Books & ideas

The divine light of prisons

Juliette Galonnier — 2025-10-02T07:00:00Z

By following inmates who were not initially religious but who later found God in prison, Thibault Ducloux rethinks our understanding of the social conditions that produce and preserve faith.

On the Road to Prison

Yoann Demoli — 2023-11-13T08:30:00Z

How is it that the car, a symbol of freedom for the American people, leads them into a cycle of debt and imprisonment?

Life After Prison

François Bonnet — 2019-09-16T07:00:00Z

Every year in the United States around 650,000 people are released from prison, many of them destined to return. Bruce Western and his research team followed 122 released prisoners over a one-year period.

The Avenue of Escape

François Bonnet — 2018-11-15T07:00:00Z

All over the world, from India, Sierra Leone and Mexico to 1970s France and revolutionary Tunisia, people have tried to escape from prison. How is a prison break conceived, how it is planned and what does it signify to those who experience it and those who dream of it?

Prisoners on Strike in the United States

Joël Charbit & Gwenola Ricordeau — 2018-10-15T07:00:00Z

Between August 21 and September 9, 2018, American prisoners were called to strike by several of their organizations. It is not the first time that such a mobilization takes place. A socio-historical approach allows to put it into perspective, and illustrates the contradictions between the prison system and collective action.

Hyperincarcerated

Adèle Momméja — 2017-11-06T08:00:00Z

Can journalism advance knowledge in the field of social science? Two investigations published by the New York Times have highlighted racial inequalities and their links to prison. By contrast, these rigorous investigations emphasize the lack of knowledge of this situation in the French context.

A Crash-Course in Femininity?

Alice Bonzom — 2017-10-23T07:00:00Z

While ideal Victorian women were supposed to be “angels in the house”, female criminals were seen as “demons in the jailhouse”. As such, they were a disruptive force and had to be dealt with. Deconstructing and reconstructing these deviants to make them more “womanly” became a major issue in the late 19^th century.

Penal Policy and Racial Prejudice in the United States

Manon Veaudor — 2017-04-27T07:00:00Z

After the war on poverty, the United States declared a war on crime. This history of penal policy since 1960 looks at the intellectual and political roots of the punitive treatment often reserved for minorities.

Guilty of Being Poor

Neil Davie — 2017-01-12T08:00:00Z

In La Prison des Pauvres, Jacques Carré considers the history of poverty and poor relief in England between the 17^th and early 20^th centuries, focusing in particular on the complex evolution of the workhouse system. Often dreaded by paupers for its harsh discipline, it dominated English responses to poverty for several centuries, and was not abolished until after World War Two.

Total Incarceration

Yasmine Bouagga — 2016-03-21T08:00:00Z

There are currently two million prisoners in the USA, and the use of high security solitary confinement is on the increase. The violence of this procedure and its dramatic effects, in particular on the youngest inmates or those suffering from psychiatric conditions, has now sparked a public debate.