Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-260) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: Palace de excreta -- Despair -- Objectification -- The boss -- The rep system -- Hot plates and Prada -- The "politics" -- Sensory deprivation -- Deputies -- Scott -- "Court bodies" -- Champion -- "Jailing" -- Alone time -- Time -- Byron -- Nightmares and respite -- Sisqo -- Complexities of care -- A lesson -- It is what it is.
Summary:
"Indefinite is the first major ethnographic study of American jails since the advent of racialized mass incarceration. The author was confined in a southern California county jail system during which time, he conducted what he calls an organic ethnography of jail life. The resulting study is an investigation of the vagaries of jail living, the relationship between custodial deputies and penal residents, the endurance strategies residents employed to protect their emotional selves from being overwhelmed by the nature of jail punishment, and consequences of extremes of vulnerability, uncertainty, and penal time. Indefinite toggles between what is peculiar to jail time and what is familiar in broader social life to develop general concepts, sensitizing schemes, and theories about social life that expand beyond the specifics of jail without reducing jail to a mere case study"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.