The Prisoner: Inside and Out

The prison is a peculiarly abstracted space which inhabits society's collective conscience. Yet without first-hand experience the information that society receives about prison, its practices and effects are beset by agenda and value-laden media representations as well as political rhetoric which rarely, if ever, corresponds to the reality of prisoner’s lived experiences . This chapter aims to redress this dissonance by explicating how imprisonment can affect the individual psychologically, emotionally and physically throughout their carceral life and beyond. The purpose here is to move the discussion on the pains of imprisonment beyond the focal point of the prison, and to explore how these pains may be generated before entrance to the institution, as well as how they may pertain beyond the physical boundaries of the walls. This chapter is informed by both my own history as an academic and as a former prisoner as well as work conducted on behalf of a third sector organisation during a number of projects based in various prisons and with former prisoners in the community