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Prisons and Religion in the Americas
Author(s) -
Graber Jennifer
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
religion compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.113
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1749-8171
DOI - 10.1111/rec3.12089
Subject(s) - scholarship , wrongdoing , power (physics) , construct (python library) , discipline , criminology , prison , sociology , work (physics) , citizenship , michel foucault , history of religions , political science , social science , law , religious studies , philosophy , mechanical engineering , physics , quantum mechanics , politics , computer science , programming language , engineering
Since the 1970s and Michel Foucault's work discipline and power, scholars of religion in the Americas have looked to prisons to track changing ideas about human behavior, wrongdoing and reconciliation, social organization, and citizenship. This article provides a brief transatlantic history of the prison and scholarship on prisons and religion. It surveys work by historians, sociologists and anthropologists, and theologians and ethicists. It shows that religions have served as not only the material from which societies construct their disciplinary forms but also a resource upon which individuals draw when labeled criminal and communities invoke when seeking reform.