Prison Life Writing is the first full-length study of one of the most controversial genres in American literature. By exploring the complicated relationship between life writing and institutional ...power, this book reveals the overlooked aesthetic innovations of incarcerated people and the surprising literary roots of the U.S. prison system. Simon Rolston observes that the autobiographical work of incarcerated people is based on a conversion narrative, a story arc that underpins the concept of prison rehabilitation and that sometimes serves the interests of the prison system, rather than those on the inside. Yet many imprisoned people rework the conversion narrative the way they repurpose other objects in prison. Like a radio motor retooled into a tattoo gun, the conversion narrative has been redefined by some authors for subversive purposes, including questioning the ostensible emancipatory role of prison writing, critiquing white supremacy, and broadly reimagining autobiographical discourse. An interdisciplinary work that brings life writing scholarship into conversation with prison studies and law and literature studies, Prison Life Writing theorizes how life writing works in prison, explains literature's complicated entanglements with institutional power, and demonstrates the political and aesthetic innovations of one of America's most fascinating literary genres.
Background:Despite growing inmate populations in the USA, inmates are excluded from most national health surveys and little is known about whether the prevalence of chronic disease differs between ...inmates and the non-institutionalised population.Methods:Nationally representative, cross-sectional data from the 2002 Survey of Inmates in Local Jails, 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities and 2002–4 National Health Interview Survey Sample Adult Files on individuals aged 18–65 were used. Binary and multinomial logistic regression were used to compare the prevalence of self-reported chronic medical conditions among jail (n = 6582) and prison (n = 14 373) inmates and non-institutionalised (n = 76 597) adults after adjusting for age, sex, race, education, employment, the USA as birthplace, marital status and alcohol consumption. Prevalence and adjusted ORs with 95% CIs were calculated for nine important chronic conditions.Results:Compared with the general population, jail and prison inmates had higher odds of hypertension (ORjail 1.19; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.31; ORprison 1.17; 95% CI 1.09 to 1.27), asthma (ORjail 1.41; 95% CI 1.28 to 1.56; ORprison 1.34; 95% CI 1.22 to 1.46), arthritis (ORjail 1.65; 95% CI 1.47 to 1.84; ORprison 1.66; 95% CI 1.54 to 1.80), cervical cancer (ORjail 4.16; 95% CI 3.13 to 5.53; ORprison 4.82; 95% CI 3.74 to 6.22), and hepatitis (ORjail 2.57; 95% CI 2.20 to 3.00; ORprison 4.23; 95% CI 3.71 to 4.82), but no increased odds of diabetes, angina or myocardial infarction, and lower odds of obesity.Conclusions:Jail and prison inmates had a higher burden of most chronic medical conditions than the general population even with adjustment for important sociodemographic differences and alcohol consumption.
The U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay has become the symbol of an unprecedented detention system of global reach and immense power. Since the 9/11 attacks, the news has on an almost daily basis ...headlined stories of prisoners held indefinitely at Guantánamo without charge or trial, many of whom have been interrogated in violation of restrictions on torture and other abuse. These individuals, once labeled "enemy combatants" to eliminate legal restrictions on their treatment, have in numerous instances been subject to lawless renditions between prisons around the world. The lines between law enforcement and military action; crime and war; and the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of power have become dangerously blurred, and it is time to unpack the evolution and trajectory of these detentions to devise policies that restore the rule of law and due process.
Obama's Guantánamo: Stories from an Enduring Prisondescribes President Obama's failure to close America's enduring offshore detention center, as he had promised to do within his first year in office, and the costs of that failure for those imprisoned there. Like its predecessor,Guantánamo Lawyers: Inside a Prison Outside the Law, Obama's Guantánamoconsists of accounts from lawyers who have not only represented detainees, but also served as their main connection to the outside world. Their stories provide us with an accessible explanation of the forces at work in the detentions and place detainees' stories in the larger context of America's submission to fearmongering. These stories demonstrate all that is wrong with the prison and the importance of maintaining a commitment to human rights even in times of insecurity.
Bringing together national and international perspectives on Italian and other wartime internees, the essays in this book assess the differing interpretations offered of Italian internment in Canada, ...the UK, the USA, and Australia during WWII.
