Shifting Carceral Formations: A Genealogy of Penal (Re)construction in the North of Ireland

Abstract

In this chapter I chart the history of prison building, refurbishment and decommissioning in the north of Ireland. In so doing, I examine the political imperatives driving prison de/construction, outline shifts in prison design, and discuss the prison regimes that have emerged as a result. I identify three distinct waves of prison de/construction: the first during the Victorian era (1840s), the second during the conflict era (1970s–80s) and the third during the post-ceasefire era (1990s–2010). I show how Victorian prison building was marked by an attempt to create a single prison establishment with a homogeneous regime, while prison de/construction in the conflict and post-ceasefire eras have been characterised by the atomisation of penal space and the stratification of the prison regime. I argue that in the post-ceasefire era, prison building was encoded with a therapeutic imperative in order to generate a micro-regime capable of supporting ‘at risk’ prisoners and enabling recovery from mental ill-health. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with prison officers and mental health staff, I explore the experiences of those who work in these novel sites of therapeutic penality. Detailing the identity conflicts and troubling emotions prison officers and mental health staff experience, I argue that attempts to manufacture therapeutic micro-regime in highly toxic prison establishments are inherently flawed. Furthermore, I contend that the therapeutic refurbishment of penal space is dangerous, since it serves to legitimise the imprisonment of people experiencing psychological distress and funnels finite resources into penal expansion instead of the community-based programmes and services.