Carceral Death: Failures, Crises, and Punishments

Dear Colleagues,

In general, incarceration deteriorates prisoners’ overall health, thereby increasing their risk for premature death. By virtue of their confinement, incarcerated people face heightened exposure to infectious diseases, bear increased burdens for chronic illnesses, and suffer from various forms of emotional and psychological distress. Insofar as carceral facilities are legally vested with protecting the life and well-being of prisoners, social and institutional factors actively undercut these goals. The dual loyalties of health care providers, inadequately resourced health and treatment services, poor death data management, and institutional imperatives that prioritize punishment and control over care contour the overall deadly consequences of confinement. Moreover, populations most likely to be incarcerated already suffer from lowered life expectancies and other health inequities stratified by race. In this way, incarceration is not only detrimental to individual health outcomes but is situated within broader structural processes by which marginalized groups are subjected to slow and attritional forms of state-sanctioned violence. Climate change now confronts us with new and deadly realities when it comes to incarceration. Here, the lives of prisoners are rendered all the more vulnerable as they are confined to geographical areas at risk for extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, floods, and wildfires. Extreme forms of punishment, such as execution and life imprisonment, illustrate the ways in which death also constitutes an intentional penological outcome. The premature death of catastrophic prison conditions and the killing of natural life via punishment, while severe in their infliction and totality, are nonetheless preceded by the civil death inherent to incarceration itself. That is, to be forced to live a life of confinement and captivity is to inhabit a degraded and dispossessed social position (Dayan 2020). How do we as researchers contend with and produce knowledge attentive to the multiple and overlapping dimensions of prison mortality? Additionally, in what ways do we account for the apparent loss in distinction between life and death as evinced by carceral punishment?

This Special Issue seeks to examine and understand the different ways in which death is produced, imposed, and managed by prisons. The goal is to establish a critical, interdisciplinary dialogue that puts forth novel empirical findings, methodological designs, theoretical critiques, and ethical formulations. Together, this compendium will offer new analyses and interpretations of carceral death in the establishment of a bold research program.

Please submit your proposals and any questions to Special Issue editors by 2 December 2024. Notification of acceptance will be provided by 20 December 2024. Final papers are due on 7 July 2025 for peer review. We encourage you to submit your article as soon as possible to help ensure rapid review and publication. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.

References:

Dayan, C. (2020). Guilty things. boundary2. 47: 2, 181-198.

Dr. Justin Donald Strong
Guest Editor

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• prison mortality
• incarceration and health
• social suffering
• critical prison studies