IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/crimin/v65y2025i1p75-92..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

COVID-19 and the New Pains of Imprisonment

Author

Listed:
  • Veronica L Horowitz
  • Synøve N Andersen
  • Jordan M Hyatt

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic upended life worldwide, prisons gained attention as epicentres for the virus. The focus was primarily on infections and death rates, often omitting the impact on incarcerated people. This study draws on semi-structured interviews (n = 58) with men imprisoned throughout the pandemic. Using and extending classic and contemporary theorizations of ‘the pains of imprisonment’, we find that official pandemic responses meant that (1) new, pandemic-related pains developed, (2) established pains changed in severity and took new manifestations, and (3) pains were experienced simultaneously and interactively. Thus, the pandemic amplified, diversified and compounded the pains of imprisonment. While most visible in the context of a large-scale crisis, these concepts provide an expanded, broadly applicable framing for future carceral scholarship.

Suggested Citation

  • Veronica L Horowitz & Synøve N Andersen & Jordan M Hyatt, 2025. "COVID-19 and the New Pains of Imprisonment," The British Journal of Criminology, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, vol. 65(1), pages 75-92.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:crimin:v:65:y:2025:i:1:p:75-92.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/bjc/azae036
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:crimin:v:65:y:2025:i:1:p:75-92.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/bjc .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.