What is it about?
This article examines how we might best examine the most extreme and inaccessible corners of imprisonment. Drawing on a study of life imprisonment without parole (LWOP) in California, this article argues that prisoners’ letters can shed exceptional light on the hidden and unspoken experiences of imprisonment.
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Why is it important?
By better understanding how to do prison research with letters and the emotions these might provoke in the process, this article demonstrates the very specific and distinct value of the method, in particular how letters can contribute to knowledge about extreme penal severity.
Perspectives
This article provides an original in-depth methodological and reflective outline of how to use prisoners’ letters, a familiar tactic in prison researchers’ and advocates’ toolkits, but a research implement that is rarely discussed explicitly.
Marion Vannier
University of Manchester
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The power of the pen: Prisoners’ letters to explore extreme imprisonment, Criminology & Criminal Justice, December 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1748895818818872.
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