Narratives on Prison Governmentality: No Longer the Prison of the Past

Narratives on Prison Governmentality explores prison governmentality through the analysis of letters of prisoners. The collection of testimonies represents the opportunities and difficulties of resisting in a place of power, which, in recent years, has become more sophisticated and effective.

In recent years there has been a progressive individualisation of the prison population and a continuous erosion of solidarity. The condition of prisoners is influenced by renewed governmental logic that has become more effective for management and even reproduced by the prisoners themselves. Italian prison governmentality has been presented in its softest and hardest discursive forms and material regimes as part of a whole differentiated repertoire. Through the narratives of prison letters, the book shows the sophistication of these carceral logics from the perspective of prisoners engaged in the struggle. Engaging theories of carceral geography and critical criminology, the book focuses on space and time as the dimensions from which to observe power relations and governmentality.

Narratives on Prison Governmentality will be of great interest to students and scholars of Penology, Narrative Criminology, Carceral Geography, and Critical Criminology.