Process and Becoming: Spatiality and Carceral Identities

Abstract

This paper theorizes that a process of identity transformation occurs when individuals enter prisons, whereby individuals become prisoners. I investigate how this identity transformation occurs through interaction with the prison’s architectural design. Prisons are posited as locations of purposeful spatial organization whose design evokes particular performances from those within and outside, and which actively contributes to the creation of the prisoner identity. This investigation reveals a carceral power at work which renders prisons sites of articulated and detailed control that exist within a broader set of institutional practices and relations of power aimed at the transformation of individuals. This discussion critically engages with the broader purpose of the prison: while prisons are meant to rehabilitate and reform prisoners, the structured architecture of the prison conflicts with this objective.