Escape from the carceral: Writing by American prisoners, 1895-1916

Abstract

In Discipline and Punish Foucault argued that the carceral state is inescapable. But is this true? One answer can be found within the ultimate carceral institution: the American prison at the turn of the 20th century. This paper examines writing by American prisoners from between 1890 and 1915, and argues that prisoners’ selfrepresentations fit uneasily into the parameters of Foucault’s carceral state: prisoners ‘escaped’ through religion, generic writing that defied progressive individuality, and the ‘mirroring’ of their audiences values, fears, and identity. In this way they blurred the distinction between ‘self’ and ‘other,’ ‘delinquent’ and ‘normal’ that Foucault believed arose inevitably in the modern carceral state.