The Incorporated Prison: Living Beyond Detention

Abstract

Prison confinement has had a profound effect on personal experiences. For many, prison has, over time, been incorporated. On the one hand, what I qualify as military mises-en-scene and the harsh treatment of military justice have contributed to a heroic subjectivation of young men, and lately of young women, increased by social networks and generational modes of communication. They operate in a similar way as the new prison management, relying on the productive dimension of power by working on distinction, playing on egos. Heroic subjectivation is jeopardizing the future of a generation all the more as youth arrests have recently increased, especially in Jerusalem. On the other hand, the iconic masculinity of prisoners, the prison experience of men and women has become an opportunity to build balanced relationships, breaking with certain social norms and gender roles. The increased porosity between Inside and Outside helped maintain and build bonds beyond prison. Individual and emotional bonds have been reinvented by the collective, through sharing and political resignifications of personal relations and intimacy. Finally, a web of ties and common, subversive and extended and alternative parentality have responded to the grip of the prison web thanks to dematerialized and technological means: those of radio waves, cellphones, digital and reproductive technologies.