1 ‘Be easy, see wagwan’: Introduction

The shape of the field



Crime, risk and harm



Chapter outline



2 ‘My story’s boring’: Why young prisoners’ stories matter



The political economy of crime



Understanding prisons or understanding prisoners?



The fact of blackness and double consciousness



Shame and (symbolic) violence



Towards a phenomenology of long-term imprisonment.



Conclusion



3 ‘Real talk’: Methodology and reflections on fieldwork



Getting in



Research as ‘passing’



Becoming participant



Paper files and straw men



Ethics and safety



4 ‘Just gotta ride it’: Adaptation, survival and change



Life before Cypress



From the first day to everyday



The carceral habitus.



Conclusion



5 ‘That’s just their pen and ink’: Resisting the pains of imprisonment



Atmosphere, accessories and alienation



'It's just not a nice place to be'



Deprivation of corporeal experience



Identity



Conclusion



6 ‘Obviously, you can’t just back down...’ Violence and identity



‘Gangs’, groups and good old fashioned fighting



Place, space and keeping face



Violence and collective identity



Collectivism vs individualism



Conclusion



7 ‘Clothes, food and love...’: family, fatherhood and the limits of fratriarchy



Something in the way



‘It is what it is’: maintaining family ties



Fatehrs and fatherhood



Things fall apart



Allies, associates and alliances



Conclusion



8 ‘Jail’s not gonna do nothin’...at all’: Conclusion



Biography, habitus and trauma



The experience and resistance of imposed class, racial and legal status and prisonisation



Beyond the (purely) sociological imagination



Impelling the phenomenology of youth imprisonment