Problematizing Carceral Tours

摘要

Tours of operational prisons and jails have been advocated by some academics as one way of conducting observational research inside carceral institutions and have also been employed as a university-level pedagogical tool for teaching students about the realities of imprisonment. Though the merits of carceral tours as a knowledge-producing practice have been discussed in criminology and related social scientific disciplines, accounts of their limitations supported by empirical evidence remain sparse. Based on previously unpublished Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) penitentiary tour materials obtained through Access to Information requests, this article argues that carceral tours can be highly scripted and regulated in ways that obscure many of the central aspects of incarceration and, in particular, the experiences of prisoners. On the basis of our findings, we argue that, as presently organized, such tours afford little insight into the nature of imprisonment.