I do what I’m told, sort of: Reformed subjects, unruly citizens, and parole

Although parole and the processes of prisoner reentry have received considerable attention, how individuals on parole respond to the State’s efforts to regulate their conduct and govern their personhood remains under theorized. Drawing from ethnographic research with individuals on parole, this arti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTheoretical criminology Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 329 - 346
Main Author Werth, Robert
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.08.2012
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Anthropology
Citizens
Ethnography
Governance
Hostility
Parole
Parole & probation
Penal codes
Personhood
Power
Prisoner rehabilitation
Prisoners
Punishment Rehabilitation Relationship
Regulation
Rehabilitation of criminals
Social control
Speech
Subjectivity
Supervision
reintegration
subjectivity
regulation
parole
community penalties
governance
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Summary:Although parole and the processes of prisoner reentry have received considerable attention, how individuals on parole respond to the State’s efforts to regulate their conduct and govern their personhood remains under theorized. Drawing from ethnographic research with individuals on parole, this article examines how parolees navigate the social control inherent in this penal practice. Parole entails both productive and repressive power; responsibilizing and de-responsibilizing elements. The parole agency’s efforts to govern up-close—through supervision and regulation of everyday conduct—are frequently met with subversion, resistance, and hostility, while efforts to govern-at-a-distance are more productive. In general paroled subjects reproduce the injunction to transform their lives, becoming committed to ‘going straight’, ethical reformation, and responsible citizenship. This ‘reformed subjectivity’ guides how individuals enact parole, but does not reflect subjection or their full acquiescence to penal power. Rather, by engaging selectively with the rules, they render their conditions of parole malleable. These individuals on parole are committed to going straight but doing so, as much as possible, on their own terms. In this way, the reformed subjectivities they display both reflect and resist penal power.
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ISSN:1362-4806
1461-7439
DOI:10.1177/1362480611410775