Peculiar responsibilization? Exploring a governing strategy in an atypical prison in the Global South
| Published date | 01 January 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1462474520972464 |
| Author | Fernando Avila,Máximo Sozzo |
| Date | 01 January 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Peculiar
responsibilization?
Exploring a governing
strategy in an atypical
prison in the Global
South
Fernando Avila
University of Toronto, Canada
Ma
´ximo Sozzo
Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina
Abstract
Based on an ethnographic study of “Punta de Rieles” prison in Uruguay, where more
than 600 prisoners coexist with increased levels of autonomy in a relatively peaceful
environment, and that heavily relies on responsibilization as a strategy of governance,
we seek to contribute to the analysis of the characteristics and boundaries of respon-
sibilization in prison settings beyond the Global North. Considering the strong link
between responsibilization and neoliberalism in recent prison studies, we describe the
loose, lay and informal nature of responsibilization and the elements of collectivism that
are present in our case study, connecting this strategy with broader political and cul-
tural developments in this national context.
Keywords
Global South, imprisonment, neoliberalism, postneoliberalism, responsibilization
Corresponding author:
Fernando Avila, University of Toronto, 14 Queen’s Park Cres, West, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3K9.
Email: Fernando.avila@mail.utoronto.ca
Punishment & Society
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DOI: 10.1177/1462474520972464
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2022, Vol. 24(1) 69–94
Introduction
Governmentality studies have introduced new theoretical tools to conceptualize
technologies of power in different scenarios of contemporary societies
(Burchell et al., 1991; Dean, 2009; Rose, 1999b, 1999a; Rose et al., 2006;
Valverde, 2017). In this framework, O’Malley (1992, 1994, 1996) pioneered in
describing a broader displacement from state responsibility to individual respon-
sibility. Responsibilization refers to this process by which subjects start to be
deemed individually responsible for tasks and duties previously assigned to other
actors, mainly state agencies. In this way, individuals are activated by state author-
ities to govern themselves. In other words, authorities offer individuals a set of
objectives and alternative paths for their own actions, so that individuals consider
their acts as the result of their own choices and as the exercise of their freedom.
This logic has been described by other authors as “governing at a distance” (Miller
and Rose, 1990; Rose and Miller, 1992). Governmentality scholars strongly link
this responsibilization strategy to a neo-liberal political rationality and the con-
struction of an ideal subject of governance, i.e. a rational and free individual who
seeks to navigate her/his own life maximizing benefits and minimizing costs.
Strategies for the government of conduct are fluid. When responsibilization is
deployed in carceral institutions, which have largely been considered scenarios of
authoritarian government by state authorities, it not only acquires features that are
specific to the context but also reshape the power relations within it. Gaining a
better understanding of the features and dynamics of responsibilization in the
prison context is therefore highly relevant. In this regard, a number of researchers
have described and analyzed contemporary prison programs and processes in the
Global North that rely on responsibilization.
David Garland (1997: 191–192) briefly described programs in Scottish prisons
(Personal Developmental File and Sentence Planning Scheme) aimed at creating
“responsible prisoners” through training for freedom, where prisoners are the
agents of their rehabilitation, the entrepreneurs of their own development, rather
than an object or an infantilized client upon whom therapeutic treatment is
imposed. These prisoners are taught to become responsible and prudent through
techniques of the self that rest on aligning both parties’ interests, those of the
prisoners and those of the prison authorities.
In the Canadian context, Kelly Hannah-Moffat (2000, 2001: 162–187) described
the emergence of a neoliberal strategy for governing prisons through specific policy
changes in federal women’s imprisonment based on the principles of “shared
responsibility” and “empowerment” that started in the 1990s. This neoliberal strat-
egy enrolls prisoners in their own government, encouraging them to make choices
among different correctional programs. Their choices are then closely evaluated by
prison officers. When prisoners fail to take responsibility for their own govern-
ment, other traditional forms of disciplinary and sovereign power emerge.
Similarly, when exploring the characteristics and experience of penal power in
late-modern English prisons, Ben Crewe (2007, 2009: 137–144, 2011a, 2011b)
70 Punishment & Society 24(1)
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