Prisons operate according to the clockwork logic of our criminal justice
system: we punish people by making them "serve" time. The Cage of Days
combines the perspectives of K. C. Carceral, a formerly incarcerated
convict criminologist, and Michael G. Flaherty, a sociologist who
studies temporal experience. Drawing from Carceral's field notes, his
interviews with fellow inmates, and convict memoirs, this book reveals
what time does to prisoners and what prisoners do to time.
Carceral and Flaherty consider the connection between the subjective
dimensions of time and the existential circumstances of imprisonment.
Convicts find that their experience of time has become deeply distorted
by the rhythm and routines of prison and by how authorities ensure that
an inmate's time is under their control. They become obsessed with the
passage of time and preoccupied with regaining temporal autonomy,
creating elaborate strategies for modifying their perception of time. To
escape the feeling that their lives lack forward momentum, prisoners
devise distinctive ways to mark the passage of time, but these tactics
can backfire by intensifying their awareness of temporality. Providing
rich and nuanced analysis grounded in the distinctive voices of diverse
prisoners, The Cage of Days examines how prisons regulate time and how
prisoners resist the temporal regime.
