Captive Christmas: Unwrapping the third space
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Author | Melissa Munn,Bethany Sanjenko |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12476 |
Received: 16 August 2021 Accepted: 11 November 2021
DOI: 10.1111/h ojo.12476
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Captive Christmas: Unwrapping the third space
Melissa Munn1Bethany Sanjenko2
1Melissa Munn is Professor in
Interdisciplinary Studies, Okanagan
College, Vernon, BC, Canada
2Bethany Sanjenko is Research Assistant
in Sociology, Okanagan College, Vernon,
BC, Canada
Correspondence
Melissa Munn, Professor in
Interdisciplinary Studies, Okanagan
College, Vernon, BC, Canada.
Email: mmunn@okanagan.bc.ca
Abstract
Every year, millions of people spend Christmas behind
bars, yet very little scholarship examines the carceral
Christmas. This research attempts to add to the liter-
ature by using over 70 years of prisoners’ writings to
describe how this holiday season is physically and psy-
chologically experienced by convicts. Drawing on third
space scholarship, we argue that prisoners use the man-
ifestations of the holiday season to temporarily ‘escape’
the carceral milieu. More specifically, we contend that
the dominant discourses, while not completely refuted,
become redefined and reconstituted during the celebra-
tory period. The typical binaries found within the prison
(free/captive, inside/outside, keeper/kept), are blurred
as a more liminal space emerges. Ultimately, this new
imagined space provides a mechanism through which
prisoners survive a carceral Christmas.
KEYWORDS
Christmas, penal press, prison, prisoners, resistance, third space
1 INTRODUCTION
What can one think of when away from home, dressed in denim brown, and
entombed in stone? Thoughts may wander to many cheerful things, but not for long.
There are too many reminders that these are but thoughts, and to dwellon them is to
invite the blues. Perhaps most of my thoughtswill be directed not around this Christ-
mas at all but around the one when I shall be free. (Chabot 1957,p.30)
1
© 2022 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Howard J. Crim. Justice. 2022;61:329–346. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hojo 329
330 THE HOWARDJOURNAL OF CRIME AND JUSTICE
In Westernsocieties, Christmas is one of the most anticipated holidays of the year. Special effort
is made to gather, give gifts, eat once-a-year delicacies, and reminisce fondly about Christmases
past (Hirschman & LaBarbera, 1989). How then, does a prisoner ‘celebrate’ from their cell when
the usual markers and festivities are not available to them?
This seemingly straightforward question finds little responsein the extant literature.To be sure,
there is a substantial body of research from a variety of disciplines that considers both the his-
tory and significance of Christmas and seasonal rituals to help us better understand the gendered
nature and power of gift-giving, holiday-based consumerism, the secular and sacred variations in
seasonal iconography and accepted forms of behaviour and sociability during the holidays (see
Barnett, 1954;Belk,1979;Caplow,1982, 1984; Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982; Hirschman & LaBar-
bera, 1989;Marling,2000; Moschetti, 1979; Mutz, 2016;Paezetal.,2011; Pollay, 1986;Sansone&
Sansone, 2011; Sinardet & Mortelmans, 2009). Unfortunately,criminological texts are rather silent.
While some ethnographic accounts mention Christmas in relation to other issues (e.g., gender,
mental health, parole, prison reform, racism, solitary confinement) (see Acoose, 2011; Hassine,
1997; McMaster, 1999; Rothwell,2010; Stewart, 1997; Withrow, 1933), none provides a comprehen-
sive analysis; we are left wondering what the Christmas season looks, sounds, and feels like for
the carceral subject. Save for one lengthy personal account of carceral Christmases by Kenneth
Hartman (2014), and a study of one Texasprison’s celebrations (Marquart & Roebuck, 1987), there
is a lacuna of information.
Given that the Canadian government only acknowledges two faith-based holidays (Christmas
and Easter) as statutory,2this is a notableabsence. While Easter has retained much of its religious
origins, Christmas has become more secular over time, enabling the holiday to expand its reach
to Christians and non-Christians alike. Indeed, Caplow (1984) argued that Christmas ‘mobilizes
almost the entire population for several weeks .. . and takes precedence over ordinary forms of
work and leisure’ (pp.1306–1307). Christmas has achieved a ‘seasonal cult status’ which is linked
‘to an individual psychological experience rooted in cultural attitudes and practices’ during the
holidays (Barnett, 1946, p.51). As such, examining how the presence of prison bars condition the
holidays – in both material and non-material ways – is an important facet to understanding
the whole carceral experience.
2METHODS
The penal press began in Canada in 1950 and since then, there have been over 200 distinct publi-
cations (Clarkson & Munn, 2021) targeted at both an incarcerated and a public audience. Of the
content of the penal press, Russell Baird (1967)wrote:
most of the attention of a prison newspaper is devoted to inmate activities: sports
events, movies and other entertainment, personal items, blood banks, school and
organizational activities, hobbies, and the like. (p.71)
These prisoner-written and produced newsletters not only provided a first-hand account of the
carceral experience but, as Clarkson & Munn (2021) demonstrated, the medium was also used to
advocate for some, and resist other,penal reforms. A piece in the July 1955 CB Diamond newsletter
summarised the role of the press:
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