Home free? The (After)Effects of Imprisonment on Women's Bodies, Physical and Mental Health and Identity

Abstract

As women's prison populations grow in Canada and around the world, more women are exposed to carceral practices which use disciplinary techniques to shape them into 'docile bodies. Although intended to shape women's minds, these processes also have marked effects on female bodies. Using a Foucauldian perspective, we examine how women adapt to and resist the prison's disciplinary routines and its intrusions into their lives and bodies. Interviews with female ex-prisoners reveal how everyday degradations, health practices, self-injury and body modification shape their bodies and identities. These women's accounts are interpreted through the lens of the body to explore the long-term effects of the prison's rationalities and technologies on their bodies, minds and identities. We document how women negotiate these forces during their imprisonments, as well as after their releases when they are living in the community. Even though women are released from prison, they are not home free; the prison's technologies and rationalities permeate the prison walls and follow the women as they negotiate community life.