A Prison Within a Prison
This book examines transgender men's lives in female prisons, highlighting their isolation, abuse, and silencing.
About The Book
Table of Contents
About The Author
How do transgender males in British female prisons navigate identity, and how does creative expression help?
A Prison Within a Prison: An Evocative Autoethnographic Approach to Being a Transgender Man in a Women’s Prison in England explores the experience of transgender males in British female prisons, addressing a research gap often overshadowed by a focus on transgender females. Set against political, cultural, and media pressures, it examines identity, pronouns, goals, and creative expression as tools for self-exploration within a system that frequently fails to acknowledge transgender male identities. The book also questions the role of prisons, engaging with global debates on abolition. It invites discussions on intersectionality and hopes to inspire further research on transgender issues in criminal justice.
Ideal for students of Criminology, Psychology, Law, Queer Studies, Creative Writing, College-in-Prison programs, Prison Officer training, and those engaged with the Incarceration Nations Network.
How do transgender males in British female prisons navigate identity, and how does creative expression help?
A Prison Within a Prison: An Evocative Autoethnographic Approach to Being a Transgender Man in a Women’s Prison in England explores the experience of transgender males in British female prisons, addressing a research gap often overshadowed by a focus on transgender females. Set against political, cultural, and media pressures, it examines identity, pronouns, goals, and creative expression as tools for self-exploration within a system that frequently fails to acknowledge transgender male identities. The book also questions the role of prisons, engaging with global debates on abolition. It invites discussions on intersectionality and hopes to inspire further research on transgender issues in criminal justice.
Ideal for students of Criminology, Psychology, Law, Queer Studies, Creative Writing, College-in-Prison programs, Prison Officer training, and those engaged with the Incarceration Nations Network.
- Cover
- Half-Title Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph Page
- Abstract
- Table of Contents
- Warning
- Learning objectives
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The doors shut: From courtroom to custody
- Early days in custody
- Bullying and safety
- Prison officers and staff
- Further discussions
- 3 Prison and prejudice: Unlearning the self
- In the third week of prison, the officer said to me
- The induction
- Back to reality
- 4 Invisible inside: Identity interrupted
- In between prison greys and risk
- Transgender Triple Threat Theory: An expansion of Double Deviance Theory
- What is identity inside these walls?
- 5 Routines, regimes, resilience, and reinvention
- Routine rules resist trans bodies
- Relationships and repeating ritual regimes
- Resilience and reinvention
- 6 Reimagining rehabilitation: Prison, poetry, and performance
- Power play: Performance as a practice of progression
- Creativity: A catalyst for change
- 7 Enabling environments: Education as empowerment
- Higher education: Pages, pat-downs, and purpose
- The inside-out prison: Exchange programme with Durham University
- Think like a scientist
- 8 Grief in prison
- Governed grief and the role of gatekeepers
- Funerals and finding forgiveness
- 9 Release and restricted residence
- Release
- Female approved premises
- The pains of the past affect the present
- Support workers and probation orders
- Transgender triple threat theory and resettlement barriers
- Approved activities actually aided me
- 10 Bail hostels to bedsits: Back in the community
- Creativity creates change: A chance to challenge myself
- Probation panic and finding purpose
- Standfast production: From high risk to higher purpose
- 11 Academia as an anchor: Awakening accountability and achieving autonomy
- From HMP to a master’s degree: Transition, triumph and taking up space
- Suggested projects, assignments or discussion questions
- Bibliography
- Built
- Index
Dalton Harrison, a dyslexic trans man, ex-prisoner, poet, and Master's student, inspires art, theatre, and dance.
And yet the ways in which Dalton was able to reclaim, against all the odds, a positive sense of self - through art, theatre and academic learning and teaching – is nothing short of inspirational. Declaring that ‘poetry saved my life’, Dalton shares many such writings within the book. As such he shows, through emotionally charged, powerful poetry, how creative practice enabled him to not only survive in a frightening world but how to reframe his own practical and emotional struggles, and move beyond feelings of self-blame. That Dalton found his voice, discovered his worth, in this way is of clear benefit to him and also to anyone fortunate enough to read this book. His poetry and other creative practices and learning within the prison led Dalton to pursue, often against additional and ongoing misunderstandings and barriers, further and higher education and to continue his personal development and care work for others through creative and educational activism. Dalton’s commitment to care, to working with and for others and to making the world a better place, runs through the text, with this book and his other creative, educational and activism work, highlighting how very important, how very valuable all of his endeavours are.
Gayle Letherby, Honorary/Visiting Professor, Universities of Plymouth, Greenwich, Bath.