"BEHIND BARS AND WITHIN WALLS": SURVIVING CHANGI WOMEN'S PRISON

Abstract

How prisoners survive prison is the fundamental question of this thesis. The impositions of the penal phenomenon on the inmate is encapsulated in the discourse of the prison. It is this discursive object: "the good prisoner" that is the disciplinary mechanism. All the rules, regulations and routines are instituted in an effort to achieve this ideal. Prisons have been of interest to many social scientists from Sykes to Giallombardo, from Foucault to Goffman. These studies have dealt with such issues as power, resistance and adaptation to the penal environment. One of the most important adaptation strategies has largely been overlooked: that of collaboration. This thesis argues that the penal phenomenon cannot fulfil its aims without the input of the prisoners. The contribution of inmates to surveillance, order and discipline is invaluable though often been neglected. Moreover, inmate subculture which is often seen as a site of resistance is a mechanism of social control as well. It contributes to the exercise of power by the authorities. However, any study of power is incomplete without taking into account resistance to that imposed power. The notion of "insubordination within compliance" is explored. The battle between the officers and the inmates is moved onto the symbolic field. Resistance is seen as possible only if it is covert and small scale. Finally, it is argued that fantasy is a site of resistance against the alienation of the self that is part of the penal process as well as against the penal phenomenon itself.