Article

Carceral surveillance: Data flows within and beyond prison walls

Details

Citation

Miranda D (2024) Carceral surveillance: Data flows within and beyond prison walls. Incarceration, 5. https://doi.org/10.1177/26326663241237966

Abstract
In this article, we will analyse contemporary carceral surveillance dynamics, namely the increasing storage and exchange of prisoners' biometric data. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in prisons, policing and security settings, we will explore how prisoners' bodies are reduced to information and broken up into data flows. These flows move within and beyond prison walls, impacting how prisoner's data is shared (in)formally with other criminal justice actors (e.g. police forces). Such interstitial connections allow us to better explore the permeability and porosity of prison boundaries. Overall, we argue that prisoners' data doubles are not spatially or physically restricted within cells and walls, as they circulate and are virtually managed at a distance. We urge to revisit and rethink the use of panoptic conceptual models when researching carceral spaces, its technological infrastructures and surveillance dynamics.

Keywords
Prison; technology; surveillance; biometrics; prisoners

Journal
Incarceration: Volume 5

StatusPublished
FundersESRC Economic and Social Research Council
Publication date31/12/2024
Publication date online06/03/2024
Date accepted by journal25/01/2024
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/35973
ISSN2632-6663
eISSN2632-6663

People (1)

Dr Diana Miranda

Dr Diana Miranda

Senior Lecturer, Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology

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