Surviving Incarceration: Inside Canadian Prisons by Rose Ricciardelli (review)

How do men identify, evaluate and manage risks in prison? Do perceptions of risk differ between incarcerated men? What can understandings of risk tells us about the conditions of prison life? In Surviving Incarceration, Rose Ricciardelli addresses these questions by revealing the prison experiences of diverse former male prisoners as they grappled with the realities of federal incarceration in Canada. Between February 2011 and February 2012, Ricciardelli conducted in-depth interviews with fifty-six parolees and former federal prisoners to discuss their experiences before, during, and after incarceration. Through their voices, she demonstrates how violence and/or its threat pervade daily life in prison, where an “abrasive, overcrowded penal climate” (p. 19) reinforces the need and value of privacy and personal space, while the inmate code of conduct shapes how incarcerated men negotiate their safety. Ricciardelli also examines how prisoners view risk, as well as how power relations and knowledge systems “underlying the formal and informal governance in the prison system” are exposed when risk is investigated (p. 17). Surviving Incarceration is divided into seven chapters, each beginning with a personal narrative of a former prisoner whom Ricciardelli interviewed. Overall, Surviving Incarceration offers a rich conceptual discussion and detailed empirical analysis, examining how these men “survived” the realities of the inmate hierarchy in relation to masculinity, sexual identity, violence, and stigma, as well as community re-entry and rehabilitation.

The introductory chapters of the book lay the foundation for an in-depth investigation into the experiences of prisoners housed within men’s federal peni-tentiaries in Ontario, Canada. Ricciardelli describes the current Canadian federal prison system, along with the hierarchy evident within the prison populations. She illustrates how interconnections between the prisoners’ criminality, sexuality, and masculinity play a role in their prison status. As well, she notes the risks they take, or negotiate, in order to acquire social status in prison. The role of informal (e.g., stigma) and formal (e.g., the strategies used by the prison administration to shape prisoner behaviours) controls, and the realities of prisoner-on-prisoner violence within prison, inform the ways in which men attempt to manage risks and threats while incarcerated.

The remaining chapters work to support Ricciardelli’s understanding of risk in terms of stigma management and the personal changes these men made in order to facilitate their community re-entry and rehabilitation. For instance, by opening a chapter with an explanation of what constitutes a sex offence and who is a sex offender, Ricciardelli explores the penal experiences of sex offenders, including how they manage their stigmatization by other prisoners, the media, programs that offer cognitive and behaviour treatments within prison, and other actors they confront while in protective custody.

Indeed, given the limited resources and programming within prisons, these men felt that what little programs were available were “a ‘joke,’ a ‘waste of time,’ and geared towards the wrong ends” (p. 190). Many of the men interviewed suggested that psychological programming did not sufficiently meet their needs for reintegration, and called for practical programming or a mix of psychological and practical programming that would develop, for example, coping skills and skills for employment. The future of corrections in Canada is discussed in Ricciardelli’s final chapter, in which she revisits the Safe Streets and Communities Act (Bill C-10) and examines its potential effect on penal culture. She illustrates how with the changing trends in penal culture (especially the increase in violence in prison environments) and hostile public perceptions towards prisoners, the lives of prisoners will only be further impaired.

The greatest strength of this book is its broad scope. Ricciardelli’s emphasis on “risk knowledges” shows how understandings of risk differ depending on the person, their lived experiences, and their current situation. Knowledge and power, then, are constantly re-created and reinvented as prisoner perceptions of risk are exposed. However, this broad scope is simultaneously the book’s primary weakness, as the reader is often left wishing that Ricciardelli’s analysis of her data was pushed to its critical...