Experiencing Prison: N/a

For many countries incarceration is one the harshest sanctions available, and unfortunately prison populations are increasing worldwide. The reasons behind a persons detention are unlimited, however many are imprisonment for political or detention purposes. Are they treated with dignity whilst they are incarcerated? Can they resist or adapt to a prison regime? What are the repercussions to the people who are detained? How can we learn from the past? In May 2011 scholars from around the globe gathered at the second Experiencing Prison conference in Warsaw to explore the many different aspects of imprisonment. The Authors who have contributed towards these chapters originate from many different countries, including Australia, America, Canada, Germany, India, Iran, Ireland, Poland, South Korea and The UK. The rich debates and conversations that were had between delegates covered an expansive scope that unfortunately cannot be reproduced in text, but the following chapters represent a collection of some of the papers that were presented at the conference. Each paper analyses some aspect of imprisonment, and the papers cover a wide range of topics that vary from political prisoners, education within prison, and the rehabilitation of offenders. Likewise, the research conducted for each of the papers originates from a mixture of methodologies, for example from prison literature and film reviews, practitioners' accounts, prisoner interviews, personal narratives and personal reflections.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Isla M. Masson PART 1: Aesthetics within Prison Fragments of a Life: Creativity and Conflict in the Face of Death Jasbir Jain Imagining for Myself: A Moral Aesthetic inside Prison Diana Medlicott PART 2: Health within, Health without The Accidental Nature Preserve: How Incarceration of Humans Can Liberate Nature Elaine Anderson Moving In; Moving Out; Moving On: Re-Envisioning Prison Programming in a Time of Transition Phyllis G. Hastings PART 3: Lessons Ignored? Women in Prison The Experience of Nineteenth-Century Female Inmates in Pennsylvania's State Penitentiaries Erica Rhodes Hayden What Harm Could it Do? The Impact of Short Periods of Imprisonment on Women Isla M. Masson PART 4: Prison Reading, Prison Writing What has Creative Writing Done for Me? Prisoner's Perspective Maidy Clark Prison's Pains as Public Artifacts: Bernard Malamud's The Fixer and the Rosenberg Letters Beth Connors-Manke PART 5: Breaking Boundaries: The Channel Islands under German Occupation Guernsey under German Occupation: Panopticism and Resistance Sandra McGunigall Identity Parade: Formation and Re-Formation of Identity during the Nazi Occupation of the Channel Islands Sheila C. Bibb Model Occupation Stores: Collective Memories of the Channel Islands during World War II Laurie Ostler Petersen PART 6: Socialisation within and without Pieces of a Man Don Wright Youth in Peril Richard Halpy Constructing a Culture of Prison Release Diana Johns PART 7: Education in Prison Reflecting the Past by Logical Thinking and Preparing the Future by Creativity Hee Sook Lee-Niinioja Creating Space - Creative Space: The Hybridity of Prison Education Analysed through Subject and Object Interactions Manuela Barz PART 8: Issues of Personal Identity Stateless Culture and Imprisonment: The Memoirs of Gulag Survivor Leyzer Ran Faye Ran PART 9: Political Prisoners Hunger and Sus: Stop and Search: Renarrating: Thatcher's Britain in the Context of Post-9/11 Counterterrorism Alex Adams Imprisoned in a Period of Transition: A Political Prisoner's Account of a Women's Ward in Post-Revolutionary Iran Ladan Azad and Maria Baghramian Prison as Transforming Space Santosh Gupta PART 10: Detain, Control and Discipline Experiencing Prison? Immigration Detention and Limits of Disciplinary Power Magdalena Kmak When Prison is not Prison: Australian Courts' Rejection of Material Experience and Effects as Elements of Punishment Mark Brown

About the Author :
Masson's academic interests lie in prison studies, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, female offending, and penal reform. Her doctoral research looks at how even an initial short period in prison negatively impacts female offenders and their children, and it is hypothesised that community punishment would allow, particularly non-violent, women to focus on the reasons behind their offending behaviour. She also works part time for The London School of Economics as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.