Sensing freedom: Insights into long-term prisoners’ perceptions of the outside world

Abstract

In recent years, scholars have come to agree that ‘total institutions’ are in general more permeable than as outlined in prior studies. The idea of the ‘totality’ of prisons has been challenged, for example, by acknowledging the penetration of the outside world through media or external visitors. However, prison surroundings are often a topic that is not granted a lot of attention. Using ethnographic data on the everyday lives of prisoners sentenced to indefinite incarceration in Switzerland, this article explores long-term prisoners’ sensory perceptions of the outside world, in particular through hearing, seeing and smelling. It is argued that this affects not only the prisoners’ understanding of ‘the prison’ but also their experience of time and their sense of self. A closer look at their diverse ways of dealing with these (potential) connections to the outside world reveals their individual approaches to the indefinite nature of their incarceration.