NCJ Number
188928
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 81 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2001 Pages: 162-186
Date Published
June 2001
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the process called transcarceration, through which mentally ill offenders are routed on an ongoing basis to and from the mental health and criminal justice systems, and examines how the language and logic of transcarceration renders mentally ill offenders captives of confinement.
Abstract
The analysis uses both the conceptual tools of constitutive criminological theory and the ethnographic experiences of the researchers. The discussion also presents three representative case studies of individuals with mental illness who experienced civil commitment, incarceration, or both. These life stories revealed how transcarceration uniquely affected their everyday experiences. Application of selected principles of constitutive criminology to these case studies demonstrated where and how transcarceration functioned for these mentally disordered citizens. Two of the individuals died because of the language and logic of the restrictive process that consumed and defined their existences; the third individual suffered because of it. The analysis concluded that the individuals became prisoners of confinement due to the transcarceration process and that they could do little to change their marginalizing and alienating identities. Notes and 64 references (Author abstract modified)