The Inner Space of Detention. Policemen and Detainees: Working and Living in Detention Centers in Romania
Michalon, Bénédicte
The Inner Space of Detention. Policemen and Detainees: Working and Living in Detention Centers in Romania - 2015.
86
The confinement of foreigners occurs in different types of place, including detention centres. It follows a multiscalar order, which reveals the power relations between States and the confined foreigners. A considerable body of research deals with detention at the national and regional levels, whereas the micro level inside the centers has been overlooked. This is despite the fact that the relation to the places, the concepts behind appropriation, rituals, representations and discourses about space inside the detention facility are strong factors in the daily control of detainees. This article thus questions the relations to space developed by the two main groups of actors in detention settings: the police officers and the detainees. Based on field research in Romania, the paper shows that the inner space of the detention centres is a key element in the confinement policy against foreigners. Space is at the heart of the police activity, as it plays a determining role in the detainees’experience of detention. Not only does space contribute, by its various roles – framework, means, goal – to produce confinement on a micro scale, but it also contributes to producing the two key figures: the policeman and the detainee.
The Inner Space of Detention. Policemen and Detainees: Working and Living in Detention Centers in Romania - 2015.
86
The confinement of foreigners occurs in different types of place, including detention centres. It follows a multiscalar order, which reveals the power relations between States and the confined foreigners. A considerable body of research deals with detention at the national and regional levels, whereas the micro level inside the centers has been overlooked. This is despite the fact that the relation to the places, the concepts behind appropriation, rituals, representations and discourses about space inside the detention facility are strong factors in the daily control of detainees. This article thus questions the relations to space developed by the two main groups of actors in detention settings: the police officers and the detainees. Based on field research in Romania, the paper shows that the inner space of the detention centres is a key element in the confinement policy against foreigners. Space is at the heart of the police activity, as it plays a determining role in the detainees’experience of detention. Not only does space contribute, by its various roles – framework, means, goal – to produce confinement on a micro scale, but it also contributes to producing the two key figures: the policeman and the detainee.
Réseaux sociaux