To which past do we belong? Self and narrative in a Brazilian mnemonic community of former institutionalized children

This article analyzes the processes of remembering and identity formation in a present-day mnemonic community consisting of former inmates of a total government institution for abandoned juveniles in Brazil’s countryside during the Dictatorship Regime. Through the sharing of their remembrances, they mutually shaped their life’s stories in narratives of triumph. For dealing with the empirical data, we acknowledged that memory is a complex phenomenon which must be approached in an interdisciplinary way, considering concepts draw from Cognitive Sciences to Sociology. First, we have collected their remembrances on Social Media, in-depth interviews, and fieldwork over 4 years. Second, we analyzed the dynamics of validation; the network of authorities; and the emotional regimes among the former inmates that determined what is selected and interpreted as collective understandings of the past. We took a relational and processual sociological approach for analyzing how collaborative identity-mnemonic processes are also triggered, supported, and built by the material and cultural surrounding within mnemonic communities. For that, we assume a "distributed memory", and " distributed self" conceptions. Finally, we show how divergent understandings of their past are not validated within their community and consequently dismissed from their narratives of triumph.

Jobs, News and Reoffending after Incarceration

We study how local labour market conditions and information about job availability affect recidivism after incarceration. We exploit daily variations in the quality of the labour market at the time of release from prison. We combine individual-level administrative data on former inmates in France to county-level daily data on new job vacancies, and on newspaper coverage of job creation and destruction. Our analysis provides two new findings. First, media coverage of job creation reduces recidivism, suggesting that policies promoting access to information about employment opportunities can contribute to reducing recidivism. Second, we show that there is heterogeneity in what kinds of jobs affect recidivism: in France, former inmates do not respond to overall job creation, but better opportunities in manufacturing jobs at release reduce recidivism rates.

Bleeding in Jail: Objectification, Self-Objectification, and Menstrual Injustice

In this first-person recollection, Roberts describes in frank detail an expert witness in a civil rights case on behalf of former inmates subjected to a strip and body cavity search in a women's jail. As Roberts relates, the procedure was monitored by female deputies and conducted en masse, and those who were menstruating had to remove their soiled tampons or pads in front of the group and, in some cases, bleed down their legs and onto the floor. Deputies are alleged to have verbally abused the inmates during the procedure. This case, Roberts says, has opened her eyes to the ways the shame and disgust that menstruation engenders gets deployed to debase disenfranchised women. Roberts asserts that this is a uniquely misogynist form of punishment, meted out by and against bodies and minds that have been colonized by objectification and self-objectification, becoming a grotesque platform to dehumanize women who land on the wrong side of the law and who live in bodies that menstruate.

The Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Democratisation of Magic in Post-Reformation England

The dissolution of the monasteries in England (1536–1540) forced hundreds of former inmates of religious houses to seek livelihoods outside the cloister to supplement meagre pensions from the crown. Among the marketable skills these individuals possessed were Latin literacy, knowledge of liturgy, sacramental authority and a reputation for arcane learning: all qualities desirable in magical practitioners in early modern Europe. Furthermore, the dissolution dispersed occult texts housed in monastic libraries, while the polemical efforts of the opponents of monasticism resulted in the growth of legends about the magical prowess of monks and friars. The dissolution was a key moment in the democratisation of learned magic in sixteenth-century England, which moved from being an illicit pastime of clerics, monks and friars to a service provided by lay practitioners. This article considers the extent of interest in magic among English monks and friars before the dissolution, the presence of occult texts in monastic libraries, and the evidence for the magical activities of former religious in post-dissolution England. The article considers the processes by which monks, friars and monastic sites became associated with magic in popular tradition, resulting in a lasting stereotype of medieval monks and friars as the masters of occult knowledge.

Leaving the Victorian Children’s Institution: Aftercare, Friendship and Support

This article explores the needs of young people leaving residential care and the provision of aftercare support in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Young people’s discharge, aftercare and post-institutional experiences occupy a peripheral position in scholarship on institutional care. This essay broadens interpretations of aftercare, which have been presented as inadequate inspections that monitored employment performance. Examining the formal and informal systems that aimed to enhance care-leavers’ welfare and wellbeing, the essay offers new understandings of the ongoing provision of practical and emotional support to young people, and the importance of sustained contact and affective ties between former inmates and institutional staff.

Witnessing the Ruins of Apartheid

Constitution Hill, a unique and hybrid memorial site in the centre of Johannesburg, commemorates the violence of apartheid in the city’s infamous prison complex. Based on a series of workshops with former inmates and prison staff, the permanent exhibitions emphasize the importance of personal objects and testimonials for understanding the human rights violations of the past and their significance for the present and the future. In response to Yvonne Owuor’s appeal to remember the vulnerability of those human bodies who no one “[has] bothered to mention, to mourn”, my article attempts to map a new path towards responsible forms of spectatorship as we walk through the former Women’s Jail and listen to the witness accounts of Deborah Matshoba and Nolundi Ntamo.

A Case Study on Conversion in the Context of Prison in Hong Kong: Experiences, Narratives, and Transformations

The paper explores issues related to prisoners’ Christian conversion experiences in the Chinese context of Hong Kong: How common are conversions? What motivates them? How are they experienced? What impacts do they have? How sustainable are they and how are they to be understood? The paper works through quantitative and qualitative steps: Quantitatively, it surveys the frequency, motives, and subjective experiences of prisoners’ conversions. Through extended interviews with a small number of inmates and former inmates, the paper investigates subjective experiences of transformation and establishes factors that help to sustain conversions. Finally, the paper considers the consequences for pastoral ministry with people in prison and with ex-inmates.