Imaginaries and Narratives of Prison Violence
Draws on prisoner narratives to examine violence in Venezuelan prisons. Data were obtained from fieldwork conducted over 8 months in 1997 at Catia Prison in Caracas. The narratives include oral testimonies & an iconography of religious images found in the prison. It is contended that religious objects reinforce the prisoners' perceptions of themselves as warriors, & this warrior imaginary regulates the behavior of inmates who use intimidation to survive within the penal community. Exploration of the reappropriation of the traditional figure of the warrior in religious imagery calls attention to spirits of African origin associated with the cult of possession, & the combining of the notion of the warrior with other concepts or practices, including crime, making an ethic of criminal violence part of the daily discourse. Imagery in Catia Prison that raises the criminal to the socially motivated outlaw & promotes myths of the criminal as heroic are described & related to acts of violence that are converted into symbols of heroic social protest. Quotations from the narratives are included. J. Lindroth