Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Social Welfare
Advisor
Deborah L. Tolman
Committee Members
Mimi Abramovitz
Willie Tolliver
Rosemary Barberet
Subject Categories
Social Work
Abstract
This study uses foodways theory to build knowledge about the lived experience of incarceration by analyzing women’s narratives about prison food and eating. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 formerly incarcerated women in New Haven, CT. The interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed. Findings explain the different ways that inmates collect, prepare, distribute and consume food, and the centrality of these activities to incarcerated life. By shedding light on these daily routines, the world of prison life comes into greater focus.
Thematic analysis of the data further illuminates the prison experience by suggesting the positive and negative ways that food impacts inmate’s perceptions of themselves, their social networks and the State. Negative foodways humiliated the women, accentuated their powerlessness, and reinforced their perceptions of the State as nonsensical and apathetic towards their needs. Positive foodways illustrated the inmates’ capacity to resist State power, build/maintain relationships and construct positive self-narratives. Racialized foodways narratives began to reveal how food stories may be deployed to reinforce prison’s racial character and construct the identities of self and other.
Foodways interventions to support the rehabilitative goals of correctional facilities are proposed. These data suggest that inmates want to build positive relationships and identities and that prison food systems could do more to help women realize these intentions.
Recommended Citation
Smoyer, Amy Brooks, "Cafeteria, Commissary and Cooking: Foodways and Negotiations of Power and Identity in a Women’s Prison" (2013). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1974