âô. t2-T1 PENETRATING THE FENCES: A GENDER ANALYSIS OF THE PRISON BA (Mon",n,, .'", Ï Ï ,îJ;;Jiä:nash), MA (Aderaide) A thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of PhilosoPhY Department of Social InquirY University of Adelaide August, 1999 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT vi DECLARATION viii ACKNO\ryLEDGMENTS ix Chapter Page 1 INTRODUCTION I Setting the context I Theoretical directions 4 Overview 8 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 11 Section 1: Investigating the modern prison 13 Making the body docile 18 Section 2: Explorations of the experience of 25 vvoman as criminal and Prisoner The quest for women'friendly prisons 32 Drug Use: Differences between men and 33 women prisoners Prisoner mental health 36 Prisoners as mothers 37 Sexual assault in men's and women's prisons 42 Gender and prisoner misconduct 44 Sex in women's prisons 4S Section 3: The prison and masculinity 47 Causes of men's crime 48 üi Chapter Page 3 METHODOLOGY 56 The research method and tools 56 Difficulties conducting the research 63 The interviews 65 The interview schedule 68 Validity of the research 70 4 THE MEN'S PRISON 72 Section 1: Learning to be a real criminal 73 Youth Training Centres 73 Doing crime 75 The all-male criminal familY 83 Women prison officers 90 Young men's initiation into prison 93 Changes in prison: Drugs and disloyalty to The Code to2 Section 2: Policing boundaries between 10E protection and mainstream Protected men: The Other to criminal masculinity 109 The gaze: The panopticon and masculinity It2 Chitd sex offenders: The Other to dominant t17 heterosexual masculinitY Rape in the men's prison 130 Men's prison summary t37 1V Chapter Page 5 THE WOMEN'S PRISON 139 The female criminal 139 First experience in Prison 143 Violence in the womenrs Prison 150 Rape in the women's Prison 153 Reforming the waYward 1s6 Inside and outside suPPort 161 Support for Nunga Prisoners 16s Building a community: The Living Skitls Unit t67 Finding support in high securitY 168 Relationships with prison officers 168 The gaze on \ilomen prisoners 181 Styles of conflict resolution 184 Mothering from Prison 194 Marking the body 202 Women's prison summary 2t3 6 CONCLUSIONS: GENDER AND TECHNIQUES 216 OF POWER Gender: The Invisible Technique of Power 216 Medication and gender 216 The multiple gazes 218 Criminal masculinity: A technique of power 221 Women prisoners different rather than The Other 225 Imptications and challenges 229 The key reform challenge 231 v APPENDICES 232 Appendix A: Interview schedules for prisoners 232 Appendix B: Interview schedules for prison offïcers 23s and staff Appendix C: Interview schedules for professional staff 237 Appendix D: Glossary 239 Appendix E: Letters to prisons 247 Appendix F: Consent form 249 Appendix G: Participant information sheet 250 BIBLIOGRAPHY 251 v1 ABSTRACT This thesis explores the prison experiences of female and male prisoners. The study aims to record and analyse the ways in which prisoners represent their experiences behind the wall. To do this, the study has involved in-depth interviews with 100 prisoners or ex-prisoners. Specifically, 54 male prisoners from Yatala Labour Prison and 38 women prisoners from Adelaide Vy'omen's Prison in Adelaide, South Australia were interviewed. Interviews conducted with a further six male and two female ex- prisoners from South Australia and Victoria have also been included. All the male prisoners inærviewed at Yatala Labour Prison were maximum security prisoners. Fifteen of the 38 women interviewed were low security prisoners accommodated in the Living Skitls Units at Adelaide Women's Prison. The study also draws on 53 inærviews conducted with prison staff from Yatala Labour Prison and Adelaide 'Women's Prison. Forty of the 53 inærviews were with prison officers, and the remainder were with professional staff and managers. This thesis reviews previous studies and understandings of 'the prison' and prisoners' experiences, and it compares and contrasts these studies and understandings with insights gained from the interviews conducted with prisoners in South Australia. The existing literature provides a starting point from which 'the prison' and prisoners' experiences can be analysed. While previous studies have established that women prisoners' experiences of prison are often traumatic, the task for this research is to explore the extent to which this trauma is likened to existing understandings of 'the prison', and 'the prisoner' both in tegal and popular discourse. This thesis provides new understandings about the culture of 'the prison'. Through its inænogation of the French philosopher Michel Foucault's thesis of penalty and the analysis of interviews with prisoners, it explores the different ways in which gender operates in men's and women's prisons as a core technique of power. vü Furthermore the thesis investigates the meaning of masculinity for criminality and how a specific form of masculinity is inscribed in the language and understandings of what constitutes a 'real criminal'. In so doing, this study provides new understandings about the ways in which a particular form of criminal ma.sculinity is sustained, especially in the face of increasing female imprisonment. lX ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people who have assisted, supported and encouraged me Ûo complete this thesis. They have done this in different ways and I am deeply grateful to them. In particular I want to thank: Dr Margie Ripper from the Departrnent of Social Lquiry at The University of Adelaide. I owe a special debt of gratitude for Margie's superb supervision and intellectual rigour and support. Margie's encouragement and belief in my abitity from the beginning to the end of this project has been unwavering and indeed crucial. Similarly, I am most appreciative of the assistance of Dr Lynda Burn from the Philosophy Department at Flinders University. With Margie, Lynda provided excellent supervision in the final year of my candidature. I am most grateful for her interest in reading my work, and for her challenging and informative feedback. Diego Natale who has lived this thesis with me and never failed to encourage and believe in me; I am more than grateful. The former Chief Executive Officer of South Australian Correctional Services, Ms Sue Vardon, along with the Managers of Adelaide Women's Prison and Yatala Labour Prison, for granting me permission to conduct this research in the South Australian prison system. To all the men and women who volunteered to be part of this research. Without the participation and support of inmates, officers and program staff from Yatala x and Adelaide Women's Prison, I would not have been able to complete my research. For this I am most grateful. The staff and postgraduate students from the Department of Social Inquiry at The University of Adelaide for their interest and encouragement- Additionally to Norma Nitschke for her support. Finally, this thesis is dedicaæd to Frank (1952-1994). He was instrumental in my decision to write this thesis. His input and knowledge of prisons was an enormous help. x1 Each of my works is part of my biography Michel Foucault (from an interview with Michel Foucault in Martin, et al. 1982:11). CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Setting the context This thesis is entitled Penetrating the Fences: A Gender Analysis of The Prison. 'Penetrating the Fences' is an expression which gained significance for this study of gender relationships within the prison from the moment I read the sign affrxed to the perimeter wire of Yatala Labour Prison in Adelaide, South Australia. The sign read:- Do not penetrate this perimcter. Armed fficers patrol this area. Not only is the masculine image of penetraúon at the centre of my study, but the necessity to penetrate the 'fences' of the prison has been a driving force in my research- The prison has emerged as an object of attention and criticism in the work of a range of feminist and non-feminist scholars including philosophers, sociologists and criminologists. However, itmong this diverse body of material, surprisingly little research has been undertaken which inænogates the very different experiences of men and women prisoners. In particular there is a paucity of research which adequately investigates the gendered effects that the different prison experiences have on and in prisoners' bodies. Additionally there has been very little research which explores the impact of the prison experience on identity or well-being. While feminist criminologists have questioned and exposed the difftculties that women prisoners commonly experience, there is nevertheless considerable research within criminology which continues to accept that 'the prison' and the criminal a¡e masculine. Australian criminologist Kerry Carrington suggests that there is merit in arguments such as that put forward by Judith Allen that feminist criminology has generally not forced criminology to 'confront its sex question in relation to the male sex' (Carrington, 1990a: 15; Allen, 1989: 23). Similarly, my approach in this study of men's and women's prison experiences has been shaped by feminist concems about the 'man question' in criminology and in particular by the popular cultural 2 representation of male criminals as exciting heroes and women criminals as wayward and pathetic. Indeed in this thesis, sociological and feminist theories about the consfruction of masculinity and femininity have been utilised to develop understandings about the prison. Specifrcally they have provided an important point from which to begin to interpret and understand the culture and function of the prison as well as meanings of criminality and imprisonment for the men and women concerned. The aim of this research is to investigaæ the culture and function of the prison by analysing men and women prisoners' accounts of their experiences of prison. There is unfortunately a lack of research which examine the different cultures within the men's and women's prisons.