The pains of prison reform: Informal prisoner governance and penal subjectivities in Estonia and Lithuania

Abstract

Building on the growing literature on the varying degrees and dimensions of prisoner governance across prison systems, this paper aims to understand how such governance, and reforms to reduce its informal influences, shape prisoner experiences in Estonia and Lithuania. Estonia has limited the influence of prisoner governance through the creation of a cell-based prison system, while Lithuania has maintained penal colonies in which prisoners largely self-govern. Utilizing a metaphor approach to the pains of imprisonment, we offer the concept of an imposition gradient to capture variation in the experience of the weight and tightness produced by both prison authorities and prisoners themselves across our cases. The paper makes three contributions: first, it aims to explicitly assess the relationship between varieties of prisoner governance and penal subjectivities. Second, it rethinks the relatively static metaphors of weight and tightness as fluid and dynamic experiences shaped by the degrees of prisoner governance present within prison systems and particular spaces of particular prisons. Third, the paper speaks to recent appeals to develop comparative research into varieties of imprisonment regimes, deepening comparative theories of prison order across the Global North and South.