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6. Prison Science: Of Faith and Futility
- NYU Press
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153 6 Prison Science Of Faith and Futility Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. —Hebrews, 11:1 The history of the rehabilitative ideal constitutes a kind of thematic counterpoint of aspirations and doubts. —Francis Allen, The Decline of the Rehabilitative Ideal, 1981 The Peculiarity of Prison Science The science of punishment, like its object, is peculiar. Its story, as this chapter seeks to demonstrate, is very much built upon “the substance of things hoped for,” often moving forward precariously upon “the evidence of things not seen.” For an empirical science, one which quite often claims to be research- or evidence-based, such an assertion may seem strange; however, it is faith—and its collapse—which marks the most fundamental of shifts in the story of punishment’s present. In this chapter, the last case study of this volume, we turn intentionally to science and its cultural labor in relation to punishment. Efforts to counter penal spectatorship imply the necessity of a hearty and rigorous reflexive critique among those of us who study punishment. Science plays a profound role in the history of punishment and its reform efforts. As the spectators with perhaps some of the most important roles to play in the transformation of punishment, we must be deeply self-aware of the cultural construction of science even as we are committed to its empirical and theoretical engagement . Consequently, this chapter encourages us to think through the 154 Prison Science dimensions of knowledge production surrounding punishment and the role of motifs, images, tropes, and rhetoric in that formation. In order to demonstrate this, I examine the site of prison science at a specific historical intellectual juncture, one that is routinely identified as the departure point for the crisis of penological modernism—the failure of rehabilitation in the latter part of the twentieth century. I look specifically at the role of science in the admission of that failure as it presents a strategic research site from which to investigate what makes the study of punishment so distinct amidst one of those rare moments where a science must interrogate its foundations and justifications. In such a pursuit, all of the peculiarities of penal knowledge are made manifest: its internal conflictedness, its futility and volatility, its doubts and hopes. And in that process, we are afforded the opportunity to observe the scientist in his suddenly disclosed role as penal spectator and the struggles that ensue, as intellectuals attempt to speak through punishment’s contradictions and justify the voice of expertise. As a chapter, it is thus marked by an effort to speak to those who have been long engaged in a critique of penal spectatorship even as they found themselves caught within its tensions. In this respect, this chapter is dedicated to mapping the moments in which social visions emerge—and fail—in relation to punishment. The performance of science in relation to punishment at the birth of the law and order society is fundamentally melded to something seemingly well beyond the normative constructions of science. In many ways, it is a deeply visible and public moment for the study of punishment. Here, prison science suddenly and forcefully appears in educational settings , media accounts, legislative and policy decisions, courtrooms and justice systems, gossip and conversation. Across this period, criminologists ’ claims to legitimacy are asserted and hotly debated, key indicators of a deeply cultural moment for the production of prison science. As sociologist of science Thomas F. Gieryn argues: What science becomes, the borders and territories it assumes, the landmarks that give it meaning depend upon exigencies of the moment—who is struggling for credibility, what stakes are at risk, in front of which audiences , at what institutional arena? It is exactly this pliability and suppleness of the cultural space “science” that accounts for its long-running success as the legitimate arbiter of reality: science gets stretched and pulled, pinched and tucked, as its epistemic authority is reproduced time and again in a diverse array of settings.1 [3.95.233.107] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 04:58 GMT) Prison Science 155 The 1970s forward represent an unusually provocative moment for observing this stretching and pulling, pinching and tucking of science in the study of punishment. It is a moment that permits us to ask questions related to how a very specific group of intellectuals, struggling with an inherently conflicted public institution, lend their work meaning. I follow the lead of sociologists of science...