eight:
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