Captive bodies, prison geographies, and the somatic carceral condition

Abstract

Putting research and reflection on prison experience into conversation with the subfields of carceral and health geography, we discuss the “somatic carceral condition” as a viseral, bodily effect of prisonization. In doing so, we call for increased reliance on data derived from somatic experience as well as autoethnographic insight on imprisonment. More broadly, we argue, an embrace of somatic data used to tell the story of marginalization and captivity experienced in prison and across the carceral continuum can help advance the discipline of geography theoretically, methodologically, and in terms of contributing to praxis-based interventions.