Jill McCorkel - The Profit in Loss: Metamorphosis and Adaption of the Private Prison Industry

Last week Jill McCorkel joined us to talk about her new research on prison privatisation in the US, specifically the growth of privatised drug treatment. Jill is Associate Professor of Criminology and Sociology at Villanova University in Philadelphia, and has just finished up a research period as Visiting Scholar in the Sutherland School of Law at UCD. Previously, Jill has published on the impact of the War on Drugs on women's imprisonment in the US. Her 2013 book from NYU Press, Breaking Women: Gender, Race and the New Politics of Imprisonment, details her extensive ethnographic research in this area.

More recently, Jill has been examining the increase of privatised carceral drug treatment, and she has explored how companies 'sold' treatment and rehabilitation to states that were determinedly 'get tough'. We discussed Jill forthcoming articles on this topic, including 'The Second Coming' (2018, Contemporary Drug Problems) and 'Banking on Rehab' (2018, Studies in Law, Politics and Society).

Lynsey Black, Ian O'Donnell & Jill McCorkel at The DA!

Jill spoke about her research on prison privatisation, arguing that for most people this term translates easily to 'private prisons', however this meaning has neglected the increasing privatisation of services within the prison setting. Jill argued that the provision of correctional and prisons-related services was an incredibly lucrative venture, netting billion dollar profits for correctional companies, and a revenue stream that avoided many of the risks that building and operating an entire prison entailed. While companies such as CoreCivic and others faced significant pressures to make profits, especially after lawsuits and escapes, providing services such as carceral drug treatment carried less risk as well as an opportunity to maximise profits.

Jill's research demonstrates how specific models and definitions of addiction could be utilised to increase potential profits. She cited a particular focus on a traditional 'disease-oriented' conception of addiction as situated at the level of the self, without consideration of an individual's circumstances. Under this paradigm, the recidivism of drug-using offenders was not 'failure', rather it merely demonstrated the accuracy of the original diagnosis.

Jill's research also offered insight into how gendered and racial hierarchies and conceptions of 'dangerousness' were mobilised by correctional companies. Citing Sarah Haley's exploration of gender and Jim Crow, No Mercy Here, as an historical precursor, Jill noted that African American women prisoners were constructed under a familiar racist trope of Black women as 'less feminine' than White women. Jill argued that drug treatment was sold as an appropriate service for male prisoners based on a very misleading argument that it had been successful with African American women.

Jill's research takes a close look at an under-explored facet of prison privatisation in the US - arguing for a more expansive approach to how we understand 'privatisation'. Her recent articles on this topic, a trio of pieces which examine what this means for mass imprisonment in the US and the future of punishment in the US, are essential reading for any scholar of punishment.

AUTHOR EVENT with Jill McCorkel: The Profit in Loss: Metamorphosis and Adaption of the Private Prison Industry

Jill McCorkel is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Villanova University. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice at University College Dublin. Jill’s research investigates the social and political consequences of mass incarceration in the United States. She focuses primarily on how law and systems of punishment perpetuate race, class, and gender-based inequities. In 2014, she received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology Division of Women and Crime for her research in these areas. Her book, Breaking Women: Gender, Race, and the New Politics of Imprisonment (New York University Press, 2013), explores the consequences of the War on Drugs and "get tough" policies for women prisoners. Her book was selected by the Society for the Study of Social Problems as one of five finalists for the prestigious C. Wright Mills Award.

The Differential Association is very happy to have Jill joining us for a discussion about her recent work on private prisons in the United States. We will be discussing Jill's recent article in Contemporary Drug Problems, 'The Second Coming.'

Details!

Date: Thursday 9th November

Time: 5pm to 6.30pm

Venue: The Green Room, Sutherland School of Law, UCD (L021)

To attend the book club and for a copy of the reading material, please RSVP to Lynsey Black (lynsey.black@ucd.ie).

For an overview of Jill's work on the private prison industry:

In August 2016, the Department of Justice announced plans to phase out contracts with private prison companies with the goal of eliminating private prisons in the federal system altogether. For many scholars and prisoner rights advocates, the announcement was an important step in dismantling the prison industrial complex. However, this perspective obscures the extent to which the largest for-profit prison companies have broadly diversified the services they offer to federal, state, and local municipalities and, concomitantly, the source of carceral profits. In a series of articles, Dr McCorkel traces the rise and growing popularity of one of the largest of these for-profit services -- drug treatment. Although rehabilitation was once considered an antidote to mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex, it now fuels the growth of private prison companies and serves as a bedrock of profitability, even in a time of declining prison populations. 

Carceral Geography by Dominique Moran

This March the DA will be reading 'Carceral geography and the spatialities of prison visiting: visitation, recidivism, and hyperincarceration', by Dominique Moran (2013), from Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol.31, 174-190.

Abstract:
Geography, as a disciplinary lens, brings a valuable perspective to the study of the carceral, and carceral geography’s concern for the spatial could provide a new explanatory perspective to the consideration of some accepted tenets within criminology, whilst at the same time offering a productive and useful ‘grounding’ of contemporary geographies of emotion and affect. In the context of hyperincarceration and the carceral continuum of recidivism and repeated reimprisonment, this paper considers the long-observed relationship between prison visitation and reduced recidivism, posits prison visiting rooms as underresearched carceral spaces, and develops theoretical and methodological innovations which nuance the understanding of prison visiting.

Details:
When: Wednesday 29th March at 6pm
Where: Back room of Mulligan's Pub on Poolbeg Street, Dublin 2

Dr Matt Bowden at the DA

Last night we welcomed Dr Matt Bowden, Senior Lecturer at Dublin Institute of Technology, to speak about his book 'Crime, Disorder and Symbolic Violence'. The event was held in the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin, and we had a great turn-out to hear Matt speak.

Biscuits by Colette!

DA feast, white wine chilling...

Author Event - Crime, Disorder and Symbolic Violence by Matt Bowden

Dr Matt Bowden, Senior Lecturer at Dublin Institute of Technology, will be discussing his recent book Crime, Disorder and Symbolic Violence: Governing the Urban Periphery (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) at the next meeting of The Differential Association.

Matt has previously blogged about this work for the Irish Criminology Research Network.

Crime, Disorder and Symbolic Violence employs theories and concepts developed by Pierre Bourdieu and examines the problems of the urban periphery, specifically in the context of Dublin's new urban 'edges', the vast surplus of labour which ringed the city following huge shifts in Ireland's industrial landscape. Matt argues in his book that the state devolved dealing with the crisis to the Department of Justice, as the state sought to govern through symbolic violence.

Matt will discuss this work at the author event, which will be followed by a Q&A session, and a small reception.

Information

The author event will be held on Monday 13th February at 6.30.

The event will be held at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin.

The 39A Dublin Bus from Dublin City Centre (from stops at D'Olier Street, Nassau Street etc) drops you off a few minutes walk from the School of Law).

Please RSVP to lynsey.black@ucd.ie

Xmas DA!

This Xmas, the DA will be sitting down before an open fire to read and discuss Elaine Fishwick and Heusen Mak's Crime Media Culture article 'Fighting Crime, Battling Injustice: The World of Real-Life Superheroes'.

Elaine Fishwick, of the University of Western Sydney, examines the lives of those 'real-life superheroes' who pursue campaigns of justice adopting the guise of fictional archetypes.

Abstract:
This article explores the motivations, actions and experiences of real-life superheroes, those individuals who adopt a superhero persona inspired by both comic books and films, to engage in a range of activities that involve, amongst others, fighting crime, providing community support and battling injustice. Drawing on 13 in-depth interviews with individuals from different countries, as well as an ethnographic content analysis of online material, this innovative research explores the merging of the fictional and the real, the virtual and the terrestrial in the lives of interviewees. The article also enriches our understanding of the ‘carnival of crime’ and ‘edgework’ by arguing that risk, pleasure, excitement and transgression can also be found in a carnival of ‘doing good’ as well as in ‘wrongdoing’.

Details!
The Xmas DA will take place on Wednesday 14th December, at 6.30, in the Library Bar of the Central Hotel - Exchequer Street, Dublin 2.

Prisoners, Solitude and Time

On the evening of Tuesday 14th June, Professor Ian O'Donnell of UCD kindly stopped by The Differential Association, holed up in the Law School of Trinity College for a change, to discuss his new book, Prisoners, Solitude and Time (2014).

Prisoners, Solitude and Time represents the culmination of a decade of work. Ian spoke of an initial idea, in 2004, which he had worked on intermittently, including periods spent on research leave in the United States.

The book explores how prisoners experience, and cope with, prolonged periods of imprisonment, with a particular focus on how prisoners respond to solitary confinement. The work draws on a huge range of material to answer these questions; venturing beyond the criminological, it incorporates accounts of polar and space exploration, wilderness narratives, and tales of isolation and endurance from persons drawn from a diverse selection of backgrounds, to offer an expansive look at the human spirit in adverse conditions. The work also links to the experience of isolation for religious purposes and the solitude of many within religious vocations. In addition to these writings, Professor O'Donnell uses a great many prison memoirs to examine the lived experience of those who have spent long periods of time locked up without everyday human contact.

Prisoners, Solitude and Time offers a number of carefully researched subject-areas for consideration. The book begins with a revisionist take on the history of the separate and silent systems imposed during the 1800s at Cherry Hill and Auburn in the US. Ian writes that the effects of these systems were neither so total, nor so devastating, as critics demanded. In this vein, the book looks particularly at the excoriating account written by Charles Dickens following his visit to Cherry Hill, and notes the public outcry that ensued, and the eventual fall from favour of the separate/silent systems in the UK and the UK.

The book also offers a genesis of the use of 'administrative solitary', now an embedded feature of the US penal system. These chapters offer the fascinating history of 'supermax' (variously labelled depending on the state), tracing it back to prisoner zero, Thomas Silverstein, who murdered a prison officer while at Marion, Illinois, in 1983.

Finally, Prisoners, Solitude and Time, offers insights into how time can be theorised within a prison context and offers perspectives on the subjectivity of time from a range of disciplines. Professor O'Donnell, acknowledging his avowed admiration of alliteration, elaborated the 7 R's of 'doing time' in prison, or as he noted, the seven survival secrets of successful solitaries:

• Rescheduling (live by prison time)
• Removal (remain busy)
• Reduction (e.g. prolonged sleep)
• Reorientation (live in the extended present)
• Resistance (including violence)
• Raptness (absorption in skilled work)
• Reinterpretation (imposing a greater meaning, e.g. religion/spirituality)

Prisoners, Solitude and Time offers examples of persons who have drawn on deep personal reserves of strength to withstand, and flourish, in the adverse conditions of solitary confinement. However, Professor O'Donnell is careful throughout to underline his belief that the use of solitary confinement remains an inhumane practice. Demonstrating the impact of the work, Professor O'Donnell was recently an expert witness in the extradition hearing in Ireland of Ali Charaf Damache, who is wanted in the US to stand trial for terrorism offences. Damache faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted. The book, therefore, does not offer a ground of argument for those in favour of solitary confinement, rather, it examines the experiences of those who have resisted its negative effects, while also offering a nuanced account of its development. The book concludes with the observation that while solitary confinement was initially envisaged as a means to an end (the salvation and moral recovery of the prisoner), it now serves as an end in itself, something which speaks to the cynicism of current US penal ideologies.

We'd like to thank Professor O'Donnell, and all those who came along, and contributed to the discussion afterwards!

Due to a failure in remembering to photograph the event, the below offers some idea of the baked good-goodness of the evening.

Lemon Drizzle cake, a la Colette