Suchergebnisse

"In addition to holding nearly a quarter of the world's legal captives, the United States puts them to work. Close to two-thirds of those held in state prisons hold some sort of job within their institution. For them, prison is not only a place of punishment, but a workplace as well. Yet, very little is known about work behind bars. To illuminate the "black box" of modern prison labor, Michael Gibson-Light conducted 18 months of ethnographic observations and over 80 interviews with currently-incarcerated men as well as staff members within one of America's many medium-security prisons. This book pulls together these accounts to paint a picture of daily labors on the inside, showing that not all prison jobs are the same, nor are all imprisoned workers treated equally. While some find value and purpose in higher-paying, more desirable jobs, others struggle against monotony and hardship in lower-paying, deskilled worksites. The result is a stratified prison employment system in which race, ethnicity, nationality, and social class help determine one's position, which shapes their experiences of incarceration and often their ability to prepare for release. Through insightful first-hand perspectives and rich ethnographic detail, Orange-Collar Labor takes the reader inside the prison workplace, illustrating the formal prison economy and labor system alongside the informal black market on which many rely to survive. Highlighting moments of struggle and suffering, as well as hard work, cooperation, resistance, and dignity in harsh environments, it documents the lives of America's working prisoners and the inequalities they face"--

The 1970s saw incarcerated laborers engage in an unprecedented battle to secure recognition, rights, and protections. This article traces the rise of the Prisoners Union, the largest and most prominent organization of its sort, as it endeavored to elevate the standing of captive labor. Through qualitative analysis of archival materials, this work unpacks penal laborers' classification struggles aimed at advancing status in the penal field and rejoining the ranks of the working class. Investigating this movement's successes and failures enhances empirical knowledge of prison organizing as well as theoretical understandings of classification struggles, and helps contextualize historic penological developments.

One dominant theoretical explanation for higher incarceration rates across the world focuses on how a nation's level of diversity or minority presence broadly writ unleashes racial resentment that can lead to incarceration. This article contends that population heterogeneity alone offers an incomplete picture of how ethnic-based tension can affect incarceration rates. Rather, we argue that majority ethnic groups around the world use prison systems in order to govern and manage minority populations, especially those systematically excluded from power. In addition, we argue that these political structures have their roots in a nation's colonial legacy, a legacy that shapes a nation's contemporary incarceration rates. Results from our quantitative analysis reveal that controlling for competing explanations, there are positive associations between ethnic political exclusion and the length and form of a nation's colonial experience and rates of incarceration.