Criminology
Michelle Vu
100979677
CRCJ1000
Michael Anthony Lufty
Oct. 3rd, 2014
Thinking Critically about Prison Tours
Carceral tours allow the public to walk through the halls of prison to obtain an understanding of incarceration. Carceral tours had numerous uses for architects, inspectors and officials throughout the nineteenth century, but recently the tours are used as an observational research opportunity for social science students who are interested in learning about the carceral institutions.i The articles, “Problematizing Carceral Tours,” by Justin Piche and Kevin Walby and “In Praise of the Carceral Tour: Learning from the Grendon Experience,” by David Wilson, Roy Spina and Joyce E. Canaan, had valid documentation for their arguments on opposing and supporting the effectiveness of carceral tours for research purposes.
In the article “Problematizing Carceral Tours,” by Justin Piche and Kevin Walby, they believe that carceral tours do not show the reality of prison therefore they lack research value for students.ii They used evidence from Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) obtained through the Access to Information Act requests to justify their argument since they cannot use their own experiencesiii. In carceral tours there are specific staff members or prisoners chosen to lead the tours in order to control the notion of how imprisonment is decent.iv “Bordt and Lawler (2005) as well as Meisel (2008) have argued that the facility tours them and their students participated in appeared to be carefully scripted, thereby preventing any deeper discussion about how imprisonment is actually experienced by either prisoners or staff.”v Participants in the tour will not gain any raw data or information about the reality of prison when the tours themselves are too precise and restricted.vi There are restrictions that state when certain tours can be functioning and during the tours the guides also have a strict plan about what to say,
100979677
CRCJ1000
Michael Anthony Lufty
Oct. 3rd, 2014
Thinking Critically about Prison Tours
Carceral tours allow the public to walk through the halls of prison to obtain an understanding of incarceration. Carceral tours had numerous uses for architects, inspectors and officials throughout the nineteenth century, but recently the tours are used as an observational research opportunity for social science students who are interested in learning about the carceral institutions.i The articles, “Problematizing Carceral Tours,” by Justin Piche and Kevin Walby and “In Praise of the Carceral Tour: Learning from the Grendon Experience,” by David Wilson, Roy Spina and Joyce E. Canaan, had valid documentation for their arguments on opposing and supporting the effectiveness of carceral tours for research purposes.
In the article “Problematizing Carceral Tours,” by Justin Piche and Kevin Walby, they believe that carceral tours do not show the reality of prison therefore they lack research value for students.ii They used evidence from Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) obtained through the Access to Information Act requests to justify their argument since they cannot use their own experiencesiii. In carceral tours there are specific staff members or prisoners chosen to lead the tours in order to control the notion of how imprisonment is decent.iv “Bordt and Lawler (2005) as well as Meisel (2008) have argued that the facility tours them and their students participated in appeared to be carefully scripted, thereby preventing any deeper discussion about how imprisonment is actually experienced by either prisoners or staff.”v Participants in the tour will not gain any raw data or information about the reality of prison when the tours themselves are too precise and restricted.vi There are restrictions that state when certain tours can be functioning and during the tours the guides also have a strict plan about what to say,